Going green
SHEPHERD Chartered Surveyors says it has accelerated its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
The firm has introduced a new fleet of electric vehicles – 15 brand new BMW 330e Saloon Plug-in Hybrids to be precise – to give its employees a tax efficient, alternative choice of wheels.
And Shepherd, which has more than 150 chartered surveyors travelling the length and breadth if the country on its books, expects the savings in tax and fuel to be substantial.
Senior partner George Brewster said: “Despite driving being a necessary and substantial feature of the surveyors’ day to day business activity, as a company Shepherd has been keen to ensure it acknowledges its environmental obligations and travels in the most environmentally-friendly way possible.
“Given our new drive to reduce our carbon footprint, perhaps we should turn our famous blue triangle green!”
Dream job
EVER wondered what most Scots would pick as their ideal summer job?
Jobs website CV-Library has the answer.
Scots among the 2,600 across the UK surveyed on the put travel writer at the head of their top 10 most desired summer jobs, followed by music festival steward and then bartender or waiter.
Strangely there was no place in the top 10 for accountant, solicitor, banker or fund manager, with respondents more attracted to the prospect of being a golf caddy, zoo keeper or water sports instructor.
Lost in translation
IT’S not big, and it’s not clever, but The Bottom Line does like it when foreign language translates into something entirely different in English - especially when it touches on toilet humour.
Which is why we were thrilled to stumble across the store above on holiday in Denmark.
Unsurprisingly, while there were plenty of books for sale (boghandel is Danish for book store), toilet apparatus was conspicuous by its absence.
Joyrider shock
IT may come as a surprise, but gamers are the safest young drivers in the country.
Insurance specialist Marmalade asked customers for their views on whether hobbies and interests have an effect on how young people drive.
And it found that gamers are among the safest drivers on UK roads, with many customers gaining higher than average safety scores in excess of 90% in an average journey.
It’s funny the good habits you can pick up playing Grand Theft Auto.
Motoring on
STILL on wheels, waste management and motorcross have more in common than we initially thought.
TWMA, a global drilling waste and environmental services, has announced that it is to sponsor Scottish motocross rider, Shaun Simpson, for a second year.
Our knowledge of the sport is sadly lacking, but it seems Shaun finished in an impressive fourth place when he took part in his first American Motorcycle Association professional race in the US last year.
TWMA funded his travel to the event and will again support his entry and travel to competitions around the world this year, including in Germany, Spain, France and across the Atlantic.
“Shaun has had an extremely exciting and successful career so far and we’re delighted to be supporting him for the second year,” said TWMA director Douglas Garrick.
A warm welcome
RICHARD Gillingwater, who has stepped up from the board of SSE to succeed Lord Smith of
Kelvin as chairman, looked slightly daunted as he opened his first annual
meeting in Perth.
He admitted that the veteran peer had left some “large boots to fill”. His only gaffe came when he mis-identified the company’s chief executive as Gregor Stewart, the finance director, rather than Alastair Phillips-Davies in the next chair. But shareholders responded
warmly to a courteous and knowledgeable chairman whose speech was read from an
old-fashioned script, without the slick but artificial spontaneity of the now ubiquitous autocue
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