June was also home to our second 'Carbon Friendly Drinks', which are networking events that we hold to enable like minded people to mingle. Additionally we minimise the impact of the event on the environment by offsetting the carbon footprint of the attendees.

Thank you to all who attended. It was great to see and hear some of the buzz from the various discussions and lively [constructive] debates around sustainability strategies and economic growth. A special thanks goes to our guest speaker Victoria Carter, CEO of Cityhop who provided an enlightening history and evolution of New Zealand's first car sharing service, www.cityhop.co.nz.

So what's Cityhop? If you didn't make it to our event, then you are probably wondering how a car sharing service like Cityhop works. How is that different to other car rentals? Here's a quick overview:

- Cars are located at designated car parks in and around the City.
- Book the times you want the car for (by the hour) either online or by phone
- Make your way to the car, swipe a special access card to unlock and off you go.
- Once done, you return the car back to its original parking spot for the next person to use.
- The hourly pricing is all inclusive, so there's no need to worry about fuel, insurance or maintenance of the car. 

And why it is good for the environment?

- The cars in the fleet are Daihatsu Sirions or Mitsubishi i-cars, both of which are very low fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, amongst other eco-friendly qualities.
- It also gives people additional choice of not needing to own that second car, or even a car at all.
- Research conducted by US-based Zipcar, the world's largest car-share firm, found that every car in such a programme takes 20 privately-owned cars of the road. Less cars, less emissions.

If you want to learn more or find out if there is a business case for your business please don't hesitate to drop us a line.

Here are some photos from the event.

Karen Morfett & Seeby Woodhouse