Earth Hour My Way
Last year I fully participated in Earth Hour. I turned off the power strips to my microwave, entertainment center, and anything else normally drawing power. Now that is the norm - when they aren't in use, they are off. Therefore, the only gain this year would be to turn off my computer and the lamp in this room. Not a great energy saving for one hour. Instead, I'm going to use this hour that can hopefully make a longer term impact. I'm going to post my five suggestions (all of which I follow myself) that I would like all of you to consider doing to help the environment year round. Then I'm going to tell you about my 5 goals for this upcoming year (until next Earth Hour) that I plan to do. If there is any time left over, I'm going to start on my goals which I know will involve some research.
Easy Power Savings for Everyone
1) Install surge protectors with an easily accessible on/off switch. Phantom power usage is where electronics draw energy even though they are off or in standby mode. Depending on how many electronics you have, this can get expensive and is wasteful to the environment. By installing just a couple surge protectors (which you should have on all expensive electronics anyways) in places where you can turn them off when not in use you can reduce your daily energy consumption. I've done this for nearly a year now and it has just become a minor part of my habit. I also think it has additional benefits of making me think twice before mindlessly turning on the TV and watching whatever is on "just cuz."
2) Install CFL light bulbs. The state of the art has come a long way on these. They no longer have the strange coloring effects and many places now recycle them. For those of you in the Charlottesville area, the McEntire Recycling center takes them.
3) Air dry more clothes. Even energy effecient clothes dryers consume a great deal of electricity where as air drying clothes is free (once you get a couple racks). I'm not suggesting you airdry all of your clothes because even I enjoy the nice soft socks and towels. However, things like shirts and pants can come out soft even when air drying. Especially many of the synthentic shirts which can come out of the wash nearly dry as is. Plus, not exposing the clothes to harsh heat can help them last longer, thus reducing the over all energy consumption to make and purchase new clothes.
4) Keep you fridge full - but it doesn't have to be food. During my 100 kWh challenge one of the suggestions was to keep my fridge full since air does not do a great job retaining the cool temperature. Since then, I've been filling it up with bottles of water. One of the plastic items I still get regularly are gatoraid bottles. When I'm done with gatoraid, I fill them up with water and place them back in the fridge. I have noticed the compressor on my fridge run less regularly and thus saving electricity.
5) Stay inspired and committed. Like most things, if you don't make it part of your daily life, then the short term gains don't mean very much (thus why turning off power for just an hour isn't enough in my opinion). I stay inspired by following a variety of blogs. I learn new things I can do but also have the support of people doing similar things to myself. The blogs Include (by not limited to):
- Crunchy Chicken who sponsors various challenges such as the "Freeze Yer Buns Challenge" which I took part in.
- Fake Plastic Fish who tallies all the plastic she uses every week and talks about alternatives to plastic use (which is very inefficient to make for one time use)
- Wisebread who mixes both personal finance and the envrionment.
- The Good Human who provides environmental news and my favorite - a weekly article on "Greenwashing."
My Goals for the Upcoming Year
1) Learn to cook at least 3 Indian dishes. My comfort food of choice is to buy prepackaged Indian meals which I just microwave and put over rice. The downside to them is that they are made in India which means transportation pollutation, and they come in a plastic sleeve inside a cardboard box. I can recycle the box, but the plastic always gets thrown away. Therefore, I'd like to be able to make some basic meals that are less wasteful. Even if I have to use some of the sauces those at least come in glass (easily recyclable) and some are made in VA (which means less transportation).
2) Eat more local food. The Cville farmers maket starts up again next week. Instead of having my produce flown in from California or further, I can get items grown locally and support my region. I hope to be able to bike or take the bus there, but if I find that isn't working well I will adjust my triathlon training so that my swimming coinsides with market times so I just have to make a single trip down there.
3) Become more vocal and active about power saving at work. Since I really can't cut out much more electricity use at home short of unplugging the fridge, I will focus efforts on my electricity usage contribution at work. Currently, if I'm away from my computer for a meeting (which happens far too regularly) I already turn off my monitor. I'm not sure what steps I will be able to make, but this will be an action in progress. Some thoughts that are floating through my mind:
+ Question the use of the projector. Do we really need to project something for this meeting, or can we just talk about it?
+ Actively turn off lights of rooms not in use. We're already really good about doing this for conference rooms, but I notice our "gym" lights almost always on but no one is in there.
+ Print less papers myself and encourage my team to do the same.
4) Carefully consider new purchases. When purchasing a new item, I will try to consider what the entire lifecycle of the product including where it was made, the environmental practices of the company who makes and sell it, and what will happen to the product when I'm done using it. I've already started doing this for food where I will favor food that comes in recycable containers and is made locally (jams, salsa, milk, etc). However, for more day to day products I haven't considered this as much. My shampoo, laundry detergent, dvds, most other things come in plastic containers. If I can find alternatives I will. If not, I will start questioning if I actually need the product or could do without.
5) Acting locally. Most efforts I have made have been personal and only effect how I live. For this truly to work, everyone needs to take part. I don't know quite where to begin with this, but over the course of the upcoming year I'd like to find ways to get more people acting environmentally. My readership here is limited and to some extend I'm preaching to the choir. So I will see what opportunities exist in the community. Whether it be organizing a letter writing campaign when stores keep their doors open in the summer letting out AC into the streets, or volunteer with groups with local environmental purposes.
As if you can't tell, I love talking about this topic so if you ever want to discuss it more I'd be more than happy to hear what you have to say and how we can help the planet.