Environment: Don’t be idle

Turn off the ignition for your health, climate and pocketbook

By Addy Malinowski and Libby Coltea EBS CONTRIBUTORS

It turns out one of the simplest things an individual can do for the climate doesn’t involve washing out a single can or hauling cardboard to the dump. Refraining from idling your vehicle only takes a second—and at Big Sky Resort, if you don’t do it, people will definitely notice. 

“If we see it, we will pull the keys from company vehicles left running,” says Amy Fonte, sustainability specialist at the resort. Fonte explains that Big Sky has had a no-idling policy for employees for the last three years as part of its 2030 net zero carbon emissions plan, known as The Forever Project. According to Fonte, anytime that you leave a vehicle on and unmoving for more than 30 seconds you are both wasting fuel and money, and unnecessarily adding carbon and air pollutants to the atmosphere. 

Fonte says that turning off cars rather than idling will reduce their carbon emissions by an extensive amount. She strongly believes that keeping cars running increases economic, health-related and environmental costs. Turning a key is also one of the easiest things you can do for your pocketbook and the air. 

“Honestly, it’s just turning off your car if you are stopped for more than ten seconds,” Fonte said. But as simple as it seems, Fonte admits the initiative wasn’t immediately accepted by everyone. “There are a lot of myths about cars needing more time to warm up their engines, and we have done our best to educate people about how this simply is not true,” she said. 

“Many people also think you use more gas and wear out the engine more by turning a car on and off,” explains Fonte, but extensive research proves this isn’t true—unless you are driving a car manufactured before 1984. Almost 30 years ago, car manufacturers switched to a more efficient engine technology that didn’t require time to warm up an engine before driving. Now, it is better for the car to start driving immediately, and it actually wears out the engine to idle for extended periods. Furthermore, those idling minutes add up: Argonne Laboratory estimates that every year, U.S. drivers waste more than 6 billion gallons of fuel by idling—this adds up to more than $20 billion to consumers every year. 

There are also health costs: According to the Environmental Defense Fund, sitting inside an idling car not only harms the greater environment, but damages passengers’ health as well. When sitting in an idling car, the exhaust fumes from your car leak into the cabin concentrating in the air you are breathing inside.

Furthermore, many people idle cars while waiting to pick up kids at school, or leave kids in cars that are idling to keep them warm, exposing young lungs to air pollution, a proven cause of childhood asthma. Diesel school buses, which often idle, are proven health hazards both to kids inside and outside buses, according to extensive study by the National Institutes of Health. 

The effects of air pollution are extreme for all. It is known as “the silent killer” for a reason. Air pollution has been classified as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization right alongside things we know cause cancer such as UV rays and tobacco. Breathing in air pollution for prolonged periods of time can increase the chances of stroke, heart disease, and even cancer. Half of the nitrogen oxides in the air come from cars, and according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, vehicle exhaust has “adverse impacts on every system in the body.” 

These risks are particularly elevated for people who work near idling cars such as bank and fast food drive-thru employees, and outside “quick stops” such as preschools, schools and post offices. Advocates for turning the key on car idling point out that simply going inside to find warmth is better for your health and others’ than staying outside in an idling car, and point out that “quick trips” that people leave their car idling for are often much longer stops than drivers predict. 

Finally, there’s the long-term risks of car exhaust. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, transportation is the largest source of heat-trapping emissions in the United States. 

Fonte agrees, noting that transportation emissions is one of the biggest categories Big Sky Resort is targeting in its climate plan, and an important part of Big Sky SNO’s message to the community. 

Addy Malinowski and Libby Coltea are local high school students, founders of Big Sky Students for SNO, and are launching a new community-wide initiative this winter called “Don’t Be Idle.” They are working on initiatives with fellow student Frieda Fabozzi to replace gas school buses with electric buses for the Big Sky School District.