A Responsible Approach to Classic Car Motoring

[david wright]

It’s time we as a classic car club of some standing took a lead in the field of Climate change.

In a nutshell, I would like to propose that after taking into account the annual mileage of its members in their Jensens, the club, or individual members, then calculate the value of the carbon emitted, and contribute that amount, annually, to a charity that specializes in either tree planting for achieving carbon offsetting, or similar, such as the Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Help the Kelp scheme.

My suggested objectives for the club would be –
• To promote a heightened awareness of the importance of regulating and combatting the use of fossil fuels in leisure pursuits;
• To actively demonstrate a responsible approach to the continued use of fossil fuel burning classic cars;
• To ensure that this aspect of British motoring heritage is viewed by the general public as behaving responsibly;
• To encourage other clubs to follow by example.

There are 3 main ways in which this could be implemented – a) Each owner is recommended to calculate their annual mileage, and it’s carbon emission value, and then submits his contribution to a suitable organisation as recommended by the main JOC committee
b) The calculations could be grouped together in each Area group of the JOC, and the contribution calculated
and submitted from that group.
c) Area groups are invited to submit their calculations to the Committee and the overall, and probably quite substantial
contribution is submitted from the committee.

In terms of the process towards achieving this, I suggest that firstly the JOC committee should be invited to accept this concept in principle, and to then work out in consultation with Area Reps how to implement it.

Now to the nitty gritty of this!
Whichever way you think is preferable, you’ll need to know about the cost involved! I have personally already done this for my two cars, an MGA 1600, and my little more thirsty Jensen C-V8.
I used the website - https://climatecare.org/calculator/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Using this, it calculated out that at 800 miles per year, consuming at a rate of 30 mpg max for the MGA, I should contribute £2.00 per year! I do hope that most drivers doing a similar mileage, would think this very low, and would do what I did which was to decide to cover the last 5 years, then double it, and send a cheque, for my Jensen too which was multiplied by two, covering the total for 5 years for both.

This was just £50.00, to the Sussex Wildlife Trust’s “Help the Kelp” project, which is restoring the kelp forests off the south coast. If you’re to offer a number of alternative beneficiaries, then I’d strongly recommend this one – it’s backed by David Attenborough.

I’ve also approached the FBHVC to find out if other clubs are doing this, and indeed the Austin Seven Club in Lichfield have already gone “Carbon Neutral”, and the MGOC are considering something similar in the autumn.

I firmly believe this is a responsible step to take, and ensures that we hold the moral “high ground” in relation to any critics who may forget that our cars are examples of British motoring history, and we are mere custodians!

David Wright

[ajc9415]

I think this is a good suggestion. For us to be able to promote ourselves as a carbon neutral club would be a powerful message. To be able to do that we would all have to do it which would be difficult. For most of us I suspect the cost would be very small.

[colin7673]

If, as a club, promoting would cover all members, so all members could say that they are carbon neutral.. no matter if their car is used or not because as a member it could cover your everyday car, which can only be a good thing.

There is another car club stating this and they have planted over a thousand trees for as little as £1000.
Ok it's not in England but it's a start.
As we also get Bio-Fuel from trees because they are 'sustainable' - but are a twenty year cycle, this would a start.

And I would recommend watching on YouTube "Plant of the Humans"

[david wright]

Thanks for your support Adrian and Colin.
On average I do about 800 miles per year in my C-V8.
Entering that figure and 15 mpg, the Carbon Care Calculator gives me a carbon offset value of £4.02 - not a terrible burden!

We can either do this individually, or together as a club.

We'd just need to know how many Jensen members have their car (s) on the road, and what their approx. annual mileage is - multiply that up and you have an annual club value. Our reliable and ever helpful Membership Secretary, Darren, last estimated that the membership stands at around 1370 or thereabouts. Without the data, I'll have to make a stab.

I'd guess that about 60% of members own a Jensen? Then of that figure of 822, maybe 10% have more than one Jensen and they are both roadworthy? But wait a minute, that'a red herring as you can only drive one at a time, except when parent and son or daughter drive both cars to the the International! This information could be obtained by Area Reps emailing their members, or a one-off email shot from the Membership Secretary?

This simple calculation, to be able to declare ourselves Carbon Neutral, gives us a figure of £3,304! I don't think it'll be far away from that?

Given the level of balances our club holds, I feel strongly that we are in a great position to actively demonstrate our commitment to restoring safe carbon dioxide levels, and let's face it, all we're doing is donating some funds to a worthy cause, and helping to save the human race.

If we did, it would get us major publicity with the motoring press, maybe national press, and we'd be the envy of other classic car clubs!

What is there not to like?

David https://www.joc.org.uk/forum/posting.ph ... =2&t=30914#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mark1Stu]

Sorry David. I don't agree. Carbon offsetting has had its day. To my mind it's a rather cynical apology for carrying on doing the same. Less acceptable today.

We're all hypocrites when it comes to damaging the climate. However, I'd rather the club didn't draw unwanted attention to the (relatively) small car big engined gass guzzlers we sometimes drive....and which younger generations have little knowledge of.

I'd much rather take any criticism of using my car on the chin whilst looking at what any activist was wearing, ate etc....whilst guessing whether they lived in a high carbon old house - and whether they regularly travelled the world (more than I have) as part of enriching their life...prior to Covid-19 putting a spanner in the works.

In essence, I don't use my cars much, reuse items as much as possible, lead a relatively low carbon life, and increasingly see my Jensen as more of a work of automotive art and piece of social and industrial history than a means of transport.

But I respect anyone who personally wishes to use carbon offsetting to help the environment and their conscience.

[felixkk]

.

[Keith]

Stuff....

If there was a "like" button, I'd have clicked it for your sensible post, Mark.

[Steve Payne]

I am with Stu here, I don't see paying a few pounds is really going to help anyone or anything.

Your choice is to own or not own a classic car and then secondly drive it or not drive it.

Those that buy a new car because it is green or greener that there old car are even worse, most cars take at least 80k miles before they have used the amount of energy it takes to make a car so going backward from there we are actually greener because we are continuing to use our '' old'' cars.

Unless you cycle everywhere, don't fly and eat the food that you grow we are all going to have a carbon foot print.

In the 20 years I have owned and driven over 100k miles in my Interceptor I have never been told off for being an environmental problem, almost every one likes to see it on the road and I have lost count of how many thumbs up I have got from a variety of people including cyclists and people I would consider as green.

Steve

[Keith]

I am with Stu here, I don't see paying a few pounds is really going to help anyone or anything.

More sense. Well said, Steve.

[felixkk]

.

[Steve Payne]

Its not the amount I am worried about Felix but who gets it and what do they actually do with it?

If it was guaranteed 100% of every Pound I sent was spent on planting trees or what ever they do with it I would be happy with it but I suspect like a lot of these things 90% of it would go into some ones pocket.

Maybe the oil companies should be paying it and pass it on to the end user? They dig the stuff up and refine it and if you use a lot of it you pay more. This would also hit the airlines who pay a lot less for there fuel and pollute a lot more than classic cars.

Steve

[david wright]

I can recommend a small and local to me organisation - the Sussex Wildlife Trust, that has launched a project called "Help Our Kelp" and all monies sent to the trust intended for this project will be spent on it.
It has been set up to restore the Kelp forests along the south coast of England, which until recently have been devastated by inshore fishing and dredging.
This project is supported by Sir David Attenborough, and details can be found on their you Tube film https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/helpourkelp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And why restore Kelp - it has been shown that Kelp can absorb 40 times more carbon than trees!

By the club donating to a project like this in our country, we are making a donation to improve our environment which we would not have otherwise done.

David

[RockyUSA]

I certainly have to agree with Steve...

Most of these organizations thrive on people’s guilt, and are good ways to lighten someone’s pocketbook, especially if you are just one of “the little guys”.

I am sure there are some good organizations - perhaps David’s, but if it were my investment, I’d look very hard at who the money was going to.

And I do agree with the argument of driving a 45 year old car is greener than buying a new one every 5 years, but how many of our cars are our daily drivers? (Grant and KennyG, and some others, perhaps...

But some of this is feel-good for the club, too. There will be no perceptible difference to the environment based on any investment made at the JOC levels.

It’s good PR, I will admit - I’m sure “Good Relations” would be behind this effort if they were operating in this day and age.

Rocky

[AH1951]

David,
I suggest you start a new topic and use the 'Poll creation' tab. (Right next to 'Upload attachment'.)

That way, you will be able to judge the strength of support for your proposal.

Adrian

[Krusty]

counter argument time.......

may i suggest all in agreement SELL YOUR CARS AND GO BUY A TESLA/PRIUS/EQUIVALENT

many seem to forget that the earth has an elliptical axis and sways to and fro against the sun

many years ago we had a mini ice age then we were growing grapes in england

finally ice lumps from the arctic melted in labs shows pollutants far higher than today's levels

don't believe the hype