The Co-op Food Stores

added 05/14/08

If you are looking for ways to reduce your emission of greenhouse gases, you can make significant change by adjusting your routine daily habits—the little things. Adopting a new approach to how you drive your car, small as it may seem, can have a significant effect over the course of a year.

Take, for example, idling your vehicle. This seemingly passive activity is actually quite aggressive to the welfare of the environment, public health, vehicles, and personal economics. Idling wastes money, increases wear on your vehicle’s engine, pollutes the air, and contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases—while registering zero miles per gallon! Talk about going nowhere fast!

Here is some information about steps you can take to reduce idling and how the Co-op supports this practice.

100 Percent Fuel Inefficiency

The first step in changing a habit is to recognize when the behavior occurs. According to the California Energy Commission’s Consumer Energy Center, “Research indicates that the average driver idles the car five to 10 minutes a day.” That can amount to between two and five hours of idling per month.

For every hour of idling, a vehicle typically uses a half gallon of fuel and sends 9.7 pounds of emissions into the air—for a process that is 100 percent inefficient because while idling there is no forward motion.

The Ten Second Rule and Other Recommendations

Ten seconds of idling can use more fuel than turning off the engine and restarting it. If your vehicle will be stationary for more than ten seconds—while you run inside “for just a minute” or wait in line at a drive-through business—you will use fuel most efficiently when you park your car and turn off the motor.

But isn’t restarting the vehicle hard on the engine? No, frequent restarting has little impact on the engine components such as the battery and the starter motor. The Consumer Energy Center says that the wear on other components is estimated to add $10 per year to the cost of vehicle maintenance—“money that would likely be recovered several times over from reduced idling.”

Wayne Stearns, Co-op Service Center Manager, confirms that these facts hold equally true whether in the Upper Valley or in California. He emphasizes the importance of having the proper weight of oil for a vehicle in order to start properly in winter.

Speaking of cold morning starts, modern engines need no more than 30 seconds of idling to warm up on a warm winter day. “The best way to warm up your engine is by driving it,” councils Natural Resources Canada.

Delivery Trucks Turn Off Their Engines at the Co-op

Since the 1994 expansion of the Hanover Co-op, the Receiving Department has asked vendors to turn off their trucks when making a delivery to the store. The loading dock’s configuration is such that exhaust fumes from idling trucks travel into the store and create unpleasant conditions for Co-op workers and customers alike.

Though the design of the Lebanon store averts this problem, the practice remains the same. “We have an understanding with our vendors that this is the way we do business,” says Eric Belisle, who has worked in the Receiving Department in both Co-op locations.

Is it a policy, a rule? Eric clarifies that a mutual understanding works effectively. “If a driver is having mechanical difficulty and shutting off the engine would jeopardize the entire load, he leaves it running,” he says.

But that’s the exception. Getting professional drivers to turn off their rigs isn’t difficult; they know that it is fuelish to be idle.

Taking it One Step Further

Sometimes we overlook the obvious. There another way to avoid being idle. Park your car and walk or cycle to your destination.