Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
The results of Consumer Reports’ latest car brand perception survey are in, featuring a whole section on green cars. While eco-friendliness is only the fifth most important feature to consumers, Toyota scored well with almost half of consumers associating it with being a green brand.
The survey represents over 2,000 adults from around the nation, and had respondents rank the most important features in a car’s brand and then whether a company was effective in that category.
Environment Friendliness ranked behind safety, quality, value and importance, but ahead of design/style and technology innovation. Behind Toyota (49 percent) in the green category, Honda measured green with 26 percent of consumers, followed by Ford (16 percent), Chevrolet and GMC (11 percent each).
Chevrolet and GMC are both General Motors brands, which has been producing more vehicles that run on ethanol, a renewable source of energy made from corn. GM’s CEO said at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show that the U.S. should have 10 times more ethanol gas stations; there are about 1,400 currently.
All other cars on the list are known for their hybrid technology, with Toyota producing the ever-popular Prius and several other hybrid models, Honda selling hybrid Civics and (the soon to be discontinued) Accords and Ford developing the first hybrid SUV Escape.
For more on the environmental impact of cars, visit Earth 911’s Automotive section.
