Let going green take you to a whole new world. When traveling, consider the greenest way to get there by lightening up and pumping up, as well as fueling up less often. Make the journey as important as the destination.
1. One Stop Shopping
Combine errands with commuting.
Park as long as possible and walk as far as possible. Make shopping lists and group shopping needs into as few stops as possible, and plan a sensible route that eliminates back-tracking.
2. The Drive-thru Delivers
Using drive-thru car washes saves more water than hand washing.
About 100 gallons of water is used for every 10 minutes of at-home hand washing. Automatic, drive-thru car washes only use about 30-50 gallons. As an added bonus, many automatic car washing facilities are beginning to filter and reuse up to 85% of their wastewater.
3. Flat Broke
Keep tires properly inflated to improve gas mileage.
Tires can lose 1 pound of pressure a month. Properly inflated tires can improve gas mileage by more than 3%, and every gallon of gasoline not burned keeps 20 pounds of CO2 out of the atmosphere.
4. Lighten Up
Do not carry unnecessary weight in the car.
For every 100 pounds of extra weight in a vehicle, fuel efficiency is reduced by 1%. (Exception: carpooling is far more efficient that driving multiple single-occupant cars.)
5. No Need for Speed
Drive the speed limit.
Driving 120 kph instead of 105 kph lowers fuel efficiency by roughly 10 percent. Accelerating quickly creates greater CO2 emissions than gradual increases in speed. One second of high-powered “revving up” emits the same emissions as driving at a normal pace for a half-hour.
