Transportation Tips for Living Green

Can’t afford a fuel efficient or hybrid car? Not to worry, you can still save on transportation and fuel costs. Check out these tips for living green and keeping more green in your pocket.

• Work from home 1 -2 days a week. Not only will you use less fuel and emit less harmful carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but you will also be more efficient and have a couple more hours to devote to your family. Those who telecommute now outnumber those who use mass transit.
• Skip a business trip or vacation. According to a Reader’s Digest article, skipping an airplane trip greatly helps reduce the amount of CO2 being emitted from an airplane as well as water vapors and nitrogen oxides, which can be more damaging than CO2 alone. 
• Don’t be afraid to use your car’s air conditioning system during the warmer months, it’s actually less costly to run the AC than drive with the windows down. Just keep the setting at low and drive the speed limit.
• Use cruise control whenever you can while driving. Not only will you improve your gas mileage, but you will also save about 250 pounds of CO2 every year. If you’re counting your carbon credit usage, this will help.

Need more tips for living green? Check out Fair Green Trade’s green directory.

Reduce Carbon Footprint by Pledging Trees and Other Reforestation Projects

Reduce your impact on the environment by pledging a tree in Kenya, Honduras or other Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) country project. Instead of giving porcelain animals or dolls and flat screen TVs, consider pledging a tree. While it may not be a wrappable present or one that your loved ones and friends would have on their gift list, it is a gift for the Earth and will help reduce the carbon footprint.

Through your tree pledges, you will not only reduce carbon footprints, but also sustain small disadvantaged communities, reduce poverty, support and maintain wildlife habitats and provide medicine for orphaned children and those living with HIV/AIDS. Each tree planted, according to CarbonFootprint.com, “offsets” your environmental impact by reducing 1 ton of CO2 emissions over the tree’s lifetime. Moreover, each person, worldwide needs to save about 7 tons of CO2 each year. One way to your carbon footprints every year is to pledge or plant 7 trees. Pledges are low cost, but have a high impact at no more than 20 dollars a pledge. Much less than an iPod or 2 tickets to a rock concert.

Other reforestation projects include incorporating clean or renewable energy offsets around the world and reforesting with Maya Nut trees in disadvantaged countries. Reduce carbon footprints with planting native Maya Nut trees in the UK you are helping to reduce poverty, malnutrition and rainforest destruction. More information can be found on CarbonFootprint.com about the benefits of planting Maya Nut trees to help local communities in the UK. 

Eco Friendly Cars that Run on Air? One New Car Maker Claims it’s Possible

When you name your company Zero Pollution Motors, you’re going to have high expectations whenever you announce something new like eco friendly cars.

But that doesn’t seem to faze the American company that’s on the verge of entering the eco friendly cars market with an air-powered vehicle. The eco friendly cars will be powered by compressed air, a technology that is actually years old. Instead of gas, these eco friendly cars make use of air that is released to drive the pistons. The only additional requirement for operation is a bit of salad oil or some alcohol.

But we’ve heard of so-called miracle eco friendly cars before. Usually the big disadvantage in these eco friendly cars is that they lack the power necessary to function safely on American roads. And they require constant refueling and maintenance. But Zero Emissions claims that their compressed air vehicle, or CAV, can reach a top speed of 35 mph and travel some 60 miles on a single tank of compressed air. So while these eco friendly cars won’t be challenging the average Mustang or BMW for throttle power, there will be an option to add of a small motor. With that, the CAV eco friendly cars can reach interstate-level speeds and run for nearly 800 miles before its tank of air needs refilling.

Zero Emissions has already struck a deal with Indian carmaker Tata, who will produce the eco friendly cars for the increasingly vehicle-hungry South Asian market. Starting in 2011, Zero Emissions plans on producing some 8,000 vehicles a year for U.S. consumers with manufacturing plants planned in nearly every state. And the price tag is encouragingly reasonable: each vehicle will cost about $20,000.