Europcar donates VW Polo to SANParks

Conservation and tourism are important aspects of Europcar's corporate social responsibility programme and this latest sponsorship comes after the company provided Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife with vehicles.

"Climate change is a big threat to biodiversity conservation and, as a company, we feel that by supporting tourism and conservation in a constructive way, we can make a positive and meaningful difference," saids Europcar's chief executive Dawn Nathan-Jones.

Travel responsibly

"Over the past few years we have made great strides in reducing our carbon footprint at our depots, throughout our operations and in our vehicle fleet. We encourage our customers also to travel responsibly and understand how their travel carbon footprint is potentially impacting on the environment," said Nathan-Jones.

To this end, Europcar has developed a carbon calculator tool, which can be found on its website and allows people to calculate their own individual travel carbon footprint. Using the calculator, travellers can buy trees to counter the impact of their rental car emissions, but also on their own vehicles and flights too.

For example, if one person travels 20 000 kilometres per year, it is calculated that 4.2 trees will need to be planted to offset the emission.

Europcar will match all tree gifts

"Europcar is committed to making a positive difference to our people, our customers and our planet. We are encouraging everyone to plant trees to offset their travel emissions. Europcar will match all tree gifts up until the end of February, so for everyone who gives a tree through this portal, we'll also plant one," said Nathan-Jones.

To work out your carbon emissions, go to www.europcar.co.za/gogreen/includes/overlays/CO2Calculator.shtml. Indigenous trees cost R100, click on the "Donate" button to plant your tree today. The trees are planted in a forest in Hermanus, by GreenPop.