Green Driving

This article is meant to be a collection of ways to be more environmentally friendly if you have to drive. Obviously the best thing to do is to walk, bike or take public transportation.

Suggestions:

• Buy an efficient car, e.g. which uses less than 5 litres per 100 km and has particle filtre
• Drive together, especially when commuting
• Empty your car, free it up from things and weight that must not be carried. You know, a fully loaded Truck empties your burse.
• Sell your second car and step into a local car pool club, equipped with efficient cars with particle filtres
• Drive the speed limit. It saves gas, reduces emissions, and may also reduce the risk of accidents.
• Tune up your car. Regular auto maintenance, including tune ups and filter changes, allows cars to run cleaner and more efficiently and can also reduce the risk of breakdowns.
• Drive better. Most safe driving techniques, such as accelerating slowly and smoothly (and avoiding rapid starts and stops), also improve gas mileage, which reduces emissions.
• Check your tires. When you keep your tires properly inflated, you can save 300-700 pounds of carbon dioxide per year while also helping to keep you safer on the road.
• Choose a gas sipper. The next time you buy a car, choose a super efficient model (41+ MPG). Plus, if your household has two cars, use the car with the highest MPG for commuting and running errands around town (of course, combine trips whenever possible).
• Buy a hybrid
• Use biofuel or Diesel gas
• If you have to drive a vehicle that burns fossil fuels, offset your carbon emission.
• Buy an electric car and use electricity from renewable energy (even using a 60% efficiency coal power plant to create electricity and using an electric motor with 95% efficiency is better than using a 20% efficient internal combustion engine)
• Be aware how much your emission can be embodied in terms of a geographical area - an idea proposed in Joshua M. Pearce, Sara J. Johnson, and Gabriel B. Grant: "3D-Mapping Optimization of Embodied Energy of Transportation", Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 51 pp. 435-453, 2007.[1]