Gas Challenge 07- Kick Off
The EPA estimates that the average American driving an average car emits about 12,000 pounds of CO2 every year. It take 240 trees to absorb the 12,000 pounds of CO2. That’s 240 trees per driver and a good portion of our households have at least two drivers. No matter how you look at it, that’s a lot!
In a previous poll we found out that on average we spend $21-30 on gas a week. The average price of gas in the US at the time this poll was taken is $2.75/gallon. An average car gets around 24.7 miles per gallon. That means we are driving around 272 miles a week.
If you cut that even by one gallon, you can save 20 pounds of CO2! If we cut that down by one mile a week for a year, the results would be dramatic! Individually, we would save around $145.00 and 1040 pounds of CO2. Seems worth it to me.
There are many ways we can save on gas usage, and on Friday I will be posting a few to help you along. But I want you to get involved. This is why on September 21st, my birthday, I will be giving YOU a gift. This will be the day we will officially start Gas Challenge ‘07 and YOU will have opportunities to win prizes. (Prizes to be announced on Friday)
The rules of the challenge are as follows:
1. On your own blog*, you must post, by September 21st at midnight (the day this officially starts), your average weekly gas usage. You can do this by your miles or cost to fill your tank up. Then I want you to post your goal of savings. (Ex. Normally spend $30/week, goal is to start spending $28/week) Please link your post back to this Kick Off post for better tracking. Complete this form to send me the link of your post and register for the challenge.
2. After this, you will post at least once a week about how you are reaching your goal and what measures you took to help save gas. (Ex. this week I spent $29. on gas. I checked my tires air pressure and rode my bike to the store.) On Mondays (9/24, 10/1, 10/8), I will have posts up for you to link back to your weekly update. You can put your post up anytime until the following Monday.
Recap: Post your goals, fill out registration form, and in your post link to this post. Post weekly on your progress, link to posts put up that week on Monday. Simple?
The challenge ends on October 13th, at midnight. During that weekend I will be judging people’s creativeness and success on reaching their goal. (I am also looking for 2 more judges if anyone is interested) On Monday, October 15th, otherwise known as Blog Action Day, I will announce the winners. Overall, though, we will all “win” by saving ourselves some money and CO2 released into environment, right?
Oh, and please feel free to use the badge I have in this post. It may not be the best, so if anyone else wants to come up with something different, I will be more than appreciative. If you do want to use the badge and need help with the code or anything, please email me. That goes for any questions you may have,too.
Let’s get started! Click here and fill in the following with your link to your goals post, not just your website address. Then you have until Friday to start brainstorming ideas on how you are going to cut back those miles!
Good Luck; I can’t wait to read your goals and ideas!
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21 Responses to “Gas Challenge 07- Kick Off”
September 17th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Seriously, I doubt if I drive 272 miles a MONTH! Our town is really small, and some days I don’t drive at all.
September 17th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
You’re so creative, you show off! Just kidding, but seriously, what a great idea.
September 17th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Great idea! I won’t be officially participating, (between holidays and being in and out of town, I don’t see myself getting the posts up, etc) but I am looking forward to any ideas that others come up with in saving some gas. Unfortunately, with the start of the school year, my gas usage goes way up, since J goes to preschool 30+ minutes away.
By the way, I had to comment that your birthday is the day before mine!
Happy almost birthday!
September 17th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Man I wish I could participate in this. I drive for a living with an outside sales position. My living depends on it….but I could walk on the weekends to run errands instead of driving! I could run to the gym around the corner….
Okay…let me do some thinking on this. My miles vary from week to week.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Ok, I’m thinking!
September 18th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Sounds like fun!
September 18th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
You know you’ve been a teacher too long….when the term “Gas challenge” brings to mind kids giggling and holding their shirts over their noses because some one else, well, you know.
The real thing, though is a great idea!
September 20th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
i just filled up my empty tank today and it cost me $27.22. i purposely waited until the little gas tank symbol popped up because i wanted to see if the car could drive on the battery alone. (i drive a hybrid.)
i’m still not sure. by my calculations, i bought almost 11 gallons so that was a little over 2 gallons in the tank when i filled up.
before today, the last time i bought gas was september 8.
September 20th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
okay, I signed up, but I didn’t follow good directions! I put my blog link, not a link to a post (which I haven’t done yet!)
But I’ll have something up tomorrow fer sure.
And happy birthday!!!
September 21st, 2007 at 4:01 pm
It’s a great idea, but my car is dead, so I’m barely driving at all right now. *cries* With 3 four and under I’m going batty.
We used to go to the park all the time.
September 22nd, 2007 at 9:10 pm
You totally dropped off my bloglines! Gah! If you need a judge, I am happy to judge! I don’t think I can cut my consumption by much, so I’m not going to play along. Great idea!
September 22nd, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Totally love this idea!! You go girl!
By the way: if you have never seen it, go check out Seventh Generation products, especially the laundry stuff. You can save a lot of petroleum that way!
October 8th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
[…] CO2 emissions on my blog. So after today I will give it a rest for a while. A few days at least. (Sign up here! Now! Time is running out!) Sorry, had to get that in one last time.Not really surprising, it seems most of us are cruising […]
October 8th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
[…] you are interested in playing along, but haven’t signed up yet, I will keep the sign up window open until […]
October 8th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
[…] summer I decided to take my own challenge and see how far I could cut my gas usage down. I actually did very well. From the start of summer […]
October 8th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
[…] had 3 prizes planned for the challenge winners and so far have one brave and lovely blogger signed up. BUT there is still today and […]
October 8th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
[…] I had gobs of you rushing to participate in my challenge, I wanted to remind everyone who hasn’t signed up yet that you only have 3 days to do so. In […]
October 8th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
[…] wall was going on yesterday, I put up my post about the challenge I am having. You know the one. The Gas Challenge? You know. Right below this post? Yeah. Don’t ignore it. Just DO IT. […]
October 9th, 2007 at 9:50 am
[…] are heading into the final stretch of the gas challenge updates. On Friday I will be putting up a poll and excerpts of the post from our participants. […]
October 12th, 2007 at 9:21 am
[…] do you think should be our winner for the gas challenge? It’s up to you to decide who will be the recipient of the gas card. Please read our […]
May 12th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I wish I was still spending $30 to fill up my gas tank. Right now I’m at $53, and that is only for a 4 cylinder!
Providing people with ways to save money on gas is most certainly a good thing to do, especially now!