Claire's Eco Store - Green Driving

Green driving is a great way of getting around, having every benefit to you! It reduces harmful CO2 emissions that damage the environment that normal driving causes and it will also save you a whole load of money as you will need less fuel and maintenance repairs.

The best way to become an effective green driver, you need to be a smart driver as well as a good one, but it is not much of an extra effect to save the World and your pocket. The obvious way to start is minimising fuel consumption as much as possible, but there are more ways to reduce, and these all come at benefits to you! These great benefits include:

• Reducing some zeros on your annual fuel bills.
• Cutting your carbon emissions.
• Reduce wear and tear on your vehicle.
• Enjoy safer, less stressful and cheaper journeys.
• Doing your bit to save the environment from pollution.
• Spending less on petrol and maintenance.

These are some great benefits that we all would love, and its so simple to achieve them! Below are points on how to get these fantastic positives:

• Don’t warm up your cars in the morning: modern cars are designed to drive off straight away.
• Check your revs! Change up before 2,500rpm for petrol cars, and 2000rpm for diesel cars.
• Keep an eye on the road and check conditions in advance to avoid sharp brakes, heavy acceleration and accidents on the road.
• Driving slower (within the speed limit) is much safer, heavily reduces fuel consumption and keeps you within the law.
• Whilst slowing down or driving down a hill, lifting off the accelerator whilst keeping in gear reduces the engine fuel flow to practically zero.
• Plan your journey in advance to avoid getting stuck in traffic jams and getting lost! This will also prevent frustration.
• Car accessories (e.g. bike carriers; roof boxes; roof racks) should be removed if not in use as they significantly affect your cars aerodynamics and reduces fuel efficiency.
• If you’re travelling a short distance, try using other forms of transport as lots of people can take these at once (e.g. the train), and also cold engines use up nearly twice as much fuel which won’t be worth the short distance.
• Check your tyres as under-inflated tyres are dangerous and increases fuel consumption.
• If you do happen to get stuck in traffic, or you won’t be moving for over a minute, turn off your engine. Modern cars don’t use much extra fuel at all to restart the engine (if the accelerator is released).
• Air conditioning also greatly increases fuel consumption, so turn it off if you can or turn on your eco-setting if you have one. But, if you are hot, air conditioning is better for fuel consumption than opening windows.