I’ve been feeling incredibly guilty about my vehicle emissions for a while now. Every time I drive for the school run (often with this terrible weather lately) I watch the fumes from the cars around me swirling up into the ether and am consumed with angst about the fact that my car is doing the same. So I started researching electric cars.

Think carefully about which model you go for

One of the biggest issues for me is range. Unless you have a very big budget and can afford a car that does hundreds of miles and recharges in minutes while you drink a coffee in a service station, you need to think a bit carefully about which model you are going to go for.

I’m terrible for planning and I also get a lot of anxiety about trips at the best of times and would be really worrying about the chargers not working at the service station, or (which I think would be more likely these days!) them all being in use!

So that has led me to look at hybrids. A battery meaning I can do all my local running around emission free, and then if the worst happens and I can’t recharge for whatever reason on a longer journey (I feel I’d struggle on my trips back through Wales) I have the backup of an engine.

But then I start to question myself again – is that good enough? And I think that sums up the way I feel generally about the environment at the moment. Is what I’m doing, or attempting to do, good enough?

We recycle and we try to find alternative routes to school, I’ve made a whole heap of changes to how we buy and live but ultimately, we are certainly leaving our mark on the planet as a family, despite our efforts.

And with the local flooding and the terrible fires recently in Australia, it can feel as though we, as a world aren’t doing enough.

It’s important to also look for the positives

But then maybe it would all be so much worse now without the things we have done. It’s important to also look for the positives. There are incredible initiatives reported every day – plastic bag equivalents made from plants that break down to nothing, amazing inventions to clean up the sea, people talking about the environment and doing their best to do better.

I’m trying to take comfort from that, and continuing to educate my children on how they can live a more sustainable life. I hope by making small changes daily, and making bigger changes where I can, soon I will be able to feel much less guilty.