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.
If you think your gas bill is high, think about the men and women in brown.
UPS trucks are everywhere, racking up thousands of miles every year — and burning thousands of gallons of fuel, too.
What is their gas-saving strategy? It's a simple turn of the wheel.
"Everything is based on me going down the road and then taking a right turn into the next road for my next stop," explained UPS driver Nathan Hilden.
The company has a policy that tells drivers to avoid left-hand turns whenever possible.
UPS uses a "package flow" technology system. A notebook computer maps out the route to create a continous right turn delivery loop before the driver leaves the depot.
By always turning right, drivers save time, gas, and money — and UPS says it works.
"Right-hand turns and package flow technology saves us $29.6 million miles a year, which equates to 3.3 million gallons of gas," said UPS package manager Robert Pope.
Studies show your car uses more gas when you are idling while waiting to make a left hand turn; so what's good for UPS could be good for you, too. You'll save gas and the environment.
"Idling for long periods of time can have a detrimental effect to the impact on our environment," said Brian Carr of The Clean Air Campaign.
E-mail tfoster@wfaa.com
