THE HOT POTATO
Serving Up a Weekly Helping of
Sustainable & Organic Gardening, Food, Health, and Community
by Adam Brockman & Aireen Joven, November 2007, #33
THIS WEEK’S DISH -
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE: Simple Steps To Reduce Carbon Emissions While Saving Money At Home And Beyond
“Nothing happens in living nature that is not in relation to the whole.”
– Goethe, as quoted in How To Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons
GLOBAL WARMING MEMORIAL. A public art memorial dedicated to global warming includes flames and a polar bear at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair 2006 in Custer, Wisconsin.
RECENTLY OUR HOUSEHOLD pitched in to buy a dozen compact fluorescent light bulbs from the local hardware store. If you’re not familiar with these bulbs, they’re great: spiral-shaped rather than the bulbous, traditional light bulbs, a 13 watt bulb packs the same power as a 60 watt bulb and lasts about 12 times longer while using nearly five times less energy. That translates to over thirty dollars worth of savings PER BULB over a lifetime of use. The initial investment is around five dollars, which turns some people off (imagine paying five dollars for a light bulb!), but consider that you’re getting a 600% return on that investment. Not to mention that you’re taking one small step towards reducing carbon emissions, the major contributing factor to global warming [1].
Now, can we really save the planet by changing light bulbs? While every step, no matter how small, does make a significant difference, light bulbs are just one piece of the puzzle. Thankfully, there are, in reality, dozens of things that can be done by anyone to reduce global warming. You could ride your bicycle to work or the grocery store one day a week (or more than one day too!), turn your hot water heater down to 120 degrees, incorporate local, organic, and plant-based meals into your regular diet, or all of the above. Not all options are as simple as changing light bulbs, but many of them are investments that can save you money in the long run, while having the greater benefit of helping save the planet. No matter what you choose to do, your actions are making a difference! Thank you for helping to save our Earth, and we wish you much abundance and joy in the process!
IT STARTS IN THE HOME
As much as 18% of total global carbon emissions come from operating a home [2]. Starting where you live, cutting energy consumption can be as simple as switching off the lights when you leave a room, or turning off the heat when you leave the house. What other green home ideas can cut your carbon output while saving you some extra green? Here are some planet-savvy, green home ideas that will also save you bucks on your next energy bill:
• Turn off all TVs and appliances, including computers, when not in use. If everybody in the country did this regularly, we could shut down the equivalent of two power stations. Make it a habit to unplug appliances or turn off power strips when not in use as well, as plugged-in appliances continue to use energy even when turned off.
• Lower the temperature of your thermostat by 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Doing this alone could reduce your energy bill by 10% [3].
• Invest in storm windows, weather stripping, and other insulation to keep heat from escaping. About 1/4 of the energy used to heat a home escapes through single-glazed windows, and another 40% escapes through uninsulated walls and roof space. One clever, country tip from MaryJane’s Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook: For the Farmgirl in All of Us by Maryjane Butters (founder of MaryJanesFarm in Moscow, Idaho) is to line the north side of your home with straw bales for extra insulation from northerly winter winds. Mounds of snow have a similar insulating effect [4].
• Turn your hot water heater down to 120 degrees, and invest in an insulation blanket if your water heater has a low R-value (loer than R-24), to reduce heat loss by 25-45% [5].
• Use cold water for laundry, and if possible, hang dry your clothes. If this isn’t possible, clean the lint filter regularly for maximum efficiency.
• Install a low-flow shower head, cut showering time, and/or shower less often!
• Invest in solar/wind or other renewable energy to heat your water and/or power your home. The initial investment for a solar or wind system can be costly, but these systems wind up saving you money and can even earn you income after several years, if you are generating surplus energy to sell back to the electric company. Perhaps the king of resources for green home technology, services, and workshops in our area is the Midwest Renewable Energy Association, who host the country’s largest fair focused on renewable energy and sustainability. The Midwest Renewable Energy Fair, held in Custer, Wisconsin every summer, drew 19,570 festival goers in 2007 (www.the-mrea.org).
RECYCLE COMPOST TRASH. Hanging from signs above waste bins at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair 2006 in Custer, Wisconsin are examples of discarded materials that are to be sorted separately. An aluminum can and plastic jug are to be recycled. Disposable plates, forks, and food containers made out of corn are to be composted. More and more restaurants are choosing to use compostable to-go containers, which are also available to purchase at certain grocery stores or online for when you have your next BBQ, picnic, or party.
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, RENEW
Part of the inspiration for writing this article came from the fall 2007 edition of Co-op America Quarterly magazine. This latest issue, entitled, “Getting to Zero Waste”, examines the flow our garbage, its impact on the environment and human health, and how low-income communities of color tend to become the dumping grounds for a lot of what we throw away everyday. There was also a stunning figure quoted from sustainable designer and architect William McDonough, where he estimates that an average product contains only five percent of what went into making it, meaning 95 percent of what went into its creation is waste [6].
Seen from this context, even recycling is just a small part of solving the waste problem. Going for minimal-to-no packaging in food and other products by buying in bulk and bringing reusable shopping bags to stores go a long way towards ending our reliance on wasteful plastic bags and the deforestation of trees for paper bags and boxes. In March 2007, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance. Signed into law by Mayor Gavin Newsom in April 2007, this landmark legislation bans the use of plastic bags by markets and pharmacies, while allowing compostable and recycled paper bags. For plastic alternatives, check out the Chicago-based company, reusablebags.com [7].
Here a few other ways to cut waste while reducing one’s carbon footprint:
• Start a compost pile with your food scraps, or if you live in an apartment, look into a vermicomposting bucket for underneath your sink. (This can save you money on potting soil and amendments for home gardens, while reducing landfill space!)
• When buying food or other stuff, go for minimal, recyclable packaging. Buy in bulk, and try to bring your own shopping and produce bags to reduce plastic and paper use.
• Reuse glass and plastic containers and recycle as much as possible. Contact your waste services provider to find out what they recycle. Aluminum, steel, and glass can be recycled indefinitely, but most plastics can only be recycled once, if at all, and paper can only be recycled a few times before it loses its fiber content.
• Renew old or worn belongings with a little creativity. Find new uses for objects, like turning cracked dishware into garden pots, or refashion outfits with new tailoring.
ADAM AND A VERY COMPACT CAR. Adam poses with Amy’s tiny car in his hand at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair 2006 in Custer, Wisconsin.
TRANSPORT YOURSELF
The way we choose to get from place to place is a key piece in the global warming puzzle. We learned just how difficult it can be to live without a car in the suburbs when we were staying with Aireen’s mother and borrowing her car to get to and from work, the grocery store, and special events. Now that we have no access to an automobile, we have begun biking to work and the grocery store regularly. Aireen bikes 3 miles total to and from work. Adam bikes 20 miles (10 miles each way), which may seem like “a lot” to some, but the workout, exhilaration, fun and freedom of biking, not to mention the financial savings (about $25 each per week, or over $100 each per month for one person not using public transportation), and the lightened impact on the planet have motivated us to use our bicycles more than ever before. If the weather gets really bad, we always have the Pace Bus and CTA, which we have found to be reliable and relatively well-connected throughout the North Shore/Evanston area.
Here are some tips to reduce your transportation footprint, and save money in the process:
• Even if you already own a car, try walking, biking, or taking public transportation to work, school, or the grocery store at least once per week. It’s a liberating experience, and you might find that it’s easier and not as tiring or inconvenient as you might have expected.
• If you are looking to buy a new vehicle and have the finances to invest in a fuel efficient, hybrid, or electric car, do it. Gasoline prices are at a record high per barrel (and steadily rising), and the carbon footprint of the average American car is, sadly, worse than it was in the days of Henry Ford’s Model T (which originally ran on hemp-based ethanol!) [8].
• To make your car more energy efficient, make sure the tires are full, rid your car of any unnecessary weight, maintain a steady speed on the highway, and SLOW DOWN! For most cars, 55 mph is the most fuel efficient speed, and you will save between 20-30% of fuel costs compared to driving at 75 mph. Aim to drive in the most efficient range of 45-55 mph [9].
THE FOOD FACTOR: WEIGHING YOUR FOOD ON THE CO2 SCALE
Who would guess that what we choose to eat could have such a significant impact on climate change? Many of us never stop to think of where our food is coming from, what went into producing it, and how the entire process impacts the planet and our own health. Every ingredient in your typical meal, even the organic ingredients, has traveled an average of 1500 miles to reach your plate [10]. However, the production of organic foods does not include the damage to the planet and harm to agricultural workers that non-organic food produces. Eating organic food free from harmful pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers is one of the best investments in your health and the health of the land, air, and water. The financial investment may be higher, but the returns in terms of better overall flavor, nutrition, personal health, and potentially reduced medical bills make the higher prices more than worth it. Even better is local and organic, as the reduced food miles traveled translates to far less CO2 emissions per meal. And even better still is local, organic food grown by your own hands, where those emissions can eventually be reduced to zero and even offset by the planting of trees and other perennials.
When it comes to global warming, one of the top contributors is none other than the raising of animals for meat. According to a recent study from the University of Chicago, a plant-based, vegan diet (no meat, dairy, or eggs) contributes up to 20% less carbon, or 1.5 million tons less per year, than the average American meat and dairy-based diet [11]. That’s one-fifth of all carbon emissions! This may come as a surprise, but consider what goes in to the raising of animals for food. First, nearly all farm-raised animals are fed grain from other farms. This grain must be grown with tractors that run on fossil fuels and shipped in, often from hundreds of miles away, on diesel-powered trucks. Then, if the animals are being slaughtered for meat, they must be shipped to a slaughterhouse by rail or truck, using more fossil fuels, where their meat is then shipped again using fossil fuels to distribution centers, after which it is distributed to retail markets using even more fossil fuels.
By the time the meat gets to your plate, how many hundreds of gallons of fossil fuels were burned to get it there? In the case of dairy and eggs, there is usually less shipping involved, but the environmental impact is still significant. This is not to mention that the ammonia and methane gas given off by animal waste contribute even more significantly to global warming than the carbon emissions. Compared to grain-fed cows, even grass-fed cows give off equivalent or higher amounts of ammonia in their waste.
Even the most ardent meat-eaters can make a difference in this regard. Just doing something as simple as consciously cutting out meat from one meal or more per week is significant. Numerous studies are now coming out linking lower consumption of meat and animal products to lower rates of heart disease, lower blood cholesterol, and even lower incidences of cancer. Like eating organic, this is more than just an investment in the health of the planet- it’s an investment in your own health.
COOL CITIES
Last weekend at Glenview’s Park Center, we attended a symposium on climate change titled “Our Climate Matters”. This four-day event, sponsored by The League of Women Voters of Wilmette with the Glenview Park District, brought together policy makers, community leaders, and environmental justice activists from several different organizations including the Illinois Sierra Club to address what is being done locally, statewide, nationwide, and worldwide to end global warming, and what we can do individually and in community to help. We were only able to attend the last day of this event, but the two presentations we took part in opened our eyes to some new information, and brought important contacts. We learned about the Cool Cities initiative, which cities and villages large and small all across the country are signing onto to pledge their support for reduced emissions and waste.
In order to become a Cool City, there are four main goals that your city must agree to reach:
1. Join the U.S. Mayors Climate Change Protection Agreement, which calls for a reduction of global warming pollution down to 7 percent below 1990 levels.
2. Green your city’s vehicle fleets with hybrid and other cleaner cars.
3. Modernize city buildings with money-saving energy-efficiency technology.
4. Invest in clean and safe renewable energy.
We met a woman at the presentation who lives just around the corner from us and wants to form a group with a goal of Glenview’s mayor signing onto the Cool Cities Initiative. So far there are five of us, and we have yet to hold our first meeting, but the prospects are exciting. To see if your city is one of the over 5,000 across the country that has signed on to the Cool Cities Initiative, visit http://coolcities.us. If it isn’t, consider starting your own group or joining an existing group to help cool your city! We were happy to find out several Chicago-area cities’ mayors have already signed up to be a Cool City, including Aurora, Carol Stream, Elmhurst, Evanston, Highland Park, Northbrook, Plainfield, Schaumburg, Waukegan, and Wilmette as well as Chicago, other cities in Illinois, and Cook County.
CARBON NEUTRALITY: TOWARDS A ZERO WASTE/ZERO EMISSION LIFESTYLE
The goal of cutting one’s individual and community carbon footprint is not perfection, but the enrichment of life itself. Each step we take towards a zero waste/zero emission lifestyle, whether a baby step or a giant leap, moves humanity forward another inch toward reharmonizing and reconnecting with the world’s ecosystems.
It is in our everyday choices that we must ask ourselves: how is this choice benefitting my body and my planet? From these questions, we can all find our individual paths to solving those pieces of the puzzle that we are capable of solving. There can be no judgment in this process, for we are all at different points on our own evolutionary journeys, and no point is greater than or less than another. We are all here to work together to save the planet, and we are also here to save it by ourselves, even if it seems that nobody else around us is interested in doing so. We will know that we are successful when our lives begin to feel more meaningful, attuned, and harmonized with the cycles of life that are taking place all around us, all the time. And we can’t help but have fun and grow community in the process.
Please check out a couple short and sweet books with more tips on reducing your carbon footprint: Energy, Use Less-Save More: 100 Energy-Saving Tips For The Home by Jon Clift and Amanda Cuthbert, and Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds! by David Gershon. The latter book surprisingly does not cover the carbon impact of one’s diet. For a source on this, take a bite out of www.anotherinconvenienttruth.org, a project of Eatkind.net, and The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World by John Robbins.
Until next time, the Hot Potato is in your hands. Pass it on!
See also by The Hot Potato:
-
Stepping Up To Save The Planet
-
Cool. 90% Personal Emissions Reduction Begins In Our Garden…
-
CHEERS TO A HEALTHY, VEG-FRIENDLY THANKSGIVING: The Garden’s Harvest, The Chicago Diner & Farm Sanctuary
-
THE NEW MAIN STREET: Green Gift Ideas, Trees For The Future & What Would Jesus Buy?
–
Videos: Scroll down past the footnotes to watch some cool videos about some of these simple steps to reduce your carbon emissions!
–
Footnotes:
1. Clift, Jon & Amanda Cuthbert. Energy, use less-save more: 100 energy-saving tips for the home (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2006), 34. See also: The Department of Energy figures state, when comparing CFL’s with incandescent bulbs, that CFL bulbs:
- Last up to 10 times longer
- Use about one-fourth the energy
- Produce 90% less heat, while producing more light per watt.
2. Clift, 8. See also: Emrath, Paul PhD and Helen Fei, PhD. “Residential Greenhouse Gas Emissions” (National Association of Home Builders, Housingeconomics.com Special Studies, 30 April 2007, accessed December 2007); NAHB website.
3. Clift, back cover. See also: “Turn Down” (European Commissions “You Control Climate Change” website, accesses December 2007); EU-European Commissions Climate Change website.
4. Butters, MaryJane. MaryJane’s Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook: For the Farmgirl in All of Us (New York, NewYork: Clarkson Potter/Random House, 2005).
5. Clift, 27. See also: Energy Guide’s Residential ENERGYSmart Library.
6. Co-op America Quarterly. “Getting To Zero Waste” Issue (Washington D.C.: Co-op America, Fall 2007). See also: “21 things you didn’t know you could recycle” (a summary of the “Getting To Zero Waste” issue. Sustainabuild, 30 October 2007, accessed December 2007), and the Cradle To Cradle Community Forum.
7. “City Hall: Plastic bag ban to be signed into law”. The Examiner (20 April 2007). See also: Board of Supervisors City and County of San Franscisco. Chapter 17. Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance (Municipal Code Corporation, 20 April 2007, accessed December 2007).
8. Burkhalter, Sarah Kraybill. “A lighthearted look at biofuels through time“. Grist, 4 December 2006, accessed December 2007.
9. Gershon, David. Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program To Lose 5000 Pounds (Woodstock, New York: Empowerment Institute, 2006), 19.
10. Rich Pirog et al. “Food, Fuel and Freeways.” Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University, 2001), p. 1.
11. Eshel, Gidon and Pamela A. Martin. “Diet, Energy, And Global Warming“. Department of Geophysical Sciences. (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 2005), 11. See also http://anotherinconvenienttruth.org.
–
Meet MaryJane
CLIF BAR 2 Mile Challenge
must watch!
San Fran Bicycling to Work
Bicycling – GAS FREE Alternative Transportation
New Light Bulbs in Plain English
