As far as many drivers are concerned, parking is a slightly tedious and sometimes expensive business.
But one car park company has come up with a novel twist on traditional parking; letting its customers pay with conkers.
“Bonkers for Conkers”
The scheme is called Bonkers for Conkers, and whilst unorthodox, has an important environmental point. The firm plans to plant the conkers it receives during the campaign, which should go some way to offsetting the CO2 emissions generated by customers coming to and from the car park.
The chestnut tree, like all trees, breathes in carbon dioxide and breathes out oxygen, essentially cleaning the air. The CO2 is stored in the tree’s trunk and branches for many years.
Under the scheme, each conker is worth 20p, meaning a full hour at 'Town Centre Car Park' costs just 5 conkers.
Such campaigns help to highlight the impact of CO2 from vehicles on the environment, which continues to be a big issue despite the fact that many low-emission cars are now on the market. The national appetite for car travel continues to grow, and with an increasing population and costly public transport, this trend is unlikely to reverse in the foreseeable future.
More than 1,500 chestnuts have so far been collected, all of which will planted, according to company director Ben Ziff:
"Whilst the customer doesn't actually waste a lot of CO2 at our branches, they obviously waste quite a lot of CO2 coming to and from us, so in order to help to offset those CO2 emissions, we've got to plant new trees."
As many of our breakdown insurance customers would agree, campaigns like this are a fun way to highlight – and have an impact on – a serious issue.
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