Dutch ambassador swaps car for e-bike

The Dutch Ambassador to New Zealand Mira Woldberg has swapped her embassy car for an e-bike and cycling to work in Wellington from Wadestown.

She announced her swap decision at the recent month-long Greater Wellington Regional Council bike festival.

“The Netherlands Embassy in Wellington is on a ‘mission sustainable’, which means that we have introduced recycling bins like a battery bin and compost bin,” Woldberg says.

“In the messages that we bring to New Zealand we always talk about the importance of addressing climate change.

“Then I always drove this big BMW – a very old fashioned [form] of transport and I thought this doesn’t really fit the message that we preach.”

Woldberg says the embassy has two bikes and that staff used them to attend meetings and also take them home.

She encourages other people to try cycling to work, even just for one or two days a week.

Greater Wellington Regional Transport Committee chair Adrienne Staples says when it comes to addressing climate change and traffic congestion the ambassador is leading by example.

“If more of us make an effort and follow the lead of people like ambassador Woldberg, by trying to use sustainable forms of transport more often, then the combined effect can really help mitigate the environmental impacts of climate change.”