FOR VERMONT TOWN ENERGY COMMITTEES:
Smart Driving-Every Mile Counts© project: presentations offered for
Vermont Town Energy Committee workshops for 2026!
Green Driving America Inc., is a California-based 501c3 nonprofit with a branch location in Hyde Park, Vermont. It advocates for and educates on transportation efficiency and clean transportation. Green Driving America executive director, Wayne Michaud, founded the organization as Idle-Free VT in 2006 and much of its operation continues to be in Vermont.
Smart Driving-Every Mile Counts is a developing project with a rollout anticipated for 2026. Funding will be sought for a project that will work with Vermont TECs to give 10 to 15 webinar or in-person presentations that will primarily show Vermont drivers smart driving tips for light-duty internal combustion engine vehicles*. Among these will be behavior oriented tips, such as ACCELERATE AND BRAKING SMOOTHLY, WATCH SPEED, and AVOID UNNECESSARY IDLING. We will even show how smart driving goes hand-in-hand with plug-in vehicle range optimization.
*We are aware of TECs' important work in getting the word out to their constituents on the need to reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and energy waste in the transportation sector, especially with clean transportation and alternative forms of transportation. We are offering to raise awareness of and make a difference with what is still the primary mode of transportation by Vermonters (and for all other states): traditional internal combustion engine vehicles, which, as of 2023, the U.S. DOE has identified as more than 90% of the vehicles on Vermont's roads, as opposed to vehicles that release less tailpipe emissions or none at all: hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and all-electrics.
SMART DRIVING TIPS SLIDESHOW CONTENT (more details on the Smart Driving-Every Mile Counts project webpage):
• Accelerate and brake smoothly
• Watch speed
• Avoid unnecessary idling
• Reduce weight and drag
• Proper tire inflation
• Perform tune-ups/maintenance
• Use air conditioning selectively
• Smart driving tips for plug-in vehicles
• PLUS: two videos
Our presentation can be given as a webinar or in-person that can be standalone or part of a workshop. It is intended to be about 45-minutes: a 30-minute slideshow, including two videos, and a discussion period. It can be given by a knowledgeable guest speaker, such as a member of a Vermont organization that is partnering with Green Driving America, and/or by a TEC member.
FUNDING OF THIS PROJECT IN 2026 WILL BE SOUGHT, BASED ON YOUR INTEREST
This fall, we are reaching out to Vermont Town Energy Committee members throughout Vermont in consideration of interest in hosting a Smart Driving-Every Mile Counts presentation in your town. Funding of this project will enable these presentations to be at no cost to TECs. We will inform you when a grant has been awarded for this project.
For questions and/or to indicate interest in a presentation in 2026,
please contact Green Driving America executive director Wayne Michaud at info@greendrivingamerica.org
Emphasis is placed on the economic benefits of coasting gradually to traffic lights that have turned red instead of accelerating to them (and further, that sometimes vehicle momentum can be maintained by not stopping when the light turns green). A hypothesis of this practice in encountering five red lights daily shows 75¢ can be saved: five nickels in fuel economy; five dimes in brake wear. Employing this practice over 300 days of driving in a year can save $225.
Slide from the Smart Driving-Every Mile Counts presentation:
SMART DRIVING TIP: Accelerate and Brake Smoothly
All Green Driving America Inc. projects are proprietary including content and materials; permission must be obtained for use of any materials.