Driving Sustainably : A guide to reducing your carbon footprint

Abstract

On average travel represents a staggering 56% of our primary (personal) footprint in Ireland. Car ownership is rapidly increasing throughout the EU reaching an estimated 252 million in 2015/6. This is equivalent of 600 million tonnes of CO2 e being emitted by European drivers each year, which is only a small portion of the 1.8 billion cars worldwide.

Manufacture’s fuel efficiency data and fuel types are discussed explaining the difference between real and lab based emission values. Comparison with other transport modes are made using carpooling as an example of how drivers can make car usage more efficient than public transport where it is limited or not available. The booklet explains practical ways in which we can all drive more sustainably as well as exploring the problem of emissions arising from the manufacture and disposal of vehicle which is currently ignored in our footprint analysis. Buying a car is discussed and studies have shown that you don’t need to buy a new electric vehicle (EV) or hybrid to drive with minimum impact. Emissions from EVs are compared to standard fuels indicating that the selection of the most appropriate vehicle type can save you a lot of money over the lifetime of the vehicle, and that EVs and Hybrids are not always a good choice for drivers with selection dependent on length and frequency of journey, whether urban or rural, or used for commuting.

Driving sustainably results in drivers reducing their fuel consumption by 10-50% saving without actually driving less distance of using the car less frequently. This represents significant financial savings as well as reducing emissions, pollution and increasing driver safety.

This means that an easily achieved 10% reduction in fuel consumption which all drivers can achieve, without reducing the frequency or distance driven, would save 10 million tonnes of CO2e within the EU each year, equivalent to 7.9 million tonnes in the UK or 0.42 million tonnes of CO2e in Ireland where car ownership is around 2,000,000. So for every 10% reduction in fuel usage each car would on average be saving 0.234 or 0.213 tonnes of CO2e per annum in the UK and Ireland respectively from their primary footprint. With a 20-30% reduction possible for the average driver then driving sustainably can make a significant different to greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change as well as making our air cleaner and driving safer.