350

Discover why the number 350 is so important to our Earth.

Things we've done to green our lives, or "What can I do right now to go green??"

Our family is committed to greening itself, one day at a time, and one step at a time. As we learn, we adopt and are in the process of changing. I have three kids (ages 4, 7 and 9), so there are limits to the inconveniences that we can tolerate. When we began this commitment, I was under the impression that everything we did to become green would necessarily involve inconvenience and sacrifice.
I was wrong.
In fact, many of the items involved little or no sacrifice, and less cost than I anticipated. Here is a list of activities that we've been able to do over the past two years to help green our household a little bit. Have a look and see if there are any ideas that you can do. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to add them. We are always looking for more affordable ideas.

• Turned down the hot water heater. From near boiling to just very warm.
• Replaced incandescent lightbulbs with compact flourescents
• Installed a clothesline, and we are using it regularly, as weather permits
• Ride the old moped or bike to work, as weather and responsibilities permit
• Moderating my driving habbits, consolidating trips
• Turned down the heat in the winter, and turned up the air conditioning in the summer.
• Switch to recycled toilet paper and paper towels
• Patronizing the local farmer's market (its very small here, but we want to support it).
• Cancelled delivery of our local newspaper, choosing instead to subscribe to the online edition. This saves the environmental costs of the paper and recycling chore, while keeping our house less cluttered and giving us faster access to the news.
• Buy Rainforest Alliance Certified and organic coffee, in the hopes of encouraging sustainable and responsible coffee production.
• We refuse to buy bottled water.
• We can compost most of our food leftovers and coffee rinds, but its hard to do this in our harsh winters.
• Finding locally produced products and substituting where possible. So far, we have our favorite local brands of maple syrup, eggs, butter, bread, milk and honey
• Bought LED Christmas lights (and solar Christmas lights that work much better in Summer than in the winter's here) and retired the old Christmas lights.
• A rabid recycling commitment, and reusing containers.
• Committed to not buying a new car until we can get a plug-in hybrid
• Am much more conscientious about turning off lights when not in use
• Returned nearly 3/4 acre of our 2 acre yard back to nature. In its 3rd year, we are now enjoying a beautiful meadow with a diversity of native plants and grasses
• Planted 5 trees, with plans for more. These were all transplanted volunteer trees that were growing wild on our property, or on friend's property.
• Bought some nice indoor plants
• Vacationing locally with the kids (except for our big trip to England planned for August. What can I say, my wife is British and we haven't been there for 4 years).
• Planted a vegetable garden (not going very well... Oh well.)
• Preferring organic food products when we go shopping
• Trying to get more use out of the things that we have
• Donating as much as possible to second-hand thrift stores for re-use
• Added the wind-power option to our electric utility bill
• Built a rain garden to hold water run off and replenish the local water table
• Harvesting rainwater for use on our flowers
• Mulching our flowerbeds using locally produced, unpackaged, free mulch offered by our county
• Mulching grass, not bagging. Trying to go longer between mowing applications
• Have cut way back on lawn maintenance, and am trying not to be too anal about the yard
• Continue to read about new technologies and follow the blogs of thoughtleaders, such as noimpactman.com
• Have become vocal to my congress people on issues relating to alternative energy and environmental protection
• Am trying to impart green values to my kids.
• Learning that my green values are also Christian values
• Shifted personal retirement account investments to favor alternative energy and socially responsible companies
• We have joined organizations that are doing activities we support. If they're willing to do the heavy lifting, we think they should be supported. Nature Conservancy and Clean Water Action are two of many.
• Upgraded our old appliances, and always look for the Energy Star label
• Believe it or not, our new 42" LCD flatscreen TV uses about 1/3 less electricity than our old 32" tube TV. 250 watts vs 400 watts. Of course, no TV is best. But we havent been able to go cold turkey. We've opted out of cable TV (that was easy to do) but the kids still need a movie once in awhile on cold winter days, or when dad desperately needs a break.
• Run the dishwasher at night to reduce electrical grid load. We set the dishwasher to "air dry" to reduce electrical use
• Flushing the toilet only once a week (just kidding)

All told, we spend about $7 per month extra on wind electricity, and probably $8 a month extra on coffee, and maybe $2 per month extra on eggs. These costs have been mostly offset by cancelling the physical delivery of the newspaper. The recycled TP is about the same cost, if not cheaper, than the non-recycled stuff. The entire effort has really not added much expense at all to our expenses, and may in fact be saving us money. Dollar savings, while important to many people, is not our largest concern. We would do these things anyway out of our conscience.

So as you can see, there are many things that can be done right away to start greening your life, and it will probably even save you some green.

Our situation is that we are living in Minnesota on a 2 acre lot in a small county subdivision just outside of a city of about 40,000 people. So "country" to me means something different than "country" to someone living in, say, Chicago. Here, we can live in the country and still bike the 6 to 8 miles to work. We do, however, have many of the high carbon trappings that country life requires: the SUV (snow plow service is iffy in the winter), gas powered lawn tools (lawn tractor, hedge trimmer, weedwacker). There's no substitute for city apartment living to reduce your carbon foot print. For better or worse, this is our situation and we're going to do the best we can to reduce our energy usage.

Have fun, God Bless, and thanks for reading.

The old Sachs moped rolls again

Sachs Moped 1979
Originally uploaded by mymountain

Just got the 30-year old Sachs moped back from the shop and rode it to work today. I love driving it.

I see ads everywhere today for mopeds and scooters that get up to 100 miles per gallon. Considering that my Sachs gets 150 mpg, I wonder why 30 years of innovation has not brought about better fuel efficiency for scooters.

I'd love to have one of these hot new electric scooters, just as I would love to have a phev electric car.

Until I find the products on the market that I actually want to buy, I've decided to forgo small incremental benefits. I'll drive the old Mountaineer until I can trade for a PHEV. And I'll drive the old Sachs moped until I can get a 300 mpg scooter, or a semi-affordable electric scooters.

Where is my PHEV Plug-in Electric Hybrid?

It has been six months since I last blogged about buying a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Nothing available yet on the market, as far as I can tell. I have decided to continue driving my gas sucking Mountaineer for now.

Why keep driving the Mountaineer (13 mpg) instead of chuck it for a new hybrid? Well, here's my thinking:
1. There was a tremendous amount of energy used to produce my car, and to produce a hybrid. At this point, so much damage has been done, I think the poor mileage is the least of the problem.
2. Demand for hybrids is going up with the price of gas. This is a good thing. I feel no immediate imperative to increase the market for a hybrid at this exact moment. It feels as though it has momentum.
3. The car that I want, a PHEV, is not on the market. I don't want to reward the auto manufacturers by buying a vehicle that is not what I want. When a PHEV comes on the market, I will be first in line to demand it. By that time, the useful life of my Mountaineer should be about over.
4. I think its a good idea to drive cars into the ground. I think its a poor example to trade a virtually new car for a slightly newer car. Its poor financial stewardship, and poor environmental stewardship, since it rewards auto producers by driving production of new cars while flooding the secondary market unnecessarily, thereby reducing the value of autos in the resale market.
5. Did I say that the car I want is a PHEV? Why buy a new hybrid, and then buy another one in a few years.

I'm ashamed I bought my Mountaineer in 2005. It was more car than I needed, and I knew about the lousy mileage. Honestly, $4 a gallon is not that big a deal for me. I can afford to drive it all the way up to $10 a gallon. But what I can afford is not the point; it's what I'm willing to do. The auto makers are way behind what I am willing to do for the environment, and I simply will not buy another new car that reflects Detroit's values more than my own.

I want a PHEV, or EV, and that is what my next vehicle is going to be.

Take notice, Detroit: I will not buy another car from you until you sell me what I want: PHEV!