Americans live in a world where mantras like “Waste Not, Want Not” and “Go Green” get thrown around , but (unfortunately ) putting them into practice might not be as simple as we’d like. My family has attempted to minimize its carbon footprint as often as we can ( shutting lights and appliances off when we’re not using them, recycling, etc) – just about everything we hear about that will let us “go green,” we try. Some of it takes a lot more work than we might like . An example? Our compost pile in the backyard and the neighborhood critters who like rummaging through it and strewing the contents across our yard.
But once in a while , something arrives that makes it simple to do a little more for the Earth . And, in the most recent example , that something is our Garmin GPS. Can you believe that ?
I realize you’re probably going to have a mildly curious , slightly unconvinced look on your face right now, but stick with me.
Gas prices are soaring , and it doesn’t seem as if that’s going to be changing anytime soon . With four kids and an incredibly rigid routine of taking them back and forth to school, every sport practice imaginable , piano lessons, friends’ homes and more , frankly, I’m shocked we haven’t spent as much on our driving bill as we do on the house payment or our car payments . But, thanks to the Garmin GPS device we received for Christmas from my in-laws (well, two – one for each vehicle ), we haven’t been spending quite so much .
I found out that many Garmin GPS units in the Garmin nuvi series already have this amazing little feature called ecoRoute. (You can also download it for use with compatible devices at no cost from the Garmin website). Remember how your GPS used to determine the shortest routes or the quickest routes? Now, it can calculate the most fuel efficient way to go . ecoRoute shows fuel and mileage data that shows your fuel consumption and conservation data, fuel efficiency and your carbon footprint. It also accounts for things like routes with fewer hills and curves, fewer traffic lights and lighter traffic patterns – which translates into you using less fuel . And let’s face it , conserving gas money each time we drive is definitely worth it these days .
Garmin can’t pinpoint the exact amount you’ll save using ecoRoute since they don’t know your local terrain or driving patterns , but i since we started using our Garmin GPS, our family has reduced our gas consumption by almost 15%. Not bad for an automotive GPS device – and equally, and maybe more importantly, not to shabby for the world we live in either.
