Earth Day – We all love April 22nd. For almost 40 years we have celebrated this day of activism, emotion, appreciation, and education for our mother earth. Somehow, as a society we have a slight disconnect between the recognition and acknowledgement regarding this day and the way we live the other 364 days of the year. 

• We put man on the moon, but still can’t develop or market an electrical car.
• We each spend half of our annual wages on new cars that get an average of 18 miles an hour, (14 mpg if you own a super sized SUV) and then complain about the price of gas going up .25 cents ‘as of late’.

The auto industry has turned itself on its heels in the past few years with its efforts in becoming green. And while much effort is underway in the area of gas efficiency and lowering the greenhouse effect of vehicles, may I suggest the industry also look at what it prints, binds and produces – from lengthy 500 plus page owner manuals (http://consumerreports.org) Consumer Reports, Jim Travers blog – April 08th) to the hundreds of thousands of printed catalogs handed out at over 25 auto shows throughout the United States.

 

As for Owner manuals, they are a necessity to most of us. Offer the manual in a traditional version but give consumers an option. Create a paperless CD rom that operates on voice command interactively in the car’s Navigation/GPS system, so the subject matter can be quickly found-- instead of perusing through countless number of pages. Either way, it is then up to the owner if they want the 500 page bulky version or a CD.  

As for all those catalogs distributed at car shows, hand out CD’s, or the mini CD’s, for consumers to pop in the desktop and view at home. This will save on paper and printing costs for the catalog itself and the ‘shopping’ bag most manufacturers hand out.  Most of these pamphlets find their way to the trash by the end of the weekend.  Earth Day – lets all do our part, not just in talking, but in doing the right thing each and every day.  

Drive Your Bargain,

Anne