Companies are doing their part in society’s concern for taking care of the earth by creating environmentally friendly technology, products and innovations.
EasyJet, Wright Electric, Tesla, Toyota and more are creating eco-friendly planes and cars in order to encourage people and competing companies to foster a more environmentally safe ecosystem.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the word “emissions” is used to describe the gases and particles released into the air.
These emissions are incredibly dangerous for the environment because they increase the levels of harmful gases present in the air.
By creating more options for eco-friendly cars and planes, the smog problem could be minimized and important advancements could be made toward a cleaner and safer environment.
Companies such as Tesla are actively producing vehicles that reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the air. Tesla features a live count on its website to allow people to see the total tons of carbon dioxide being saved by the company’s customers.
Though the 2 billion tons of dangerous gases being saved by Tesla’s environmentally clean vehicles is appealing, most cannot afford a relatively expensive car such as a Tesla.
Toyota also offers environmentally efficient models for a more reasonable price, compared to other eco-friendly car companies, for a middle-class customer. Toyota offers 14 hybrid models, and the company stated its goal by 2050 is to eliminate almost all CO2 emissions from new Toyota vehicles.
“We’re working today to explore and innovate advanced vehicle technologies that move our fleet toward zero emissions — like next-generation hybrids and zero emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicles,” said Toyota in a statement released on the company’s website.
Wright Electric is starting to build battery-powered planes for a budget airline called Easy-Jet.
“As technology moves on, attitudes shift, ambitions change and you see opportunities you didn’t see,” said Peter Duffy, EasyJet’s chief commercial officer in an interview with The Telegraph. “This is genuinely exciting.”
Within 20 years, Wright Electric plans to release a battery- powered plane that is 50 percent quieter and 10 percent cheaper.
Reise Lenders, junior aviation flight major, expressed his interest in the idea of a battery- powered plane.
“There’s no reason why you wouldn’t want to fly a plane like that. You can get up to speed and up to your higher altitude faster. Also, it reduces noise so residents won’t complain as much about noise pollution,” Lenders said.
With the battery-powered planes and the plans to eliminate all CO2 emissions being made in the distant future, many feel that the advancements are too late.
“I’m for going green but with regulations,” said Briana Lingad, junior environmental science major. “It’s difficult to do stuff like that. It’s not financially beneficial for a lot of big companies to go green now so they won’t. They are only thinking short-term profit so they end up depleting the resources of the environment so it ends up being more harmful.
The progress being made toward going green isn’t moving at a fast enough pace to where it is actually helping the environment.”
Though changes to create a more green environment are being implemented for the future, people can do their part in preserving the Earth by using less plastic, reducing the use of water and recycling when possible.
