Climate change has been a hot topic in recent years. Emissions from transportation are the largest contributors to greenhouse gasses.
The uphill battle to reverse climate change can feel overwhelming. However, as with most challenging tasks, starting small and doing your part can yield promising results. It is everyone’s personal responsibility to help decrease their own carbon footprint. How can we curtail the footprints of automobiles, ships, and trains?
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in Automobiles
Let’s face it, no matter how green your car is, it will still leave some sort of footprint whenever you drive it. Staying consistent and forming good habits concerning driving and your automobile is crucial to reaching the long term goal of reversing climate change.
Plan Your Trips
When you need to run errands, plan your route to minimize the distance you have to drive. Be mindful of rush hours and leave at a time where you can avoid traffic. Driving efficiently by braking less and avoiding rapid acceleration will acutely lessen emissions.
Keep Up With Maintenance
Keep your tires filled with the appropriate amount of air pressure and make sure your air and oil filters are changed regularly. Proper maintenance allows the vehicle to function more smoothly and puts less strain on the engine, therefore expelling less greenhouse gasses. As an added bonus, this also increases gas mileage, saving you money.
If you have the means to invest in buying a hybrid vehicle, this can help tremendously as well.
Carpool
Be vigilant about carpooling, especially if you have the opportunity to share rides to the workplace. Depending on the number of passengers, carpooling can cut emissions exponentially.
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in Ships
Ship transportation accounts for 90% of world trade. How can carbon dioxide emissions be reduced when shipping by sea?
Optimize Speed and Routing
Ships share some similarities to a car, where planning your ship’s route and optimizing speed is essential. A ship’s route also needs to take into account weather, along with creating a passage plan.
Monitor the Performance of Your Ship
Noon reports or devices on the ship can be used to monitor the efficiency of your ship. Some companies like www.we4sea.com offer an alternative to those with a platform that measures, manages, and reports on fuel consumption and emissions in real-time.
Install Electric Power
Efficient electric motors consume less fuel to propel the ship. They also discharge fewer greenhouse gasses than non-electric propelled systems.
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in Trains
Trains already have the highest efficiency between cars and ships, when it comes to emission reduction. They are constantly on the cutting edge on technology when it comes to sustainability & being green but there is always room for improvement.
Increase Fuel Efficiency
Trains can use similar fuel management software to adjust fuel consumption settings during a live load. Reducing friction between the wheels and the rail adds to increased fuel efficiency and allows the train to haul heavier loads, increasing sustainability. Just like automobiles, hybrid technology is becoming more popular than standard fuel engines that run on diesel fuel.
Shifting From Road to Rail
We may begin to see a shift from highway freight to an increased role of rail freight. Trains can take more freight and transport it with less of a footprint than trucks. Per The Maritime Executive, “a single freight train can remove several hundred trucks from the highway”.
Planning For The Future
Driving, traveling, and transporting goods are essential but being conscious of the impact it has on the environment can help keep the planet healthy. Reducing our carbon footprint to reverse global warming is imperative for our future and public health. For more ideas on how you can help, check out our blog!
