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| Tuesday, July 03, 2007 |
Being Green: 11 Easy Ways to Go Green
From our July/August 2007 issue. This article is part of our larger package, the AJL Green List.
1. Get a home energy audit
Before you can cut energy usage (and costs), you need to know how much energy your house consumes. You can have this done professionally or do it yourself. Watch out for drafts; not only do they waste precious energy, but you'll catch a cold. In fact, you worry us; go put on a sweater.
2. Unplug appliances when not in use
There's no reason your toaster oven needs to always be plugged in. This also means your cell phone/camera/laptop/mp3 player chargers, too. To make things easy, plug them all into one power strip and just flick the off switch. You can leave the fridge plugged in, though; rotten food is a bigger waste.
3. Turn it off
And not just on Shabbat. Your lights, TVs, radios, oscillating fans, whatever. Don't leave them on. And if you're going to be away from your computer, take the time to shut it down, or set it to go to sleep instead of displaying those silly energy-wasting flying toasters.
4. Keep your car fit and tidy
As far as gas mileage is concerned, junk in the trunk is not a good thing. More weight puts more strain on the fuel, so if your spare tire doesn't need that anvil or that sumo wrestler for company, don't bring it along. Also, properly-inflated tires and clean oil can give you up to 15% better gas mileage, so take your car for regular check-ups.
5. Be aware of product packaging.
No more wrappers within wrappers within boxes. Buying in bulk ensures minimal packaging waste. Many products now come in packages made of recycled or recyclable materials. And don't buy any more bottled water. You know that metal, faucet-y thing in the kitchen? Water comes out of that, and filtering it is cheaper and creates less trash than a twenty-four pack of plastic bottles in a cardboard box wrapped in cellophane.
6. Reduce your snail-mail paper trail.
Do you think paper just grows on trees? Well, it does, and it's costing us a lot of trees. Sign up for paperless billing, get your bank statements online, even get your name removed from junk mailing lists (for more information, see the Junk Mail Campaign at www.newdream.org). And you know, you can even get bits of this magazine online. Yes, Maxim too.
7. Buy local and organic.
Buying local and in-season produce saves fuel and boosts your local economy. And organic is just healthier. Yummier, too. No growth hormones, no pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers, no water pollution. Eating organic food is as green as green gets. Next to a seasick leprechaun.
8. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Get ready for a crazy statistic: If every American home replaced just one regular light bulb with an energy-saving compact fluorescent bulb, it would save enough power to light three million homes. For a year (and that would be a nationwide savings of about $600 million). That not enough for you? These bulbs can last ten times longer than your regular bulbs, and you save about $30 in electricity over each bulb's lifespan.
9. Recycle.
You already know the "recycle your paper/plastic/glass/aluminum" shpiel, but there's so much more to it. Don't throw away your old cell phone or computer or ink cartridge; they can all be recycled. Don't throw away your prom/wedding/little-black dress; your clothes can be recycled, too (and should be. Synthetic fabrics never decompose, while decomposing wool contributes to global warming. No joke. And global itchiness. Joke). Reuse grocery bags and plastic drink bottles. Use both sides of a piece of paper. There are so many ways to reduce garbage, and it's so easy.
10. Explore green power. Aside from replacing all your major appliances with Energy Star products (which I recommend, if you have the shekels), the best way to reduce your house's non-renewable energy use is to use (wait for it) renewable energy (you didn't see that one coming, did ya?). Contact your power company and see if they support or provide any of a number of green power options. Your home could be running efficiently on wind, solar power, or landfill gas (much cleaner than it sounds) in no time.
11. Conserve water. Turn the water off when you're shaving or brushing your teeth, and when using the tap, run a small stream, no wider than a pencil. Take quicker showers. Don't run half-full loads of dishes or laundry. And if you have a pool, don't let it sit unused, or used by only one person; invite some friends (and me) over for a swim. We'll call it "poolpooling." I'm sure it's good for the environment somehow. Maybe.
This article is part of our larger package, the AJL Green List.
-- Text by Helen Herbst / Photo by C. Taylor Crothers
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