Family of seven 'slash carbon footprint with car change'
Date: 12/05/2008 12:00:00
A family of seven has completed a green living experiment by reducing their car emissions and making home improvements.
The Hawksworth family aimed to cut their carbon footprint by a quarter in the space of a year in a challenge set by a BBC show.
Having just finished their experiment, the family has revealed they smashed the goal, with a different approach to motoring key to the achievement.
According to Renault UK, Dad Paul Hawksworth said: "My ageing Ford Galaxy and my wife’s Rover MGF needed to be replaced by cars with more modest emissions."
He added the family went for the Renault Grand Scenic dCi 130 and Megane Coupe-Cabriolet dCi 106 after doing their homework and successfully cut annual emissions by more than 30 per cent.
By following the family's example, motorists could ultimately not only cut car emissions but also reduce their car insurance costs and road tax fees, as lower polluting cars are in lower tax bands and typically are not high performance vehicles.
The Hawksworths also reportedly looked at improving their home's insulation to cut their carbon footprint by around 33 per cent, in a task set by BBC One's Breakfast show.
The family was chosen after a BBC appeal which saw the corporation sift through hundreds of email applications.