In case you didn't know, today is "World Car Free Day", during which we are all encouraged to leave our cars at home and find alternative means of transport, thereby giving Mother earth a great big hug.

All well and good, if you don't mind cramming into a cattle truck disguised as a commuter train and spending 18 hours travelling eleven miles and paying fifty quid for the privilege.

Of course, you could always walk, or cycle, which is what we assume BT Conferencing staff are doing after management rather grandly called on them to ditch the motors:

BT Conferencing, part of BT Group, could help avoid the emission of 10 tonnes of CO2 emissions in one day, by discouraging its staff from driving to work or attending face-to-face meetings. This is achieved through the use of conferencing services, which enables its employees to attend meetings without the need to travel.

Apparently, all this tree-hugging follows a 2004 BT Group initiative "which successfully prevented 47,000 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere. This was achieved by eliminating nearly 300,000 face-to-face meetings across its workforce with BT Conferencing technology".

While it's entirely laudable to support any initiative which aims to slash CO2 levels, it's a bit bloody cheeky to ask your staff to park the automobiles for the day - unless you're giving them World Car Free Day off so they can take a leisurely, environmentally-friendly stroll down the boozer. ®

Related stories

• Humanity fingered in pre-industrial pollution racket (12 September 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/09/12/pre_ind_pollution/

• EU to scrap greenhouse gas targets (10 February 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/02/10/eu_greenhouse_gas_targets/

• UK failing CO₂ targets (8 December 2004)

  https://www.theregister.com/2004/12/08/uk_will_fall_short_co2_emissions/