4 Easy Steps

June 10, 2009 -- Filed under My impact by Andrew Macdonald

You’ve probably heard about the World Environment Day. Why not try spending a day making a challenge of one of these easy green steps?

Of course you might already be involved in doing something responsible this week through the Commuter Challenge, however, for those days you have to drive, try a bit of ecodriving. In this clip from the UK the driving demonstration is being performed in a VW!

So what can you do?

1. Idling. Try turning the engine off (if not a hybrid) at every opportunity. Starting and stopping the engine will not harm the starter. This is one of those modern urban myths “:’)

2. Lead foot. In the One Tank Challenge we “feathered,” which is driving in a smooth and consistent manner. Try thinking about the traffic ahead of you like fish in a stream. Can you “swim” with the flow? Volkswagen in Germany put considerable resources behind the creation of an ecodriving guide for owners/drivers where the analogy to smart driving is riding a bicycle. This is well worth the read for anyone interested in engaging more of their brain while driving.

3. Guzzler. If you have to use a thirsty vehicle, try making use of all the seats for a day. Or maybe it’s possible to just leave it parked for a day. A guzzler can say a lot about a person.

4. Tires. Tires. Tires. What about the pressure in those tires? Tired of being reminded that inflated tires use less fuel? In Nova Scotia, they call them “slug tires.”

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