Some thirty years ago, a consumer-focused concept known as “Avoid-Shift-Improve” came out of the German environmental movement. The idea was that people and their purchasing decisions, rather than corporations, would ultimately and successfully drive action on environmental concerns. Initially, A-S-I was aimed at changes within the transportation sector, but it eventually spread to many products around the globe. Today, A-S-I is commonplace in all sorts of advertising.
Putting it in terms of our Better Fuels Initiative, avoid means to reduce how much petroleum we use in motor vehicles. Shift means switching to cleaner-burning, bio-based fuel ethanol used in Unleaded 88 E15 and E85 flex fuels. If you’ve already switched away from gasoline, it also reminds us to maintain that use of renewable fuels. Last, but not least, improve means purchasing that higher fuel economy model (fueled with E15, of course!) or a flex fuel vehicle (FFV) when it’s time to replace your old gas-guzzler.
Making a Clean Air Choice®
April 2022 is proclaimed Earth Month by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz
The American Lung Association in Minnesota (ALAMN) took a similar approach in the 1990s when asking consumers to use oxygenated E10 gasoline to reduce high wintertime carbon monoxide levels in our state’s urban areas Duluth, Rochester, Saint Cloud and Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Better fuel helped solve that problem.
By 2000, ALAMN was leading the nationally-recognized public-private Clean Air Choice Team and Minnesota Clean Cities Coalition. Once again, consumer-driven “pull” was used to establish fueling stations and promoting the use of the gasoline alternative E85 in the tens of millions of FFVs that eventually hit U.S. roadways.
Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement has been achieved, but we have far to go. Roughly 70% of the gasoline and diesel Minnesotans buy is still sourced in the Tar Sands of Alberta, Canada. That strip-mined petroleum is the most carbon-, energy- and water-intensive oil on Earth. We can and must do better.
Earth Day Reminder
For Earth Day 2022 we encourage you to think again on Clean Air Choice. Maintain those good steps you’ve already taken, and, if you haven’t yet shifted to Unleaded 88, today would be a good day to start.