20 Mar 07
How we drive our cars is crucial. A lifetime of track days is going to eclipse anything the factory can manage, no matter how many lights they leave on at night. Similarly, 10 years of shuttling to the post office and back will vastly inflate the manufacturer's proportion of the footprint.
We've already produced 31 tips on how to reduce your element of the car's overall CO2 debt in our Daily Detox advice. Tips such as avoid traffic - the Highways Agency reckons that vehicle CO2 emissions are three times as high in traffic crawling along than when it's flowing at 30mph.
It's frustrating that your efforts probably won't be recorded in Britain's official CO2 figures - calculated as they are on traffic miles and manufacturer-sourced vehicle CO2 figures - but at least you'll see the financial result of actions like turning off the rear demister when it's not needed.
