Google is offering free bicycles to its employees in a green offensive. Actually it's a way to improve their green credentials, and they are putting their logo on each of the 2 000 odd bikes they're giving their employees for free (including a helmet). [guardian]

Google also recently announced plans to install solar panels on the roof of their Mountain View HQ Campus.

pic: thegreenspaceGetting on your bike is certainly a 'green' statement. And there are easier ways than pedal power. The ebike, or electric bike indirectly (via coal-fired electricity) produces only 3% of the CO2 of a car and, if you use renewable energy (you can charge the battery using solar power) then you're emitting zero pollution and you are energy independent!

The ebike is an electric bike that can be propelled at 32kph on flat ground with a range of up to 40km. And before you start assuming that these bikes are only available anywhere but in SA, the Bicycling Empowerment Network (BEN) [benbikes.org], a Cape Town-based NGO, sells them.

There is also an ebike kit that one can add to most mountain and racing bikes, and comes with batteries and a charger.

Contact BEN on 021 462 4832 or email them at: info@adequate-energy.co.za