To Live Green is as Important to Me as Traveling Green. Do What You Can Every Day!

When I travel, at work, and at home, I do my best to Live Green. Don't get me wrong, it isn't always easy, and sometimes either too expensive, or frankly, I can't be bothered. I just stay as aware as possible, and try!

This all really started for me several years ago at work. My company provides energy solutions for buildings. So, as a part of my daily work life, we all started becoming more aware of things we as a company could do for our clients. I then looked at what we as individuals could do.

You can bring some of these simple practices into your daily life, if you haven't already. Every little bit helps!

I do what I can, and try where I can.

Thank you for everything that you do, too!

Personal CO2 Emissions

The Seattle Times recently featured an article on how to calculate your household emissions in a Climate Challenge. My total annual CO2 emissions are around 13,500 to 14,000 pounds per year. An average 2 person household uses approximately 41,500 pounds per year.

They don't have an average for a single person, but I would say 1/2 of a 2 person household would equal 20,750 pounds per year.

When I use the Carbon Footprint Calculator below, I am at 11,000 pounds per year of CO2, and I can offset those from this site.

I know I am making a difference! I know I do have some areas I could improve on, and hope to improve on them in the future, in the meantime, I still Live Green.

I will soon start purchasing some carbon offsets, particularly for the airline fuel for my vacations. A carbon offset purchased from Carbonfund.org looks like my favorite choice, because it is non-profit and supports various alternative power sources. See the link below, and also a link to Carbon Offset Review, so that you can look at how other Offset companies work and what they offer.

Link to Carbon Footprint Calculator and Website

Recycling

Here in Seattle, we have had a pretty good recycling of garbage for quite some time (I can't remember how long, because it has been so long).

Recently we have added more composting options and uses for our yard waste containers. For example, I can put paper food containers in the yard waste, coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, etc.

As long as there is no meat, fish, chicken, dairy and a list of other items.

The city provides a nice brochure to hang on your refrigerator or post somewhere else helpful. Seattle has the goal or recycling 60% of the waste collected. Last I heard, we were at 40%.

Electricity

I have been partially successful here.

I replaced some appliances recently, and found after installation, that not all appliances sold have the Energy Star label.

Well, next time! I have heard that only Energy Star appliances will be sold in the near future.

As light bulbs burn out, I am replacing them with energy saving compact fluorescent bulbs.

I replaced my baseboard heaters with radiant wall panels that are thermostat controlled.

Last week I got my winter power bill, and I was very surprised by the results.

My power bill is 1/3 the cost of a year ago, and we have had a much colder winter. My bill was $59.94, for a 100% electric house at 630 square feet. Seattle City Light offers energy offsets. I have purchased 100% wind power as the source for my electricity. This requires paying a little extra each month, $24.00 was for purchasing wind power, so my real electric cost was about $36 for 2 months. Well, too, I am all in favor of Wind Power!

Now, granted the overall temperature on my main living room thermometer is lower usually reading about 5 degrees F lower than last year, definitely one contributing factor. I think the most significant difference is the fact that there are thermostats on each of the panels, controlling the weekday and evening temperatures.

I raised the thermostat temperature in my living room by 4 degrees, to see what the cost difference would be, since at times I'm a little cold. I also use a lap blanket in the evening.

We shall see what difference that makes.

Water Conservation

I have steadily been able to save more and more. I don't know if I can do any better, now.

This last summer, I had my house replumbed, it was a necessity, and something I had been planning to do for quite a while.

Toilet is now 1.6 gallons per flush, all faucets and sinks have flow restrictors, and the shower has a new free (again the City of Seattle) shower head. The replumbing has eliminated the low volume and water pressure problems and the brown water. Yeah!!! My water bill has been reduced by 1 CCF or over 700 gallons for a 2 month period!

I don't water my lawn, I just let it be dormant in the summer, surprising how quickly it can turn green again in the fall.

I used to have some rain barrel collectors for irrigation, but since I don't irrigate, they were given away.

Transportation and Emissions

In some ways, this is my weakest area.

I drive my car to work every day. 12 miles round trip.

The reason I do this is because I am very allergic to diesel fumes. I get a terrible headache when I am around them, in the USA. (I don't have this problem in Europe.) And, I have motions sickness when combined with the fumes. A pretty unpleasant experience.

Further, it would take an hour to get to work versus 15 minutes. I know people that drive as far to the park 'n ride, train station or ferry terminal as I do to work and back.

Therefore, I drive.

I have looked into the hybrid, but at this time, the cost of the car and the payback aren't adding up.

On a side note: I was disappointed to hear that the US Government was requiring an average of 35 mpg for all vehicles by 2020. Wow! Sorry, but I think we should be doing better than that!

Cleaning House

In a recent article written by a co-worker in my full time job, I learned a lot about cleaning products that are environmentally friendly and work well, with comparable pricing! Wow, that is pretty hard to beat.

He suggested that as you go to buy a product that you were out of, you replace it with a green product. So on my next trip to the store, I will get environmentally friendly dish soap.

This will be my first test, and I'll let you know my results!

I am encouraged by Europe's efforts to use alternative energy. In the past few years while traveling in France, I have seen small wind cooperatives with 2 or 3, and sometimes more windmills.

Recently, in Spain, I saw several very large wind farms with what I would guess to be 100 or more windmills. I also saw 3 solar farms. Something I had not seen anywhere else.

Many restrooms in Spain also had occupancy sensors, and although the timing was a little short, it was easy to get the lights back on.

All the hotels I stayed at in Spain had key cards to turn on power, heating, and cooling.

In most locations, cooling had been turned off as of October 31st. At some time in the spring or early summer, the heating will be turned off.