Simple Solutions to Improve Air Quality
Travel smart: Increasingly high gas prices are helping to get people thinking about alternate ways to travel without using a car. This switch is great for the air; if you leave your car at home one day a week, you will prevent 55 pounds of pollution being emitted into our air each year (source: www.sparetheair.com).
o Contact RideSolutions at1-888-742-RIDE to sign up for a free matchlist of prospective commuters who are interested in sharing a ride to work.
o Ride the bus
o Walk or bike
o Telecommute to work whenever possible
Limit driving: When you do drive, you can take care to decrease pollution by using the following suggestions:
o Cruise Control: Using cruise control to help you maintain a constant speed uses less energy and reduces emissions. Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas mileage by 33% at highway speeds and by 5% around town (source: Wisconsin Partners for clean air).
o Turn off your engine to be idle free. Idling can consume as much as a gallon of gas per hour (when idling for more than 30 seconds) and usually wastes more fuel than restarting the engine. So next time, go into the restaurant rather than using the drive through.
o Keep your tires properly inflated and your car tuned up. According to the EPA, a 1% loss of fuel efficiency occurs for every 2 PSI of air under the maximum recommended level. Using the correct type of motor oil for your vehicle, having a clean air filter, and having a properly tuned engine can result in better gas mileage thus reducing the amount of emissions. (source: www.fueleconomy.gov)
o Avoid topping off your tank at the gas station. Spilled gasoline pollutes the air when it evaporates. Refueling your vehicle after 6 p.m., when ground-level ozone pollution is less likely to form, also helps reduce pollution formation.
Mowing the Lawn: The evening is the best time to use gasoline-powered lawn equipment when temperatures are cooler and the emissions from your mower are less likely to cause the formation of ground-level ozone pollution.
Eliminate Burning: Microscopic particles formed while burning leaves, wood, trash, mulch, compost or even the wood in our fireplace or woodstove can accumulate in the air making it unhealthy for us all to breathe. This type of pollution can form even in the cold, winter months. Consider retrofitting wood stoves with a filter or use gas logs instead of wood and eliminate all outdoor burning.
Purchase recycled products. It takes less energy and creates less pollution to recycle many products than it does to make new ones from raw materials. One ton of 100% recycled paper saves 4100 kwh of energy, enough to power the average home for 6 months, and 60 pounds of air pollution (source: Department of Conservation).
Cancel catalog subscriptions, and shop online. You can reduce waste and pollution, and free some space in your mailbox, with a minimum of effort. A free and easy online initiative from Environmental Defense allows you to cancel the catalogs of your choice. Go to www.catalogchoice.org to make a difference.
The following are tools you can use to gauge your impact on the environment:
Power Profiler: http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/powerprofiler
Home Energy Saver: http://hes.lbl.gov/
Calculate your greenhouse gas emissions: http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/carboncalculator.cfm
General: www.myenergystar.com, www.aepohio.com
