10 Tips for Green Driving

Green driving not only reduces CO2 and the damage driving causes to the environment, it can save you a good deal of money; you will use less fuel and your car will need less maintenance work.

Green driving also reduces the amount of road accidents and levels of driver stress; green drivers are safer, happier and wealthier drivers! 

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CHANGE GEAR EARLY
Change gear early - which saves revving the engine too hard, reducing emissions and fuel consumption. But do not labour the engine by selecting a higher gear too early - that wastes fuel and increases engine strain.

READ THE ROAD
Try to read the road, anticipating obstacles so that you can avoid heavy braking - that wastes momentum and therefore fuel - and avoid unnecessarily sharp acceleration too. Reading the road well can also prevent accidents.

CUT THE AIR CON DOWN
Use your car's air conditioning system sparingly - it's not often needed in the spring and autumn, and it can knock between one and three mpg off your fuel consumption, usefully reducing CO2 emissions too. 

DO RUN THE SYSTEM
Occasionally though - prolonged non-usage can eventually damage the compressor. Check that the heated rear window switch is not on unnecessarily too it's quite a consumer of power.

GET GOING QUICKLY
Drive away as soon as possible once you have started the engine from cold - it warms up more quickly, reducing consumption, emissions and engine wear. But don't rev the car excessively when it's cold either - that's bad for engine wear (because the cold oil won't be circulating fully), as well as consumption and emissions.

CRUISE MODERATELY
Consider your cruising speed on motorways - travelling at 65mph rather than 70mph can reduce consumption and emissions by as much as 25 percent.

DON’T GET LOST
Plan your journey - going the long way round, getting lost and running into roadworks can increase your journey's emissions considerably. Use your Sat Navs.

CHECK YOUR TIRES
Check your tyre pressures regularly. Running them under-inflated can increase fuel consumption and emissions by three percent, apart from being dangerous - under-inflated tyres can overheat at speed, risking a blow-out.

REMOVE UNNECESSARY WEIGHT
It's amazing how many people end up carrying kilos of additional weight. Carrying 10 kilos worth of extra weight around will have a real effect on your fuel consumption, especially in stop/start traffic - because you're repeatedly accelerating and decelerating a dead weight.

DON’T COAST IN NEUTRAL
Coasting in neutral could save you money with old cars fitted with carburettors, but modern fuel injection systems cut the fuel supply off altogether as you slow to a stop, saving a surprising amount, especially in stop/start driving. And coasting in neutral, or with the clutch depressed, is potentially dangerous too, because you have no engine braking, and can't suddenly accelerate out of danger.

Together we can do our part to help the environment. 

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