How can I go greener?

Four years have passed and a small network of Go Greener service centres and 'flying mechanics' has been built since initiator Ton van Rooijen was wondering:
“How come car makers are suddenly able to produce fuel-efficient and clean A and B type cars fitted with the same combustion engine as their predecessors?
Why are only new, expensive cars driving around with efficient long-life LEDs?
Why does the car industry focus on selling new cars and on standard maintenance only instead of on making and keeping the 7.5 million existing cars in the Netherlands cleaner and more efficient, so they last longer?
Is producing a new car and scrap an old one sustainable?
What about our waste? Every year the Netherlands produce a hundred million litres of spent motor oil, which is passed on to ocean tankers, and our garbage dumps expand with twelve million disposable air filters.
Why are new A and B type cars just as fuel-inefficient and polluting as existing cars within a year?”

How can I
Instead of just leaving it at that, Ton says he asked himself some 'how can I' questions. And he found answers to them:
“How can I substantially stretch the life of engine oil? With fine filters, for instance.
How can I help reduce the national garbage dump? With washable air filters.
How can I make existing cars as fuel efficient and clean as new cars with existing technologies, and how do I make and keep new cars even cleaner and more efficient?”

That was when Go Greener came to life. A “multi vendor supplier of automotive saving products,” they call themselves. “Our secret,” says Ton, “is innovation by combination. We combine simple and proven clean applications in a way that they strengthen one another. Like air and fuel treatment systems, combined with LEDs and valve caps with coloured tyre pressure indication.”

First prize
Go Greener, which has grown into an eight persons strong team, deservedly won the first prize on national sustainability day, on the first of September. Within the programme MVO, dat doe je zo! (Corporate Social Responsibility, this is how you do it!) Go Greener gives advice to other companies and initiatives, such as Staatsbosbeheer (the Dutch Forestry Board), the municipality of Dronten, Dutch tree care, timber, and recultivating company BKC, and Düsseldorf airport, in Germany.

“Companies expect instantly applicable solutions with which they can directly save money, which in turn can be used to make their vehicles even greener and so on. This turns your 'holy cow' (as the Dutch call their cars, MiM) into a piggy bank, which appeals to the Dutch.

"For instance, for one of our clients we started simple, with LEDs and a tyre pressure system. But now their entire vehicle fleet uses ninety per cent biodegradable hydraulic fluid which, combined with fine filtering, lasts four to five times longer than standard mineral oil,” says Ton.

The first prize has opened doors for Go Greener, partly through media exposure. “We hope that ministries will actually do something with the many practicle ideas from the 'Sustainable Tuesday suitcase',” Ton says. “Have the guts to go greener.”

Green pimping the mayor's ride
Go Greener gets a lot of attention from Belgium, Germany and also Poland. Ton: “We buy our products in the Netherlands, but also in Poland, Germany, the Far East and the USA. That opens up the possibility to expand our business through international networks.”

But the quick fixes come from 'green pimping' cars in demonstration projects in the Netherlands. Like last Tuesday, when a team of 'flying mechanics' was invited by the municipality of Bussum to demonstate to the municipal employees how to go greener. The team ended up pimping no less than 58 rides, amongst which those of the alderman for environment and of the mayor himself.

Gerard Verweij, environment coordinator for the municipality, is happy with the result. “Our goal was fifteen cars,” he says. “I think it's because it is practical, directly applicable that people were enthusiastic.” The budget didn't leave room for an extended package (the municipality was paying), but Gerard says there was much interest in additional 'air twisters', to be installed in engines to let them 'breathe'. So Ton may be hearing back from some of Bussum's employees.

Bussum has plans to go even greener, Gerard tells us. No municipal cars will be shredded before their time, but through regular replacement of current vehicles with cleaner ones, the (small) municipal fleet will be greener by 2012. The new cars won't all be electric, but no new diesel engine cars will be bought and “when we can't use electric vehicles, we choose the cleanest alternatives,” Gerard explains.

Fulfill
Ton does not believe in an instant revolution to green mobility either, like mass-use of electric cars. “We have the dirtiest electricity of Europe in the Netherlands,” he states, “and what with the energy loss at the coal-fired power stations themselves and more loss during transport, I'd rather burn fuel directly. And I don't even want to go into the details of the trouble with lithium mining for car batteries. (Once again we refer to our Burning Issue on lithium, MiM.) Hybrids are the cleanest alternative at the moment.

“Our mission is no emission,” Ton concludes. “We will get there step by step.”