Eco drive
1. Decelerate your acceleration - A light right foot can significantly reduce your emissions as it takes less fuel to maintain a steady speed. Gauge traffic conditions well in advance and respond accordingly.
2. Reverse park - how many times have you driven around needlessly looking for an easy park. Hone your motoring skills and park confidently.
3. On the issue of parking, forget "convenience parking" - Shopping centre car parks are notorious for motorists driving around looking for a park "close to the shops", only to end up back at the entrance. It's only an extra few metres to carry your goods - and think about the benefits of a hasty exit after a day spent in crowded shops!
4. Slim down your booty - by emptying the boot, your car has to spend less fuel lugging around the heavy cargo. So leave the golf clubs behind unless you're sure you'll get in a round.
5. Get in and go - most newer models don't need to be warmed up before driving.
6. Switch gears - on manual transmissions, switching gears as soon as you can help reduce emissions.
7. Keep up the pressure - get your tyre pressure checked regularly, proper inflation can improve mileage by more than 3 per cent.
8. Top up gets a thumbs down - don't overfill your petrol tank. Petrol spillage release harmful fumes into the environment.
9. Tune in - by keeping your vehicle properly maintained, it will perform at optimum efficiency, improving fuel efficiency and reducing emission.
10. Grade your Oil - Use good quality, energy-conserving EC oils with the viscosity grade recommended in the Owner's Manual. [Greenpages]
Eco surf
Polyurethane has long been considered a durable but not quite eco friendly material, and is the most common choice for making surfboards. New technologies are now available to recycle and "resurf" old boards.
In Australia environmental boards are available in the market. United Surfers sells boards made from hemp. Bamboo surfboards also debuted a range of sustainable boards, which won the Australian International Design Award in 2002.
Resurf.org is a Southern Californian company that offers community drop off points for old boards. The boards are taken to facilities that recycle the boards into pulverize this material down to dust and reintroduce a percentage of this bi-product into concrete and asphalt mixes to create roads and several other products such as lightweight- fireproof roof-tiles that look and feel like regular cement tiles, essentially "paving the streets with surfboards."[Greenpages]
