2008 carbon survey results and prize draw

Hi everybody,

Last December, we launched the environmental attitudes survey focussing on transport. Here's a short summary of the results. 

We received 136 completed questionnaires (78 students, 52 staff), which should be a representative portion of the "Silwood population".

First, we wanted to know, how people travel to work: those who live less than 5 miles away get to work mostly on foot and by bike, those who live 5-30 miles away mostly by car, and only those who have to travel more than 30 miles come mostly by train. This clearly shows that local public transport (busses) is ineffective and we will have to work on this problem.

Since it's difficult to reduce the number of cars in the near future, we asked if car users would be willing to pay into a carbon-offset fund for their journeys: almost 50 % of them would agree to pay.

In the second part of the survey, we wanted to know, how many business-related flights the Silwoodians take per year: in 2008, there were 169 short-distance flights (up to 3 hours), 91 flights for 3-8 hours, and 81 long-distance flights (> 8 hours). Again, we asked if people would be willing to offset their flights: 78% would agree to pay into a carbon-offset fund.

These results show that a carbon-offset fund for Silwwod could work but should probably start on a voluntary basis.

And, finally the prize draw: the lucky winners of a "User's guide to the 21st century" are: Andrea Wallace, Gwendolen Hitchcock, and Paul Rymer. The first prize (bottle of British organic sparkling wine + the user's guide) goes to Meirion Hopkins! 

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everybody who filled in the questionnaire!

Cheers,

Hanno