Earth Day has served as a reminder to treat our planet with respect, love, and care; this may include conscious initiatives like recycling, conservation, or making an effort to reduce overall air pollution. While Earth Day itself is celebrated once a year, at Will Marshall Insurance, we believe individuals can make decisions every day that better our environment, and of course limit the effects of climate change.
Though likely not news to you by any stretch, it’s important to remember that emissions produced by our vehicles through the burning of gasoline, contribute considerably to the global climate concerns we are currently being faced with.
Provided in honor of Earth Day, these tips will actually reduce your costs, saving you gas throughout every day of the year.
Drive Green: The way you drive is a direct correlation with the amount of fuel you use, and thus spend on gas. Aggressive driving will lower your mpg, and damage your vehicle over time. It’s best to stay away from making fast starts and stops, drive the indicated speed limit, and do your best to take fewer trips, to begin with.
Be Sure to Get Your Tune-Ups: Ongoing maintenance and tune-ups care for your vehicle and assist its overall performance, reducing the amount of pollution expelled. Changing the air filter alone will improve your vehicle’s efficiency levels by close to 10 percent!
Lighten the Load: As a rule of thumb, items that aren’t emergency belongings should really be kept out of your vehicle. Keeping emergency items only in your car, like a spare tire and first-aid kit, will keep the weight down in your vehicle. Any additional weight will weigh down your vehicle which leads to an increase in gas, therefore more money to drive it!
Minimize idling: Whether your car is moving or not, you’re still burning gas. As mentioned by Natural Resources Canada, idling can consume a quarter up to a half gallon of fuel each hour, based on the size of your engine and the amount of air conditioning being used. If you’re parked keep your vehicle off; it only takes 10 seconds of fuel to restart it.
Tire Checks: If each Canadian had properly inflated tires, we would save billions of gas each and every year. Under inflation is the leading cause of tire failure. According to Canada Safety Council, twenty-three per cent of vehicles has at least one tire under-inflated by over 20 per cent. An under-inflated tire isn’t always visually noticeable, but they are more susceptible to damage and failure and also contribute to an increase in fuel. To ensure your tires are at an optimal air pressure level, view the tire pressure listed for your car in the driver’s manual or you can also check this on the inside of the driver’s door.
Car Pool: This is an obvious one as to why you should be implementing this tip; the more passengers in one vehicle riding together, the fewer vehicles on the road creating emissions.
Gas Caps and Fill-Ups: Check your gas cap on a regular basis. Millions of gallons of gas vaporize due in part to loose, damaged, or missing gas caps. When filling up your tank, try to avoid topping it off in an effort to prevent harmful vapors from entering our environment.
The team at Will Marshall Insurance hopes you enjoyed Earth Day. Together we can make a difference for our environment every day.