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2 Comments
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Re: Costs of manufacturing Hybrid vehicles
2006-11-21 22:19:25 UTC
This posting went around in July. Here some thoughts on effectively conveying a message. It stikes me that the unit used in this study to compare vehicles is "energy cost per mile". Read that unit again, and give the unit a short thought. Today different interest groups would use different units depending on their interests (i.e. their marketing objective) equivalents per mile would be used by environmental departements focused on reducing GHG's. Using CO2 equivalents would restructure the order of most friendly vehicle to least friendly in this study, i.e. favour smart cars for hummers. energy consumption per mile: of interest to the end user. This is self explanatory. production & recycling energy: of potential interest to electricity utilities. production cost per mile: would be used by economist, presently short sighted, no full (life) cycle interests, interests are simply "financial return on investment". This unit would be their primary "selling feature". These are thoughts that can be used in any kind of study when using units. Whoever writes such articles and conducts such a study knows what message they want to convey; keep in mind this was done by a marketing company. So making such thoughts (and taking the time for it) is crucial. Clearly it appears that this organization performed the study with (too much) personal interest in mind, personal interest in keeping the car economy (with all its subsidiaries) going at business as usual. They are painting themselves a bit green by considering aspects of cradle-to-grave. Fundamentally, they're using wrong units though that are not representative, and not accurate for cradle-to-grave statements. $$ for craddle to grave!? The above assumes that we NEED to drive a certain amount of kilometers and this is not variable. How about, Demand side management? Leave the "..per mile" in "energy per mile" away which leaves us with absolute "energy", meaning "let's lower our kilometers" and not fly to Chicago for our next business meeting, or an equivalent. That being said the talk here is not about efficiency anymore, but about absolute environmental impact. $$$ are don't do a good job at talking about environmental impact, CO2 equivalents are more accurate, but what do you do when most people really only relate to Dollars?
-Richard
YES Engineering
Richard Siegenthaler
Principal
YES Engineering
T: 604.224.7421
E: [email protected] -
Re: transportation modal change behaviour experiences requested
2006-03-29 13:10:49 UTC
Dear JoAnn,
the sustainability office of the city of Vancouver has been having a campaign going for a year now, called OneDay. It's aimed at individuals reducing GHG's in transportation and at home. http://www.onedayvancouver.ca
They organize public educational forums, advertise in local cafes, and have recently hired outreach professionals to implement their environmental strategies in industry as well. Take a look at their webpage portal. If this is what you're looking for I can get you in contact with the right people here. Please specify in more detail what information you're looking for then.
Best wishes!
Richard Siegenthaler
Principal YES Engineering
T: 604.224.7421
E: [email protected]
W: http://www.yesengineering.com
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