Social Action Through Career Choice

My last post on Friday (Introduction to Link Love posts with examples) had an article on MSNBC/Careerbuilder about "green collar jobs". I would like to, again, reiterate the fact that I am rue to link to anything on Careerbuilder but you're not likely to be inundated with spam by simply clicking on the link (like you will by signing up for their loosely titled "service") so I'll make an exception.

First off, it's important to point out that this article is about as far from me, with respect to intent, as it could possibly be. The point of this article is to point out that there's this great new sector that's likely to grow based on sound-bites from our presidential candidates. The article says nothing about personal responsibility, purpose in life, or altruism through self-sacrifice. Careerbuilder is certainly not going to help you find meaning in your work by guiding you in a direction to make a difference in any way. But I digress; this post is not meant to inaugurate "Bash CB Day."

The article talks, first, about the possibility of new jobs appearing based on forward-looking statements by Obama, Clinton, and McCain. I'll just quote the one that makes any difference whatsoever:

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama -- "We've also got to do more to create the green jobs that are jobs of the future. My energy plan will put $150 billion over 10 years into establishing a green energy sector that will create up to 5 million new jobs over the next two decades."

Brilliant! Hopefully it's clear to you why I'm excited about that but why should you care?

I have seen an interesting phenomenon with my own eyes time and time again and have even participated in it myself. People find it quite easy to remove the responsibility of their own participation in an industry or company by simply explaining to themselves (and others) that "it pays the bills." What can you do? You're working for the man, they pay your rent, it's not really your responsibility to ensure that your job is environmentally responsible or kind to humans and animals or even legal. Does this sound familiar? Is this logic rational? Do you even think about what you actually do at work and what you're contributing to?

Just so we're clear, if I'm pointing any fingers, there are certainly a few pointing back at me. At my last job, animal testing was done on-site. I found myself in a very uncomfortable moral and financial situation, one shared by a colleague. It all came to head (sorta) when a company memo was circulated that advised employees to be aware that animal rights activists might show up on-site. I asked myself if I could casually walk past a group of like-minded people picketing my building and report to my job. I knew the answer was no and I'm no longer employed there (for other, more pragmatic reasons as well).

Your contribution(s) to the job you hold play(s) a part in the success of whatever entity to which you belong. Your good job, good ideas, and hard work will, generally, have a positive effect on the structure above and below you. If this innovation, perspiration, and motivation is sold to a corporation/company/person who strives for environmental sustainability, community improvement, and/or financial equality than you also own a piece of those good deeds. If, on the other hand, your great work belongs to a company that exploits both people and nature, you, in turn, own a piece of that victimization. It's only fair that it works both ways.

As usual, there is an obstacle to making a career choice like this. There always will be ethical ambiguity in all the choices we make and actions we take. Maybe you decide to take a job with Ford Motor assembling Hybrid Escape SUVs. Every bolt you put in, every battery you connect, and every gauge you install moves this vehicle closer and closer to helping someone fulfill their desire to use less gasoline. On the flip side, every Hybrid Escape sold puts money in the pocket of a company named as one of our country's biggest polluter. What's a conscious citizen to do?

Adding "the fate of the known world" into your considerations for a career is a pretty heavy burden to absorb; you're not going to reverse global warming because you chose a company with fleet cars that had better MPG. You're also not going to feel very socially conscious if after talking up your new Prius purchase you have to admit the monthly payments come from Chevron's pockets.

My overall point is this:
Every choice you make has a potential social, cultural, and environmental impact. The first step is being truly aware of this, the next is actually doing something about it.

From the article, here are a few green career options that have my stamp of approval:

- Furniture making (there are some amazing examples of sustainable furniture designers out there)
- HVAC (if you pick your company wisely)
- Green landscaping (something I'm planning on really getting into when I buy a house [soon] and something that I imagine to be very fulfilling and relaxing)
- Green building (again, you have to be company conscious
- Part-time Chemistry student, part-time marketing coordinator, part-time freelance Technology Coach (not sure I would recommend this route).

What contributes to MPG?

MPG Increases and Decreases Explained

If you are a member of this blog, you certainly have heard a lot about miles per gallon. Maybe I'm talking about triple-digits, maybe I'm complaining about single-digits, maybe I'm talking about my own mediocre numbers. Whatever the reason, if the discussion is about sustainable transportation then the concept of energy efficiency will inevitably surface.

It is fairly simple to point at a big es-yoo-vee and say "yup, low MPG." Most of the time you will be right but what about the mid-sized sedans? The compacts? The sub-compacts? Does same size mean equivalent consumption? You might be surprised by what, exactly, makes up a miles per gallon figure.

I wanted to make my GTI have a little better MPG so I looked into what I might be able to fix or change. Here's what I learned.

There are two different numbers to consider

When you look up the figures for a car, you're going to see two figures (well, three including the "combined" number): city and highway. Here's mine, taken from fueleconomy.gov:


Big difference, right? That's actually a pretty significant gap between the two compared to other cars.

It's good to keep in mind that hybrids are the opposite of this: great mileage in the city but less on the freeway. This is because hybrids benefit from stop and go (it recharges their batteries through regenerative braking) and not so much from cruising long distances (no chance to use the electric motor).

So why the discrepancy?

Why are the numbers so different?

In my quest to find the biggest change I could make on my car to make the biggest difference in miles-per-gallon, I stumbled onto a great article at Tirerack.com. My first idea to raise my efficiency was to change the tires to low-resistance ones. I had seen on many a concept car that they came with tires that were manufactured with a rubber compound that contributed less friction to the whole mess of driving dynamics. Tirerack explains low-resistance tires:

A tire's rolling resistance does affect fuel economy...[low rolling resistance] tires are often designed with a priority on reducing weight and rolling resistance and are molded with slightly thinner sidewalls, shallower tread depths and use low rolling resistance constructions and tread compounds.

Is goes on to summarize, entirely, everything I have an will say in this post in one useful sentence:

A vehicle's fuel economy is the direct result of its total resistance to movement.

Hot damn! It's like Physics all over again!

Inertia is (according to Cutnell & Johnson's "Physics") "the natural tendency of an object to remain at rest or in motion at a constant speed along a straight line." It goes on to say that the "mass of an object is a quantitative measure of inertia." Basically, without some kind of force (generated from some kind of energy output), a banana or a mountain or, I don't know, a car won't move if it it not moving. If it is already moving, it will continue in that direction until some kind of force stops it. Park a car in neutral on a flat spot of pavement and car no go. Push it (calories used from your output), start it up and hit the gas (joules from the gasoline), or stick it in the middle of a hill (good ol' gravity) and now the car is going.


Now, on the freeway, put your car in neutral and what happens? It keeps going but it will eventually stop. Breaking the laws of physics? Nope, just being acted upon by resistance from the wind, your driveline (transmission, etc), and tires.

That's the science, here's the specifics.

MPG on the highway

Unless you're in a hybrid, you're going to find higher miles per gallon as a default. That is, of course, unless you're doing an average of 100MPH every day on the freeway but switch back to Dr. Jekyll on the surface streets. Either way, there are different forces at work on the freeway. Tirerack, again, explains:

Overcoming inertia no longer plays an appreciable role in the vehicle's resistance during steady speed highway driving. For those conditions it is estimated that driveline friction is about 15%; air drag is about 60% and tire rolling resistance represent about 25%.

Keep in mind that we're talking about "resistance to movement" so we're not including engine size or driving style though these both play a big part.

As you can see, air drag is a huge component of freeway MPG. This is a good thing to know, especially those who might have a roof rack on their cars year-round. This also explains why your efficiency goes down as your speed goes up. the faster you go, the most air drag you will need to deal with.

Take-aways:

Reduce drag by removing unnecessary extrusions (roof racks, spoilers, mirrors, antennae, stickers, etc)

Keep your driveline in good shape by staying up on maintenance and replacing brake pads that are making noise continually (these are good things to do regardless)

Look into low resistance tires if you're in the market (stay tuned for more information on this)

City dwellers?

MPG in stop-and-go

Stop-and-go conditions (the kind where you stop and then go... repeatedly) are a totally different bag of beans. Back to Tirerack:

During stop-and-go city driving, it's estimated that overcoming inertia is responsible for about 35% of the vehicle's resistance. Driveline friction is about 45%; air drag is about 5% and tire rolling resistance is about 15%.

To explain: overcoming inertia is getting the vehicle off of its haunches and going. This is, by definition, going to be greatly affected by the weight of the vehicle. Big cars and trucks need big engines to get their big masses going.

Driveline friction, here, clearly makes a much bigger difference than on the freeway. Air drag, unlike on the freeway, is basically nil and the effects of your tires are even less.

Take-aways:

The less you carry around in your car, the better. Ditch the useless crap in the trunk, replace your 4 twelve-inch subwoofers with a pair of tens (please), and lose some weight.

City drivers should be more vigilant about their tune-ups (for many reasons).

Averages

If you average about the same city and highway, here's how the figures break down (simple averages):

Inertia: 17.5%
Driveline friction: 30%
Air resistance: 32.5%
Tires: 20%

Now you know! Stay tuned for more information on tire resistance!

Very important MPG fact to consider...

First things first... this is a very simple concept but the idea to put it into a spreadsheet to illustrate it is NOT my idea. I can't seem to find the original website in the Digg-iverse but I think it is a very important point to make.

If you're reading about the same stuff I am (which I can imagine that you are), you are seeing a lot of stuff about 100, 200, even 300 mpg vehicles being imagined and conceptualized (and built). Personally, I love the idea of extreme ingenuity and material science being applied to sustainable transportation but this kind of research begs the question 'are triple digit MPG cars essential?"

It is quite easy to believe that fuel efficiency has a linear relationship with fuel used but that is not the case. If it were, there would be a point that we would reach where a car is so efficient it begins producing fuel. This can't happen so the relationship is not linear.

When you plug the numbers into a spreadsheet, you see this kind of data:


When you plot MPG (x-axis [bottom]) versus amount of fuel used on a graph, it looks like this:


When you see fuel usage like this, what do you think? Did you understand this concept before now? What implications does it have? Study the numbers and I think you'll see some interesting things...

My salient points:

1) Buying a slightly more efficient SUV makes a BIG difference. If you decided against the 6.2L Chevy Tahoe (12 MPG city) and went with the 5.3L version instead, you'd save almost 180 gallons of fuel and $580. If I wanted to save that by buying a new car to replace what I have, I would have to get 35 MPG (like a Camry Hybrid) or five times the increase in gas mileage.

2) Big changes in the low end of things makes a huge difference. If I opted for the Tahoe Hybrid over the aforementioned 6.2L option, I would save 536 gallons of gas at about $1,700 a year.

3) My friend who bought a Camry Hybrid to replace his Ford Explorer (getting 9 MPG [had to be one part poor Ford MPG, one part lunatic driving style, and one part mechanical problem of some sort]) is saving 1,200 gallons of gas per year and almost $4,000. That's over $300 per month or a significant portion of his car payment, I imagine.

4) If you drive an SUV, remember that every little MPG helps. If your EPA MPG rating is 14 but you drive more aggressively than others, you're probably getting more like 11 or 12 and costing yourself over $700 per year to drive like that.

5) Buying an Element is going to cost me an extra $185 per year (57 gallons of gas). Reaching my 30 MPG goal while keeping the car is going to save me $356 (110 gallons of gas). *sigh*

Honda! Make it damn hybrid already, will ya?!?!

Cool cats!

Russ from the RI high school project I posted about below wrote back!

I can sense and understand the frustration that the technology for many of the alternative energy applications is already here and just needs to be mass produced and applied. The gap between fuel cell hype and availability/visibility led us to create the band with the simple vision: here is a fuel cell, here it is powering a rock and roll band.

He sounds like a great man championing a great cause. Check out their website:

Fuel cell band and Model T

Hot looking ride!

The first time I've ever been sad I don't live in OC

Free to a good home: Fuel cell vehicles

Also the first time I would seriously consider a GM product.

Starting this month, in what will be the largest real-world test of fuel-cell passenger vehicles, GM's Project Driveway program is seeking good homes for 100 fuel-cell versions of its Equinox SUV. (Honda, by contrast, has leased just two of its FCX fuel-cell cars to customers.)

Pick me, pick me! I'll love that ugly Equinox like it was my own!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I wouldn't typically post one of these home-town, feel good stories but this is GREAT.

Model T Fuel Cell hot rod

What is it?

a black hydrogen fuel-cell engine roughly the size of a suitcase is being prepared for installation in a red 1992 replica of a 1923 Ford Model T

Tres chic. Who is involved?

The project has been an eye opener for Sullivan [GrandPTA member and electrical engineer] and Lewis [student dad extraordinaire and mechanic], who respectively have spent 54 and 25 years devoted to cars.

“We got the tools to do something and instigate change,” Lewis said. “We’re also wondering: why isn’t everyone else as invested into ending the curse of oil?

“If we can do this in Jim’s garage, what’s the holdup here?”

They sound like some hep cats. What else?

In 2003, students hooked up a guitar amplifier to a fuel cell, leading to the creation of a fuel-cell-powered band, Protium, named after a hydrogen isotope. The band has played gigs at fuel cell and hydrogen conventions at such places as the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., Miami and Hollywood.

Cooler than cool itself. Where was this again?

The project is the brainchild of Ross “Mad Dog” McCurdy, a Ponaganset High School science teacher who has taught a class about fuel cells and other renewable energy technologies for four years.

A support email is on its way... join me?

rkmccurdy@yahoo.com

The innovation, passion and ingenuity that alternative fuel inspires in people seems perpetually able to impress me and motivate me further. The kids involved, thanks to these awesome guys in Rhode Island, will never think the same about where their energy comes from. They turned an idealistic political movement into a fun, exciting project to garner attention for a very important cause. It is this type of intelligence and compassion that will drive our eventual switch to a better power source. There really can be no other way!

ROCK ON PONGNA... umm... PAGNO... no... PONAGANSET!