When reviewing our energy use, we found ourselves spending most on car and jet fuel. Other energy use, mainly in the form of electricity, paled in comparison.
Insisting that Qantas use more fuel-efficient planes or run them on renewables seemed a bit impractical. The best we could do was to limit our air travel. We already weren't in the habit of taking overseas holidays. Only the very occasional family or work obligation would take us abroad. Where we could make a difference was domestic air travel. More on that later.
In the mean time we looked at our cars. One car has a diesel engine and the other is petrol. The most readily available option for switching to renewables was converting the diesel car to run on vegetable oil. This switch has now been made.
The other option we are currently investigating is converting the petrol car to LPG. That of course is not a renewable but at least LPG is slightly less polluting than petrol.
A choice we didn't make at this point was to replace any of the cars with a new and more fuel-efficient model. The energy that goes into producing a new car probably would have exceeded any savings in fuel. Our approach is to maximise the life-span of the cars by keeping them in top condition. As it is, both cars are 16 years old and have done between 300,000 and 440.000 kms.
Next: Diesel engines