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I'm not much of a cyclist, but for the challenge my husband will be getting out the old treadly and riding to work. He'll be giving it a go once a week, and is lucky to have a few guys at his work who do it already and can give him some tips.

Cycling to work is another one of those doubly-good eco-friendly ideas. As well as helping the environment, you're also saving yourself a trip to the gym. Almost all of us could stand to get a little more exercise, but finding the time to fit it in is sometimes difficult. A weekly bike ride to someplace you're already going can help out there.

Bicycle Victoria has some great tips for beginner cyclists, and most state governments (and some local ones) supply maps of bike paths and bike-friendly streets you can use to make planning your journey a bit easier.

It's possible to get all sorts of fancy cycling gear, but all you need to begin with is a bike and a proper helmet. After that, you can start looking into water bottles, pannier bags, super-lightweight clothing for all weather types, etc.

If you need a little more motivation to ditch the car one day a week, check out this article at Treehugger.com about the amount of space needed by cars, buses and bikes to move the same number of people. If we used public transport or bikes most of the time and saved cars for special instances, our cities would be much safer and less congested places to go.