Honda Offers Halo Motoring

Ever wanted to drive with a totally clear conscience? Honda has come up with a novel way to ensure drivers never have to feel guilty about their car emissions again.

From 1 September new Honda car owners could receive a Tree-Tube as a thank you gift from participating dealers instead of the more traditional gifts.

Each Tree-Tube contains three months worth of CarbonNeutral driving – the gift buying into projects which absorb, neutralise and offset the carbon dioxide emissions produced by car driving. Thereafter, customers will be invited to buy into the scheme (at a cost of £8 per quarter) to enjoy continued guilt-free motoring.

Honda car owners will have a tree dedicated to them in one of the five 'Honda' woods in the UK as part of the Honda CarbonNeutral driving scheme. Other projects invested in include swapping kerosene burners with solar panels in Sri Lanka, and introducing energy efficiency equipment in poorer homes across the US.

"We are able to 'neutralise' emissions by funding projects around the world – like forestry and climate friendly energy. The projects, by reducing, eliminating or absorbing carbon dioxide, will compensate for one tonne of CO2 – the amount produced on average from driving for three months," explains Sue Welland, Founder of Future Forests.

"We wanted to give our dealer network something innovative to offer their customers as an alternative to the standard bunch of flowers," said Faye Burton, environmental manager for Honda.

"People are always going to want to drive cars but at Honda we are always trying to ensure this has as little effect on our surroundings as possible."

Future Forests has planted 44,000 trees on behalf of Honda at forests situated in Scotland, Lancashire, Wales, Oxford and Devon to launch this programme with a significant amount more to be planted later in the year.