Driver, take me to a greener planet | Update

We’ve featured various eco-friendly car hire firms, from Boston based PlanetTran (which just launched in the San Francisco Bay area) to London’s greentomatocars. Green livery services continue to pop up everywhere, as demonstrated by three recent spottings from different corners of the world. In London, Ecoigo is encouraging passengers to ‘make the switch’ by offering outstanding service at competitive prices, while being as green as a car hire company can be. Not content with being merely carbon neutral, Ecoigo aims to be carbon positive, offsetting double the emissions from every trip as well as from the energy used by its office. Ecoigo uses sleek black Toyota Priuses and extras include eco-friendly bottled Belu water in bio-degradable bottles. Offsetting is taken care of by the World Land Trust (which we featured last year: Carbon offsets by sms). LA’s Evo Limo, which has been around for a while, has a mixed fleet of hybrid vehicles and Chevy Suburbans that have been converted to run compressed natural gas (CNG), a clean-burning, abundant, domestically-produced fuel. Though it cuts back emissions, Evo doesn’t skimp on luxury: its vehicles have LA-worthy high luxury, custom-built cabins. Meanwhile, Australia’s first environmentally friendly car hire service got started in Melbourne in December. Ecolimo (not related to Ecolimo in Los Angeles) uses the Lexus GS450h luxury sports sedan, an electric/petrol hybrid that produces 45% less carbon dioxide emissions than the average limousine. The service is priced the same as other limousine or car hire services. Owner Don Pyke: “It shouldn’t cost more to choose the green alternative; people who care about the environment and are interested in reducing their impact on it, can feel confident they have made a good choice without compromising quality or comfort”. We couldn’t agree more. Now go out and eco-conquer all those cities still sorely lacking four-wheeled green transport!