We are growing more and more concerned about the environment, and for a good reason. Last year Rupert Neate reported for The Guardian that Britain was among the worst in Europe at car recycling. More and more companies are turning to environmentally-friendly tactics to cut the damage both to Nature and to their budget: they either print their internal communication on cheaper paper, or they include the “do you need to print this email?” (printed in green, no less) in the signatures of the staff’s emails. Even at Manchester Christmas Market they were dreaming of a green Christmas, whereby they introduced a refundable deposit for mugs and glasses.
CrossCountry train travel service, one of the British Rail operators, may leave their unique mark on the green practices for train companies. They may introduce green tickets. The tickets may be printed on recycled materials, or even on tree leaves or the stripes of bamboo. Although likely to appear outrageous at first, this move should prove popular, particularly among the younger and fashionable train travelers. Social Media users will doubtless find particular delight in photographing their bamboo ticket. In the long run this green ticket policy, however radical, would provide an example and benchmark for other train companies, and possibly bus operators, who want to do their bit for Nature protection. Something to put on the list of ‘to-think-about’ for Manchester City Council, if their bid for congestion charge is successul.
Bamboo has already been used by Asus to create their bamboo EcoBook laptop (specs and full gallery from Blavish.com; theirs is also the image courtesy), and BuildingGreen.tv introduced this woven house design by Danish architect Søren Korsgaard. (image is courtesy of BG.tv). So it will not be entirely strange if CrossCountry service introduces their own bamboo passenger tickets…
…if, of course, the train company tunes in to my retelling of this jestful conversation I had with one of the CrossCountry train managers.