Happy Earth Day everyone! For the past few years I've been looking at ways to lessen my environmental impact. Over time I think I've gotten better, but a lot of this stuff really can't be tracked all that well, either that or I'm too lazy to spend much time tracking it. :-) Here are a few things I've added this year:
1. Bring my own bags to the store 95 % of the time.
2. Track water usage over time.
3. Track electricity and gas usage over time.
Here are the things I'm already doing that I think are pretty good:
1. Staying in my condo (instead of buying a big house) which reduces the amount of energy needed to heat and cool my living space. And by having a patio instead of a yard it really lowers the amount of water I use since I don't have to water a lawn.
2. Installed devices that save energy. Examples include programmable thermostat, a ceiling fan, and other fans in the house. That reduces the frequency of running the air conditioner.
3. Live close to work. I live 4.5 miles away from work, so I can ride my bike, drive the vespa, or drive my truck. The benefit is that even if I drive my truck I save time and money as well as cabon dioxide emissions.
4. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It is amazing how you can now recycle most of the packaging you get nowadays. I don't waste any opportunity to recycle. Even if I get a drink from starbucks while out and about I will take the cup home and recycle it instead of throwing it away.
5. I use energy efficient light bulbs and natural lighting whenever possible. This keeps the energy bill down.
6. Drive slower. I'm not in as big a hurry to get places anymore, so overall I've reduced my speed which improves gas mileage. And no, I haven't gotten any speeding tickets. I'll probably still pass gas mileage-obsessed Prius owners, who incidentally should not drive 55 mph in the fast lane, but my mileage has gotten a little better.
7. Use rechargeable batteries. Instead of buying the 500 pack of batteries from Costco I invested in a rechargeable battery infrastructure to power everything that needs batteries from remote controls to headlamps for camping. It can be expensive at first, but over time it costs less and you don't go through as many batteries, and you can recycle them when they can no longer hold a charge. It just takes slightly more discipline than throwing a battery away when it is empty, but I think it is well worth the extra effort.
8. Eat only wild salmon. I guess my growing up in Alaska has kind of made me a salmon snob. I won't even look at Atlantic salmon at the grocery store and when I go to a restaurant I ask what type of salmon it is. They generally give me a blank stare and say it is "Pacific" salmon. My reply is, as nice and polite as possible, "What kind of Pacific salmon, King/Chinook, Coho/Silver, Sockey/Red, Pink/Humpy, or Chum/Dog?". They generally have to go ask the cook who usually corrects them to say that it is in fact Atlantic salmon or it is King salmon. But generally at home I'll only cook and eat salmon that is caught by my brother or myself. If you want to see pictures of some Silver salmon that Timber, my brother, and I caught, click here.
9. Eat as much locally grown food as possible. This is one thing that I love about California. I live fairly close to places that grow lettuce, spinach, strawberries, cherries, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, onions, and lots of other good foods. So I can generally find high quality local foods at a local fruit stand or at a farmer's market. And the summer is a perfect time for that.
Next Steps and Nice to Haves:
1. I would love it if my condo association would start putting solar panels on all the units. I think that would really help resale value as well as bring down our energy costs as well as switch from polluting electricity generation to zero emissions electricity generation. The reality is that there are tons of logistical and cost issues to work out and I don't think my condo association is capable of handling it. So I'm stuck on that front.
2. Get a car with better mileage. Obviously I'm not going to go out and buy a new car just because I want a vehicle with better mileage. Talk about a waste of money and energy. But when it is time for me to get another car I will give high credence to mileage. I would also be awesome to get an electric car, but there aren't many reasonably priced ones on the market right now.
3. Switch to more energy efficient appliances. Again, I'm not going to just go replace my fridge, oven, etc... just to save a little bit of energy, but when it is time to replace that stuff I will make sure those appliances are as energy efficient as possible.
4. Grow more food in my garden. I'm working on this. I was going to start some seeds this week, but it has been getting cold at night again, so I'm going to wait a little while before starting the seeds.
Overall I think I am on the right track. There is still more that I can do, but I think I've picked just about all of the low hanging fruit.
1. Bring my own bags to the store 95 % of the time.
2. Track water usage over time.
3. Track electricity and gas usage over time.
Here are the things I'm already doing that I think are pretty good:
1. Staying in my condo (instead of buying a big house) which reduces the amount of energy needed to heat and cool my living space. And by having a patio instead of a yard it really lowers the amount of water I use since I don't have to water a lawn.
2. Installed devices that save energy. Examples include programmable thermostat, a ceiling fan, and other fans in the house. That reduces the frequency of running the air conditioner.
3. Live close to work. I live 4.5 miles away from work, so I can ride my bike, drive the vespa, or drive my truck. The benefit is that even if I drive my truck I save time and money as well as cabon dioxide emissions.
4. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It is amazing how you can now recycle most of the packaging you get nowadays. I don't waste any opportunity to recycle. Even if I get a drink from starbucks while out and about I will take the cup home and recycle it instead of throwing it away.
5. I use energy efficient light bulbs and natural lighting whenever possible. This keeps the energy bill down.
6. Drive slower. I'm not in as big a hurry to get places anymore, so overall I've reduced my speed which improves gas mileage. And no, I haven't gotten any speeding tickets. I'll probably still pass gas mileage-obsessed Prius owners, who incidentally should not drive 55 mph in the fast lane, but my mileage has gotten a little better.
7. Use rechargeable batteries. Instead of buying the 500 pack of batteries from Costco I invested in a rechargeable battery infrastructure to power everything that needs batteries from remote controls to headlamps for camping. It can be expensive at first, but over time it costs less and you don't go through as many batteries, and you can recycle them when they can no longer hold a charge. It just takes slightly more discipline than throwing a battery away when it is empty, but I think it is well worth the extra effort.
8. Eat only wild salmon. I guess my growing up in Alaska has kind of made me a salmon snob. I won't even look at Atlantic salmon at the grocery store and when I go to a restaurant I ask what type of salmon it is. They generally give me a blank stare and say it is "Pacific" salmon. My reply is, as nice and polite as possible, "What kind of Pacific salmon, King/Chinook, Coho/Silver, Sockey/Red, Pink/Humpy, or Chum/Dog?". They generally have to go ask the cook who usually corrects them to say that it is in fact Atlantic salmon or it is King salmon. But generally at home I'll only cook and eat salmon that is caught by my brother or myself. If you want to see pictures of some Silver salmon that Timber, my brother, and I caught, click here.
9. Eat as much locally grown food as possible. This is one thing that I love about California. I live fairly close to places that grow lettuce, spinach, strawberries, cherries, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, onions, and lots of other good foods. So I can generally find high quality local foods at a local fruit stand or at a farmer's market. And the summer is a perfect time for that.
Next Steps and Nice to Haves:
1. I would love it if my condo association would start putting solar panels on all the units. I think that would really help resale value as well as bring down our energy costs as well as switch from polluting electricity generation to zero emissions electricity generation. The reality is that there are tons of logistical and cost issues to work out and I don't think my condo association is capable of handling it. So I'm stuck on that front.
2. Get a car with better mileage. Obviously I'm not going to go out and buy a new car just because I want a vehicle with better mileage. Talk about a waste of money and energy. But when it is time for me to get another car I will give high credence to mileage. I would also be awesome to get an electric car, but there aren't many reasonably priced ones on the market right now.
3. Switch to more energy efficient appliances. Again, I'm not going to just go replace my fridge, oven, etc... just to save a little bit of energy, but when it is time to replace that stuff I will make sure those appliances are as energy efficient as possible.
4. Grow more food in my garden. I'm working on this. I was going to start some seeds this week, but it has been getting cold at night again, so I'm going to wait a little while before starting the seeds.
Overall I think I am on the right track. There is still more that I can do, but I think I've picked just about all of the low hanging fruit.
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