Greening Your Transportation Footprint -Reduce 10% Per Year For the Next 5 Years!
Yes, gas it at $4.
00 a gallon and going higher and yes, you have been meaning to reduce your carbon footprint and everything that goes with it but wait.
On average Americans replace their car every seven years.
If we are affluent we own several vehicles or just replace them more often.
If we on the low end of the economic scale we keep them for a bit longer even though the older the technology the more likely it is a fuel hog.
So how can we make a difference? We start by identifying where, when and how much we drive.
For example is most of our mileage commuting to and from work? Or are we always going on week-end or summer trips to the relatives cross town or cross country? Or is it that we simply don't plan ahead and end up going back to the grocery four times before we finally complete all our shopping.
Once we know where we are spending the money we can start making changes.
Then we have to start identifying the changes that we can make in the short term, the mid-term and the long term.
Although we rarely think we have choices the fact is that we do.
So what kind of changes can we consider making? If most of our driving is to and from work we need to start considering: In the short-term: Can some of our work be done from home? Will our company be receptive to this? Can we carpool with fellow co-workers? Can we tune-up and maintain our vehicle better so as to get better gas mileage? Can we drive slower? In the mid-term: Is public transportation available? Should we consider buying a more fuel-efficient vehicle? On average an American buys a vehicle every seven years.
Are we about ready to buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle? Can we buy a second smaller more fuel-efficient vehicle just for our work commute? Once upon a time the cost of the insurance and registration meant that it wasn't work owning two vehicles.
Today what with different passenger needs on week-days or week-ends it may make more sense to buy a second smaller vehicle for during the week.
Long-term: We need to start looking at how far it really is reasonable to live from where we work.
Should we rent a smaller place next to work? Or spend the night in a local motel once a week? Or look for a job closer to home even if it does pay slightly less? Considering the cost of the fuel and the time involved, jobs closer to home can even turn out to increase our quality of life even if the salary is a bit lower.
If most of our driving is done on week-ends we can start to consider: In the short-term you are probably long overdue for some local sightseeing, vacations, activities and even family gatherings.
When gas was cheap week-end getaway budgets were mostly about the hotels, food and entertainment budgets.
With gas on the up and up this is no longer the case.
You can also consider walking, biking and local canoeing trips.
In the mid-term like in the commute scenario above considering alternative forms of transportation, buying a higher mileage vehicle, driving slower and making sure our cars are in tip top shape with properly inflated tires and the like can make a big difference.
Long-term the whole concept of vacation travel has to be reviewed.
Once upon a time getting there was half the fun.
Now the focus has to be more on the end of the journey.
Probably the easiest to fix is the problem of lack of organization which leads to multiple trips for errands both big and small.
In the short term: every morning get into the habit of making a list of what needs to be bought and done and planning a route that minimizes travel.
Bike to the library.
Walk to the store.
This can overnight significantly reduce your consumption of petroleum or any other fuel that powers your life.
Remember when you were in elementary school and they taught you that the only things that were necessary were food, clothing and shelter.
Nowhere is transportation mentioned.
But the more affluent we become as a society the more mobile we become.
This increased mobility is however the single largest consumer of power in our lives.
To go green reduce your radius of travel ten percent per year for the next five years..
00 a gallon and going higher and yes, you have been meaning to reduce your carbon footprint and everything that goes with it but wait.
On average Americans replace their car every seven years.
If we are affluent we own several vehicles or just replace them more often.
If we on the low end of the economic scale we keep them for a bit longer even though the older the technology the more likely it is a fuel hog.
So how can we make a difference? We start by identifying where, when and how much we drive.
For example is most of our mileage commuting to and from work? Or are we always going on week-end or summer trips to the relatives cross town or cross country? Or is it that we simply don't plan ahead and end up going back to the grocery four times before we finally complete all our shopping.
Once we know where we are spending the money we can start making changes.
Then we have to start identifying the changes that we can make in the short term, the mid-term and the long term.
Although we rarely think we have choices the fact is that we do.
So what kind of changes can we consider making? If most of our driving is to and from work we need to start considering: In the short-term: Can some of our work be done from home? Will our company be receptive to this? Can we carpool with fellow co-workers? Can we tune-up and maintain our vehicle better so as to get better gas mileage? Can we drive slower? In the mid-term: Is public transportation available? Should we consider buying a more fuel-efficient vehicle? On average an American buys a vehicle every seven years.
Are we about ready to buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle? Can we buy a second smaller more fuel-efficient vehicle just for our work commute? Once upon a time the cost of the insurance and registration meant that it wasn't work owning two vehicles.
Today what with different passenger needs on week-days or week-ends it may make more sense to buy a second smaller vehicle for during the week.
Long-term: We need to start looking at how far it really is reasonable to live from where we work.
Should we rent a smaller place next to work? Or spend the night in a local motel once a week? Or look for a job closer to home even if it does pay slightly less? Considering the cost of the fuel and the time involved, jobs closer to home can even turn out to increase our quality of life even if the salary is a bit lower.
If most of our driving is done on week-ends we can start to consider: In the short-term you are probably long overdue for some local sightseeing, vacations, activities and even family gatherings.
When gas was cheap week-end getaway budgets were mostly about the hotels, food and entertainment budgets.
With gas on the up and up this is no longer the case.
You can also consider walking, biking and local canoeing trips.
In the mid-term like in the commute scenario above considering alternative forms of transportation, buying a higher mileage vehicle, driving slower and making sure our cars are in tip top shape with properly inflated tires and the like can make a big difference.
Long-term the whole concept of vacation travel has to be reviewed.
Once upon a time getting there was half the fun.
Now the focus has to be more on the end of the journey.
Probably the easiest to fix is the problem of lack of organization which leads to multiple trips for errands both big and small.
In the short term: every morning get into the habit of making a list of what needs to be bought and done and planning a route that minimizes travel.
Bike to the library.
Walk to the store.
This can overnight significantly reduce your consumption of petroleum or any other fuel that powers your life.
Remember when you were in elementary school and they taught you that the only things that were necessary were food, clothing and shelter.
Nowhere is transportation mentioned.
But the more affluent we become as a society the more mobile we become.
This increased mobility is however the single largest consumer of power in our lives.
To go green reduce your radius of travel ten percent per year for the next five years..
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