National Playbus Association
The Executive offered the National Playbus Association £1,000 for one year for the production of a Green Guide for mobile community projects. This was to cover environmentally friendly fuels, environmentally friendly vehicle construction and how to minimise the environmental damage caused by vehicles through good maintenance and environmentally aware driving.
The guide would contain resources for environmentally aware activities for mobile community work and a directory for recycled, organic and fair-traded products. It would allow mobile community projects to minimise their environmental impact and encourage the development of environmental awareness among the people they work with.
The guide was to be available to all members of the National Playbus Association, to non-member mobile projects (including commercial and statutory mobile services), to organisations considering going mobile, to companies that make mobile units and to organisations that work alongside mobile projects. Free to Scottish members of the Association, it would be sold at a reduced price to other members and at full price to other organisations.
The National Playbus Association launched the 'All Aboard the Green Bus!' guide on February 17 2005. It takes the form of a report in two volumes. Volume 1 is titled "The Vehicle" and Volume 2 "Community Work". The guide was printed on recycled paper using printing processes as environmentally friendly as possible.
It was distributed to the Association's membership in Scotland, and some members from England and Wales bought it. As a result a number of members asked for help in putting together environmental policies. The Association therefore produced three documents - on a model environmental policy, environmental policy guidelines, and writing environmental reports - for members and addition to the website www.playbus.org.uk.
Because of costs and the financial situation faced by many mobile projects, major changes to practice (such as upgrades to vehicles) can take time.
An example of action by Scottish members - showing commitment to sustainable development - is Stirling Superbus, who offer environmental activities in their summer play-scheme and will develop further environmental good practice on the bus and within the wider council childcare and play services. Another is PUMA activities bus in Dumfries and Galloway, extending their range of environmental arts activities.
In addition, a number of members are considering changing their fuel to something more environmentally friendly and a significant proportion have already done so.
The guide was advertised to the Community Transport Association and to the Mobile Libraries Committee, whose publicity within their organisations resulted in further sales. The guide was advertised through voluntary sector contacts, and also on the Grownup Green website and on bus enthusiasts' websites.
Following on from the publication of 'All Aboard the Green Bus!' the Development Officer for Scotland was invited to speak on environmental issues to the International Playbus Congress in Turin, November 2005.
Contact
National Playbus Association
Norton Park
57 Albion Road
Edinburgh
EH7 5QY
Telephone: 0131 475 2328
Website: www.playbus.org.uk