With the nippy electric scooter

If  DJs helping charity makes you think of the cheesily false, egotistical personas of Smashy and Nicey from the Fast Show, erase the image from your head right now.

With pretty much all the top radio broadcasting awards under his belt, it would be easy for him to become self-obsessed. But Neil Fox is as genuine as they come. Currently heading up Magic FM’s breakfast show, ‘Doctor Fox’ has been at the top of his game for years and is something of a national treasure.

Neil’s listeners invite him into their homes day in day out, but, how ever well they think they know him, they may be surprised to learn that there is a green side to him that has rarely been talked about, until now.

Neil is one of the team behind GreenRewards.co.uk, a scheme that awards points by shopping on the high street that can then be spent at their eco shop. Neil has been challenged to ‘green up his own lifestyle’ by giving up short trips on his beloved Harley Davidson for a month in favour of a 60s inspired electric scooter. He’s also a patron of charity, Trees for Cities.

We caught up with him to find out how the challenge is going and more about the man behind one of the country’s most famous voices.

Thank you very much for talking to us…how does it feel to be a daisy green green god?

Well I’ve never been a god before so it’s always nice to have a new experience.

I find that hard to believe!

When it comes to being called a green god, I don’t think people would ever have associated me perhaps in the past as necessarily being someone who is trying to be environmentally conscious, so I am very happy to be a green god because there are, I suppose, an awful lot of people in the public eye and there’s often a lot more to you than meets the eye. It’s nice to have a chance to chat about it.

Well it’s really good to see that side of you and you’re doing some quite challenging things too like giving up your Harley Davidson for a while, and I read about you climbing trees as well?

Yes, I am patron of a very fabulous charity called Trees for Cities which kinda like does what it says on the box; we’ve got so many problems as cities grow, places to park become fewer and further apart, people are chopping down trees, they’re paving over their front gardens. Sadly because of health and safety, local authorities chop down lovely trees that have been there as part of the community for hundreds of years and so what were trying to do is raise money so we can go back and plant trees. I am very much involved with that as a patron.

That’s brilliant…

I’ve always loved trees always will do, I think there’s something wonderfully special about them. You know there are some trees out there that have been around since Henry VIII’s time; there’s one in Richmond Park, so you think all this history of this amazing nation that trees just been growing and it’s seen it all and it’s still standing. So I think they’re wonderful.

Apart from giving off oxygen and having a proper environmental reason to save them, they look beautiful and they make people happy.

When it comes to the motorbike. I’ve ridden bikes since I was a little kid, I love motorbikes, never gonna stop, but my bike is a great big Harley and as my home to work is about 4 1/2 miles in distance I have decided to swap this for a scooter for one month.

How did this come about?

One of the companies I am a director of greenrewards.co.uk which are an ethical and sustainable website. They’re selling a scooter at the moment for around half the average price of those already out there; an electric scooter for £950! It’s perfect for those people who have a small commute.

Best of both worlds - the Harley and the electric bikes

What’s been the difference between the scooter and the Harley?

The scooters have their limitations… because like all electric vehicles you run out of charge and you can’t just quickly fill them up. So for me going 9 miles on it each day it’s great. I get home put it in the garage and it’s fully charged the next morning. They only go 35 miles an hour and for about 30 miles on a full charge it’s brilliant. Going around London is absolutely fine. It’s not an either or situation it’s used for short commutes.

I think it’s best to push for the more slightly green way but it’s not all or nothing. You don’t have to suddenly become an eco warrior you don’t have to give everything up in your life.

Actually for it to be successful, you need people like that clearly, but you what you really need to make it work is to have average normal people to have choices in their life that are not that difficult, won’t cost them more money but that by making choice B instead of choice A it will be a greener and cleaner option.

I think that’s absolutely great because that is exactly what our Daisy is all about.

Sometimes change requires some people to be quite dramatic but I think for the average person like me with a wife and three kids, we want to make sure the inherit a good earth, and that they are still here and we aren’t flooded. The problem is that it sounds so far fetched but I was staggered that recently it was reported that only 41% of people think mankind has anything to do with climate change. That’s a staggeringly low statistic.

My views are that mankind is definitely speeding it up, and yes of course ice ages have happened before but if you look at the time between those things, the gaps what’s happening between the past and what’s happening now is really small; we are really accelerating it.

Now we have worked out that we are causing these problems we have a lot of scientists who are trying to find the solutions. We can’t just stop doing everything.

We need governments and big industry to help by massively cutting their energy use; everyday people are an easy target sometimes.

What easy changes have you made yourself?

Well we swapped our gas guzzling 4×4 for a car that does three times as many miles to the gallon, does the same job and it’s lovely. That was easy. We use public transport a lot, especially my wife, and of course swapping the Harley for the scooter is the most recent change. Gradually people are getting the message and making the change.

We need mainstream products out there that are accessible, and sustainable. The first eco clothing was very eco warrier fashion that most people wouldn’t have been seen dead in and a lot of the products were all very well if you wanted to lead an extremely eco life. But that’s not the norm.

It has to be affordable or else the average family can’t do it. Swapping your gas and electricity supplier to one that doesn’t cost you more but comes from a sustainable source is a great thing to do.

You have to have a carrot as well as the stick.

Do you think you will continue to use the electric scooter after the month is up?

Yes, definitely because it’s a great idea. It’s a great little invention. There are so many better electric cars on the market now, cars that can suit the normal family and be electric too. For me I am enjoying using the scooter, although it’s very odd cos it makes no noise and bikes are supposed to make noise. And pedestrians need to get used to vehicles that make no noise as we often listen for cars instead of looking as well…

Do you still want to be an astronaut?

Yes! I would love to do a space walk whilst broadcasting the show to the world! I’d like to do a peace show from space on September 1st. A day when the whole world is at peace.

What’s next for Neil Fox?

Encouraging Boris to reward people for recycling…

Well what a gent! Neil has promised to tell us more about the Boris project. When we hear, Daisy readers will be the first to know.