Below are examples of Highland Council staff who travel for business and commute to work by a variety of sustainable modes. Reasons vary from saving money, reducing carbon emissions, getting healthier and saving time.
Walking
Jane Griffiths tries to walk the 1 mile (one-way) to work in Fort William every day, as it makes her feel refreshed. She feels lucky to live a mile from work and says if she lived up to 12 miles away she would cycle.
Cycling
-Andy Hume commutes 3 miles (one-way) to Dingwall and cycles most days. He also tries to cycle to meetings and uses the train to get to Edinburgh and Glasgow if the meeting timings are convenient. He limits travel to essential journeys only and combines as many tasks as possible.
Andy travels sustainably because it's greener, cheaper and helps him keep fit. Frustrations include: lack of changing facilities at work and poor weather making it demoralising.
-Stuart Black, Director of Planning tries to cycle the 2 mile (one-way) journey to work 3-4 times a week. Stuart chooses this mode as it's quicker than driving across Inverness and keeps him fit. He feels cycling in Inverness is good though some car traffic is quite fast and more cycle lanes and bike storage are needed.
When travelling to the central belt for business, Stuart takes the train and uses buses rather than taxis to get to his final location.
Bus
Julia Nelson commutes the 27 miles (one-way) from Barbaraville every day. When possible, she takes the bus to Inverness and then walks the 25 minutes to her office. Julia takes the bus to reduce CO2 emissions, to get some exercise and to give her space to think. Whilst she enjoys this method of travel, she has to organise her day so that a car isn't required for meetings or to carry resources and is restricted by the bus arrival and departure times. For business travel, Julia tries to take the train for longer journeys and hopes to base a bicycle at her office for staff to use as an informal pool bike.
Train
Ailsa Villegas commutes the 34 miles (one-way) from Aviemore and tries to take the train once a week, working from home 2 days. Taking the train is less stressful, lets her get some exercise walking to the stations and enables her husband to share their car.
Ailsa does feel the train is expensive for her particular route, takes longer than driving and her working day is dictated by the train times.
For business travel, Ailsa tries to travel by train or car share and prefers to teleconference rather than travel as it saves so much time.
Ailsa hopes to cycle the 34 miles to work one day during the 'Change Your World' week 28 June - 2 July.
Car-sharing 
Sheila McRobert commutes the 35 miles (one-way) to work from Grantown by car-sharing with 3 colleagues. She car-shares because it saves money, time and CO2 and is more convenient than public transport. Having to pick up and drop off at various points makes the journey slightly longer and fitting in with fixed departure times can be a bit restrictive but there is room to be flexible too.
Staff can find a car-share option within the staff notice board on the intranet, where you can post a business or commuting journey asking colleagues to share.
Councillors have recently added a car-share option to their intranet portal to more easily facilitate car-sharing between Members.
Save money on fuel and reduce your carbon footprint by signing up to the Highland's car-sharing web site IfYouCareShare.com
Give Up a Car!
Steve McDermot made the decision to sell one of his family cars to save money and reduce CO2 emissions. Steve now uses a mix of bus, bike and car-sharing to travel the 12 miles to work. He says these options are not just better for the environment but cheaper than driving and keep him fit. He also tries to cycle for Council business and takes the train when travelling to the central belt.