His mission was to help with the low-carbon distribution of the “thisplace09” book (www.thisplace09.com) that is being given to all delegates.

Through Twitter, the book captures personal thoughts about the local effects of climate change. It is hoped that it will help delegates see the personal, local and immediate context of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.

Transporting the books from London to Copenhagen with the lowest possible environmental impact was proving to be a Challenge for the founders of the project – until they contacted greentomatocars. So inspired by the project were the team at greentomatocars that Tom volunteered to drive the 5,000 books there himself, with fellow team member Andy Thorne driving the second car. The two greentomato fleet cars drove 781 miles each way with 5 passengers between them, including the founders of ThisPlace09.

Taking the car and ferry to Copenhagen ensured that each person’s carbon footprint was kept to just 126kg; versus 280kg per person for the equivalent return flight1. Ferry and train is the lowest carbon way to travel, but would have been a bit tricky with 12 boxes of books.

Tom and Andy put together some thoughts from their time in Copenhagen –
http://greentomatocars.tumblr.com. greentomatocars has also sponsored Vicky Barron, a
representative of the UK Youth Climate Coalition (www.ukycc.org) to attend the conference. As well as direct financial support, Vicky has been given 500 greentomatokits to sell (www.greentomato.org).

Vicky has been busy in Copenhagen – see her blog at http://climatebytes.com/.
greentomatocars handed out books with journeys, to keep the spirit of
Copenhagen alive in London for the duration of the conference.

For further information on greentomatocars please contact Emily Burns at Clownfish on 0207 780 7031 or emily@clownfish.co.uk

1 Calculation based on VCA mpg figures for Toyota Prius adjusted upwards by 15%, plus information provided in relation to ferry from co2balance.com and information on flights from co2balance.com, JPMorgan Climate Care, the Carbon Neutral Company and CLevel websites.