Save the World in Three Moves or Less

[EarthFriendly]

I thought it would be cool to provide an area for people to post suggestions for being more environmentally responsible. I apologize if this has already been done, but I didn't see a sticky or something in the first pages of the Environmental Discussion forum. Here's two that my wife and I just started doing recently:

1) We no longer use our dishwasher. We found ourselves washing our dishes (or at least pre-washing) and then putting them in the dishwasher and washing them again. Now we just wash them well in the sink and put them in the dishwasher to air-dry.

2) For 50 cents, IKEA sells large, reusable recycled plastic bags (like rice bags) that are perfect for groceries. We bought three for each car and no longer use plastic or paper bags at the grocery store.

[Godiva]

1. String bags instead of plastic or paper.

2. Compact Fluorescents. "Solatube" tubular skylight in kitchen: no need to turn on lights during the day.

3. Programable thermostat, programable drip irrigation.

4. Reduce, reuse, recycle. More gets put in the blue recycle bin. I repair instead of replace when at all possible.

5. Online banking/billpay: no more stamps, envelopes or checks.

6. Online news: no more newspaper subscription.

7. Canceled TV Guide: get my programming online at network websites.

8. Anticipate permission to turn on Photovoltaic System this week.

[tballx]

Wow. Ok.

For short trips, I ride a bicycle or walk.

We use cloth bags at the grocery store.

I buy wind from these guys, carbon offsets for the Prius here and also from my own PUD. At its worst I think of it as a charitable contribution with no tax break.

We buy some second hand clothing.

We eat less beef. The beef we eat is mostly from a local farmer. We buy a 1/4 cow per year and freeze it. We also get our produce from him too. All of his products are very competitively priced as well.

We order milk from a local dairy farm.

Our waste management company offers free composting of most food waste as well as yard waste.

I got rid of my power mower and got a reel mower. The blades are supposed to stay sharpened for 7 years. We'll see.

I've changed out all but a handful of bulbs to CFLs. Even the wife doesn't mind them anymore.

All of our new appliances we purchase are energy star certified. (By the way, my understanding is an energy star dishwasher is more efficient in terms of combined energy/water usage than washing by hand these days and more sanitary).

Water heater is at 120 degrees.

I unplug appliances when not in use. Even my toaster.

I run my home networking equipment on an outlet timer so that it all shuts down at night.

I use a car wash instead of washing in my driveway.

I've installed low flow shower heads that operate at 1.7gpm.

I use these guys to reduce my junk mail. They even provide me with pre-printed signature cards to send to direct marketing companies to remove my name from their lists. So far, it appears to be working.

Next up super toilets!

I'm also thinking about this because I can't yet fund a solar set up except with debt.

[chogan]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EarthFriendly @ Sep 4 2007, 11:36 PM) [snapback]507134[/snapback]</div>

I thought it would be cool to provide an area for people to post suggestions for being more environmentally responsible. I apologize if this has already been done, but I didn't see a sticky or something in the first pages of the Environmental Discussion forum. Here's two that my wife and I just started doing recently:

1) We no longer use our dishwasher. We found ourselves washing our dishes (or at least pre-washing) and then putting them in the dishwasher and washing them again. Now we just wash them well in the sink and put them in the dishwasher to air-dry.

2) For 50 cents, IKEA sells large, reusable recycled plastic bags (like rice bags) that are perfect for groceries. We bought three for each car and no longer use plastic or paper bags at the grocery store.
[/b]

I'll stick with three, beyond "drive a fuel-efficient car", which I'd say is assumed here on Priuschat.

1) Buy clean electricity. Yeah, you can start with routine energy savers (CFLs, efficient appliances, turn off items not in use, and so on). You can make your own clean electricity with photovoltaics or other sources. But in many states theres a vastly easier solution, which is to buy clean electricity. Why go to the hassle f producing clean energy when you can just buy it? In Virginia, the only skill you need is the ability to shop on the internet. I signed up to buy the output of a wind farm in Pennsylvania. It costs me about a dollar a day more than regular electricity. My electricity is now essentially carbon-free, at least in theory. For me it was kind of a put-your-money-where-your-mouth is test of belief in the need to curb GHGs. And unlike purchased carbon offsets (where in many cases I think the purchase may result in no or negligible offset), I'm actually buying the output of the green energy producer and displacing fossil-fuel-fired kilowatts. In one stroke, pollution from my electrical use is (in theory) more-or-less eliminated. And now, I'm hoping to move (have an offer on a house) to a house with a great big ground-source ("geothermal") heat pump. If I buy the house, I'll heat and cool with wind electricity, and have essentially zero operating carbon footprint for heating and cooling the house. How cool is that? Not a zero-energy building, which gets all the splash these days, but a zero-carbon building, and it's a retrofit on a 50-year-old house.

Anyway, at least here in Virginia, the program that allows you to buy wind power is practically unknown. I wouldn't have known about it if another Priuschatter hadn't mentioned it.

2) If you eat meat, eat local grass-fed beef, or at least avoid grocery store beef. The fossil-fuel inputs to the typical American diet are pretty astounding, with grain-fed beef being by far the worst offender. Cut that out and substitute something that requires less carbon input. Just in general be aware that the food you eat may embody more fossil-fuel use than the car you drive.

3) Stop watching TV. Thrift and other economically conservative behavior are not un-American, they are just contrary to TV-based American popular culture. Throw away your TV, then ask "how much do I need" before you ask "how much can I get". For cars, toys, entertainment, vacation, clothing, food, you name it.

Mainly, I guess I am appalled at the size of houses going up in my neighborhood. Across my back lot line, they are tearing down a house like mine (small '50's rambler) to put up an 8000 sq ft mcmansion. For comparison, Mount Vernon is 10,000 sq ft including the basement and the attic. Ignore the basement, and the house going up in my backyard is bigger than the house George Washington lived in. And it will of course be filled with all the features now required in new housing. Heaven forbid I should make a peanut butter sandwich on anything less than a granite countertop. And I would be ashamed to park my be-hind in anything less than the vulgar deluxe bathrooms that are mandatory in all new home construction here. Whereas I'm pretty sure Washington used an outhouse. So, yeah, people's tastes may vary, but I think new home construction, in this area at least, shows some screwed up values, and reflects the tastes of people who only ask how much they can get, not how much they need.

[Ichabod]

1. Vegetarian or even vegan diet.
2. LED lights instead of those power-hungry CFLs (ok, so I haven't made that switch on a large scale yet)
3. Get off the addiction to disposable goods. If you're considering buying something that has only 1 use and then goes in the trash, reconsider. This includes packaging for goods, e.g. grocery bags, fast food containers, bottled or canned drinks etc., but extends to products higher on the product food-chain.... although I still buy canned drinks sometimes because my wife uses the aluminum in sculpture casting

[TonyPSchaefer]

My wife and I recycle heavily which is facilitated by our community's collection practice. But where she works, there is no recycling. For that reason, she takes paper bags to work and encourages her coworkers to place their recyclables in the bags. She brings them home and throws them into our recycling bin.

I'm sure that none of our neighbors notice that our recycling bin goes out almost every week but our trash bin goes out (half-empty) every other week.

[Ichabod]

That's funny TPS, we're the same; overflowing recycle bin, and a quarter-barrel of trash per week. Composting all compostable food waste also reduces our trash output, and makes our garden grow spectacularly!

I'm also annoyed at my workplace for not recycling. I've brought it up with my boss, and he shrugs it off like "what good will that do?"

[echase]

Modern dishwashers use less water than hand washing, unless you pre-rinse. Setting them to air dry is a must for energy savings (they superheat the water, so they do use more electricity, and if you are in a warm climate that extra heat also adds to your AC bill)

Which brings me to INSULATION. This was a huge energy saver for us. Replace single pane windows with double (or triple) pane insulated windows, added energy saving films to the outside, and purchased heavy drapes for added insulation at night in the winter, and afternoon in summer. Since heating and colling a home often accounts for 50% of the home's energy use this was a top priority (but a bit costly).

CFL light bulbs have a triple savings built in. They last longer (and MUST be recycled, due to high mercury content), so they cut down on landfill use. They put out less heat, so they cut down on your air conditioning bill. (A 100 watt light bulb actually costs 150watts of electricity to use when your home is air conditioned) Oh, and they use a lot less power.

We recycle everything allowable (with two trash bins in every location in the house).

We purchase second-hand things whenever practical. This is recycling in it's purest form, and it saves money for stuff like retrofitting the house. Yes, I feel like I'm slumming when I drive up to the goodwill in my $30,000 car, but when I walk out with three new shirts for like $10 bucks, and the awareness that three less shirts will have to be grown, sewn, dyed, shipped, warehoused, etc I feel better about it. It's also very satisfying to find that one great thing amongst the seas of crap you find at thrift stores.

Oh, and I vote, and encourage others to do the same.

[4futrgens]

1. Use a small tub of soapy water and a sponge or cloth to wash your dishes, and use running water only to final rinse. Works like a charm and uses less water than a newer dishwasher.

2. Use hankies and cloth napkins.

3. Cloth feminine and baby products. You always hear about the cloth diaper, but not the cloth feminine napkin. More comfy!

[darelldd]

1. Don't drive an automobile.
2. Vote against corporate take-over of our public sector.
3. Move to Florida and repeat #2.

Environmental damage is rarely considered when the goal is to turn a profit while paying insane CEO salaries. Saving energy/pollution at home is WONDERFUL. Fixing the problem nationally is gonna make the biggest dent - and of course is way harder. And the way to do that is to stop handing our public well-being over to the privatizers.