Green on the Go

Climate change is becoming more and more of a pressing issue that needs to be addressed. However, it feels like our individual impact is of little significance compared to, for example, enormous factories. But that doesn’t mean that we have no impact at all! With little changes in our own attitude and small measures that we can take, we can help out our planet, too.

With our topic Green on the go, we wish to go in-depth into measures against climate change surrounding a topic we all deal with on a day-to-day basis: travel. Whether plane, car, train or tricycle, we all have our own way to make our way around the planet. The millions of people on the move all have their own impact on our climate. That’s why we want to spread awareness of the ways these transport methods are influencing our climate and what improvements are being made by manufacturers and governments. But we also want to show what actions that we ourselves can take, like changing to greener fuels or electric cars, so that we lessen our own impact. We will dive into the subject of sustainable transport by delving into topics like green fuel, bio asphalt and the human behaviour around this topic.

The team

Bart de Groot

First up is Bart, a chemist from Utrecht University. He has a particular interest in the chemical processes associated with transportation, like the production of fuels and the emission of particles and gases by vehicles. The rapid developments of improved processes and alternative fuel sources have intrigued him, so he wishes to spread awareness and help others understand them better.

Rebecca Kuijpers

Next, we have Rebecca in our team. She is a mathematician who is passionate about education. While going from a small town to a big city for her own education in a time of discussion about climate change, she started thinking about her own choices in transport and how she could commute as green as possible. While her bike was fine for high school, six hours of biking every day for university sounded less appealing. She likes to make the numbers make sense in order for people to choose their green transportation method.

Franca Majoor

Our third member is Franca, a theoretical physicist living in Utrecht. Since she does not (yet!) have a driver’s license, she is limited to riding a bike, using public transport and carpooling. Happy that this has little impact on the environment, she wants to try keeping this up when she can drive herself. While dealing with quite abstract topics in her day to day life, she can use her research and information processing skills to explain how the new green ways of transportation work and how they have a positive impact on the environment.

Hester Smit

The fourth member of our team is Hester. She is a geologist aiming to help you understand what is right below your feet. She is particularly interested in the long term processes on Earth and how humans have an influence on them. This summer, she went on holiday by train instead of going by plane. It took a bit longer, but the positive impact, together with the view, was worth it. She believes that by understanding why, your choice to be green becomes easier. And that this change can happen step by step.

Thomas Sukking

Our last team member is Thomas. He is a biologist who wants to become a first degree teacher. At this moment, he lives in Soesterberg and goes to university by bicycle because he loves nature. Apart from cycling, walking is one of his other hobbies. Thomas is interested in the climate and its current changes. He wants to motivate everyone to be active with green transportation. If possible, Thomas already wants to have an electric car. He wonders whether our society is interested in green transportation and in what types they are interested.