Geneva, 14 September 2012 - The Let's Travel Together campaign launched at the Rio Summit last June by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), together with over 20 train, metro, bus, and carpooling companies across Europe, came to an end with the raffle awarding prizes to the virtual travellers!
Amongst the numerous Facebook users who backed the campaign and signalled their support for sustainable transport by boarding the virtual 'Green Train', the first prize winner from Poland is receiving a hot air balloon trip offered by Carpooling.com; two travellers will benefit from free travel vouchers offered by Deutsche Bahn, two Norwegian commuters will be given free tickets by their national Railway NSB; and first class tickets have been distributed to five participants by the Swiss railways SBB. The French SNCF has also offered two tickets, while the Italian railway TRENORD gave away 100 tickets to discover the north of Italy. UNEP and its transport partners want to thank all participants and congratulate the winners. Enjoy your free sustainable trips!
Through social media, campaign and partner websites, Let's Travel Together encouraged, during the past three months, travellers to share their cars with friends, use public transport and take other actions to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles.
As part of UNEP's GreenUp initiative, Let's Travel Together showed in a virtual and entertaining way how sustainable transport can support the transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient green economy. It also shows that greener economies are everyone's business and won't take off without combined actions by governments, companies and citizens. Let's hope that the half a million citizens who came across Let's Travel Together this summer will turn their virtual pledges into real ones; for a greener Europe and a healthier planet.
Moving towards greener societies isn't just environmentally friendly, but also economically and socially sound. If we double the market share of public transport, the urban transport energy consumption would only increase marginally, saving around 170 million tonnes oil equivalent and avoiding the emission of around 550 million tonnes CO2 equivalent in 2025, compared to the business as usual scenario.
Interested in GreeningUp your everyday life? Like us on: www.facebook.com/GreenUp.UNEP for daily citizen actions, positive ideas and inspiring innovations and messages.
Note to the editors:
GreenUp is a UNEP initiative that provides resources to citizens to help them connect their everyday choices to support the transition to a Green Economy.
The Green Economy as envisaged by UNEP would serve a threefold purpose: improve human well-being; enhance social equity; and at the same time protect ecological assets and reduce environmental risks. More information: www.unep.org/greenup or www.unep.org/greeneconomy
Let's Travel Together partners include:
DB - Deutsche Bahn - http://www.bahn.de
CARRIS - Companhia Carris de Ferro de Lisboa - carris.pt
INFRABEL - http://www.infrabel.be/
SNCF - Société nationale des chemins de fer français - http://www.sncf.com
NSB - http://www.nsb.no - Norges statsbaner
SBB - Schweizerische Bundesbahnen - sbb.ch
TMB - Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona - TRENORD - http://www.trenord.it
UIC - International Union of Railways - www.uic.org
UITP - International Association of Public Transport - www.uitp.org
Carpooling - www.carpooling.com
Carpooling - Spain- carpooling.es
Carpooling - Italy - carpooling.it
Carpooling - UK - carpooling.co.uk
Carpooling - France - carpooling.fr
Carpooling - Poland - carpooling.pl
Carpooling - Germany - www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de
Carpooling - Switzerland - www.mitfahrgelegenheit.ch
Carpooling - Austria -www.mitfahrgelegenheit.at
