11 Simple Things We Can Do to Reduce Environmental Impact

Arguably, the documentary movie 11th hour picks up from Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. I believe the latter movie was a cohesive, even more compelling offering, but 11th hour certainly offered food for thought. My previous post focused on a specific quote reflecting the vicious cycle most Americans seem to experience: work to earn more money to spend more money to manage more things to work to earn more money...

I once heard that there are an estimated 60,000 storage facilities in the US. People pay money to store things they do not use on a regular basis? Maybe it's time to create an eBay account, sell something on Craigslist, or better yet, check out Freecycle.

One of the principals in 11th hour described the "anesthesizing" effect of wealth and consumerism in the US. Specifically, that our escalating consumerism insulates us from nature, and our isolation from the world leaves us woefully unaware of how other people live (and arguably unaware of the impact of our lifestyles). I'm not convinced that we're anesthetized, which to me implies a state of (albeit artificial) peace. Given the amount of stress, anxiety, violence, etc. in US society, it hardly seems that we're at peace. Perhaps "brainwashing" is a better term.

While it's easy to belabor such points, the movie includes a helpful sequence about personal choices we can make to reduce our impact on the environment. In this spirit, I've decided to offer my own set of "11 things" lists that anyone can do to reduce environmental impact (and save money). Each list will emphasize a specific theme such as reducing our energy or water consumption.

Today's list: 11 simple things we can do to reduce your gasoline consumption.

1) Reduce the warmup period. Even 30 seconds of warming up an engine will suffice on a cold day. The best way to warm up your car is to drive it.

2) Accelerate and brake gently. "Jackrabbit" or sudden acceleration and hard braking use more gasoline.

3) Drive at the speed limit, or even below the speed limit! There are many good reasons for doing this, including saving gas. Driving at 55mph offers about 20% better gas mileage than driving at 65mph or 70mph.

4) Turn off the engine instead of idling it. If you plan to be parked for more than 10 seconds, it's generally a good idea to turn off your engine rather than let it idle (i.e., ten seconds of idling can use more gas than turning your engine on and off).

5) Use the walk through. Instead of using the drive through, consider parking, taking a brief walk and ordering your food at the counter.

6) Park quickly. I'm amazed at the number of times I note people driving around in circles looking for that "ideal" parking spot right near the entrance, when there are plenty of parking spots 100 feet away or one level below or above the entrance level. Parking quickly will also save you time, and offer another chance for a brief walk.

7) Clean out the trunk. It's certainly a good idea to keep emergency supplies in your trunk, but if you're carrying around extra weight for no reason, you're wasting gas.

8) Inflate your tires to the maximum recommended pressure. It takes only a few minutes to do so, but it makes a big difference in your gas mileage.

And now the items that take some more effort (but offer greater benefits)...

9) Carpool. Haven't you always wanted to use those high-occupancy vehicle lanes (at least legally)?

10) Use public transit. If you already use public transit, great. Consider getting off one stop early and taking a walk. Walk whenever possible.

11) If you must keep driving, consider using a Flexcar. If you can afford it, consider buying a vehicle with high fuel efficiency or even a hybrid.

Thanks for reducing our impact on the environment.