Hey folks,
I've been looking into ways to reduce my carbon footprint. The Ministry for the Environment here in Germany has a neat calculator that lets you plug everything in, and spits out your yearly CO2 emissions in tonnes, all neatly categorised. My single biggest source is my work truck - two tonnes out of the six and a half that I emit. My truck is pretty reliable and fuel efficient - 9-9,5L/100 kms, diesel, and to sell it and get something new would violate several mustachian principles. My strategy has been to use it as little as possible, but that's pretty hard to do.
I've cut out almost all personal use of the truck (we have no other car)
I've been riding my bike to customer appointments (and arriving slightly sweaty!)
I've been taking the train to do work I don't need tools for (tree controlling)
Now I'm stuck on the bulk of my work where I need to move materials and tools around. Anybody tried organising their Jobsites around minimising driving? Efficient route planning, timing of material pickups around rush hour traffic - that I do.
I've toyed with the idea of using a cargo bike to arrive on the first day of a multi-day job with the necessary tools to get going, and then come the following day to pick up all of the waste with the truck and trailer, thereby saving a round-trip or two. It wouldn't save that much though, because most of my jobs are one-day projects.
Getting materials delivered directly to the jobsite rather than picking them up mysef is another idea, but logistically it's hard to organiser here due to tight properties and strict regulations. I could just get better at that though...
Who else has been doing thinking along these lines?
