Vehicle-derived pollutants are becoming a major environmental and health factor in most of our nation's large cities. As it stands, roughly 30 percent of Denver's atmospheric CO2 is blamed on automobile emissions. In response to these alarming figures, the city's Mayor John W. Hickenlooper and his staff have joined forces with a green Internet solutions firm Enviance to kick off the DrivingChange hi-tech environmental initiative.

The pilot program will target city employees, citizens and corporate fleets with an innovative platform for measuring their vehicles' impact on the local ecosystem. Vehicles of participating motorists will be equipped with the "Accel 2" accelerometer and an Enfora MT-GL wireless data modem. When the car is in motion, the accelerometer measures its G force output and transfers the numbers to the Enfora. The wireless modem then processes operational time, idle time, event time, mileage and other information and transmits it through the cell phone data network to the DrivingChange network operations center.

System installation takes only 30 minutes and, once in place, the device only communicates data on the driving patterns that contribute to the production of CO2. Collected stats will then be used to identify and develop strategies for reducing idling, speeding, hard breaking, and fast starts.