efficiency
Ford Focus Global Drive
In an effort to promote the Ford Focus, the Ford Motor Company is promoting a competition called Global Drive. While I am optimistic of future electric cars such as the Chevy Volt, I myself am a fan of this small, fuel efficient car until we reach that place.
Ford is interested in making contact with individuals passionate about environmental causes, with the intention of making several $10k donations to non-profits looking to “Start Something More.”
Ford is inviting people to create a simple video and submit it via the Ford Focus Facebook page. Selected participants, along with a friend, will get a free trip to Madrid, Spain on February 18-20th to test drive the all-new Ford Focus. Additionally, Ford will make a $10,000 contribution to your chosen charity in the categories of environment, education or hunger.
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Cash for Clunkers – Eco Friendly or Environmental Mistake?
There has been a lot of news about the Car Allowance Rebate System or ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program, but the real question is will this benefit the environment? Conceived as a two-birds-with-one-stone program to boost our economy and remove older polluting cars from our roads, but is it working? The real answer is that we don’t know yet.
The original program developed by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and Senator Susan M. Collins, Republican of Maine, required bigger improvements in MPG to qualify. Luckily it seems “the good judgment of the American people” has proved to exceed even the original requirements.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the average mileage of new vehicles purchased through the program is 9.6 miles per gallon higher than for the vehicles traded in for scrap. Buyers of new cars and trucks that get 10 mpg better than their trade-ins get the $4,500 rebate. People whose cars get between 4 mpg and 10 mpg better fuel efficiency qualify for a smaller $3,500 rebate.
-Associated Press
We should stop and recognize, however, that Miles Per Gallon (MPG) is not a very good indicator of actual fuel efficiency, especially at higher numbers. Look at the table below, and you can see that if you traded a car that got 40 mpg in for one that got 50 mpg, you would qualify for the higher rebate, however, it would be less efficient (less of an environmental impact) than moving from a 20 mpg car to a 25 mpg car.
The Energy Seed – Light from Used Batteries
Used alkaline batteries are a bad thing when thrown in the trash. They leech toxic chemicals out into the landfills, oceans, streets, or wherever they are discarded. Here comes a beautiful (although optimistic) solution in allowing for easy system for recycling and efficiency from Sungwoo Park & Sunhee Kim. Most ‘dead’ batteries are just running too low to power our devices, but they still have energy. This light/recycling station can utilize the remaining power left in the battery to light up a corner, subway, bus stop or even better, integrate them into lighted vending machines.
The Energy Seed is a demonstrative technology in efficiency and recycling ideals, but presents just as many problems as it solves such as battery collection, reliable lighting, vandalism, etc. I applaud the idea and design and feel that it is a very creative solution for a hidden problem.
