With Earth day passing yesterday my wife asked me the question, “How expensive is it to be Green?“, I wanted to consult with Kermit the Frog, but I figured I’d look at my life and see in the obvious areas, would it be cheaper, more expensive or a wash to be “Green”.
- Automobiles, currently I have two cars. A relatively frugal and clean(er) Toyota Corolla and a gas guzzling Montana van (that most likely pollutes more as well). The green solutions here might be:
- Get rid of both cars and use public transit and walk where we need to go. This is a non-starter, with kids and such, my lifestyle and my families could not tolerate that option. Would it be cheaper to buy 5 bus passes a month at $375 ? Not sure, but I do get to use the mass transit tax credit.
- I could get rid of the van and only have 1 car. This option will be more possible soon, when I hopefully have less kids living at home. For a while we only had 1 car and I took the bus to work, but it was an inconvenience, as OS Transpo does not offer great service from South Ottawa to West Ottawa. If I worked downtown the story would be very different.
- Staying as I am is definitely not green and not as frugal either.
Grade: D (not very green choice by us, but I am being honest as well).
- Attempt to limit my families water usage. I’d really like this to be better in my house, because it is getting out of control.
- I don’t water my grass and I rarely water my garden, mostly because I am a lazy sod, but also because I view the Grass as a gift from God, and if God thinks it should be green, he’ll water it.
- Low flow toilets, or better still composting toilets? Well, not really, I do need to replace the toilets in my house, so I think the water usage there might be better, but composting ones, um, no.
- Low flow shower heads. Yes, I do have those, and they help.
- Screwed up water heater. At first I thought this was a bad thing, but the fact that my water heater doesn’t seem to store that much hot water is a good thing, since it shortens my daughter’s showers significantly. Don’t think I’ll have anyone come in to fix that issue!
- Low water usage washer and dishwasher. The dishwasher is pretty new and is supposed to not use as much water, and my washing machine is “up on the roof” so that will get replaced this summer.
Grade: C+ (could do better, but at least trying)
- Good insulation in house and good windows to limit use of fossil fuels? I think my house is ok, but the windows need replacing, and that is going to cost me a bloody fortune, so I will make sure I get fairly good ones when I do.
Grade: C - Efficient heating and cooling systems. Replaced two years ago and my gas bill has been dropping as has my electric bill, very worthwhile investments.
Grade: B+ - Composting of household wastes? Yup, we do that, not as much as we should but we do have two compost containers in the back yard and we do use them. We don’t do this in the winter, because the snow is too bloody deep!
Grade: B- - Recycle? Yes indeed, and we put out yard waste too. Our garbage output is still fairly high, but we are careful not to put recyclables into the normal garbage. Once Ottawa goes with a “Green Box” for kitchen waste this should drop our garbage a great deal.
Grade: B - Replace conventional lights with lower electric using ones? In a couple of places, but the fact that these “super bulbs” then have to be disposed of in the Hazardous Waste dump, worries the hell out of me. This doesn’t strike me as being “Green” at all.
Grade: C- - Green household cleaning products? Maybe a little, not much. Might be an area we can explore some more.
Grade: F - Really wacky green ideas:
- Alternate feminine hygiene products? Um… no.
- Home Solar panels? Don’t have the capital to invest to make this a worthwhile investment, but if electric prices keep going up, who knows?
- Not running the air conditioning in the summer? Not in this current lifestyle, my kids would revolt, that is for sure. I try not to run it too cold, but I plead guilty about being used to this creature comfort.
- Worm farms in my compost heap? Nope, sorry, don’t fish enough to have some Red Wigglers (the Cadillac of Worms) in the backyard.
- All natural clothing, no synthetic fibers? Sorry, just am not that with it as to what material I am wearing (nor am I wanting to be ensconced in velvet).
Grade: F
Not too bad really, I think there is a great deal more my family and I can try to do to be more Green, however I also don’t feel heavily obliged to go out of my way to be Green if it is going to cost me a bloody fortune (or causes an incredible inconvenience in my current lifestyle).
The two ways I think the Green Movement will make farther in roads into every day life will be, Gas shooting to $150 per barrel and higher and the Government giving “Green” credits on taxes or eliminating taxes on “Green” products.
How Green are you?
@Andy:
Yes, the wasted energy of an incandescent is in the form of heat. So if you are heating your home then logically if you switch to a less heat generating source your actually not saving any energy.
Plus they don’t do well outside since they don’t work well in low temperature and emit far less light. So if you are using them to light your front yard or something it’s not the best place for them. LEDs would do far better here as incandescent heat will be wasted outside.
You shouldn’t use them in areas that have lots of on/off cycles because the cycling is what reduces their life span by a great deal. So in kids rooms that they run in and out of all day it’s probably not the best.
You shouldn’t use them in moisture prone areas, so not in the bathroom unless they are enclosed. Except for once small fact, you’re also not supposed to use them in enclosures . . . unless they are self enclosed and designed to be that way.
So they do save energy in some cases, but they aren’t the be all and end all of lighting.
I agree on the recycling shower, when it comes time to redo the bathroom I will probably get quotes on a recycling system.
…
I still think the best way to help the environment is to eat less meat and rice since a huge majority of GHG emissions come from agriculture, especially beef and rice farms.
Plus, CO2 helps plants grow. That’s why they sell CO2 generators for green houses. Food yields go way up with more CO2.
The science is so young we shouldn’t be doing it to save planet earth, the only reason that should be marketed is that reducing your consumption makes sure there is enough resources for everybody. Of course everyone will just assume it’s socialist or communist propaganda at that point.
@CPFB,
good post, thanks for being so open.
How green am I? Well, I’m not sure I’m into the “rate your green-ness” idea … IMHO it often seems to foster the idea that humans are necessarily evil and the best we can hope for is to do-less-bad. Further, it often goes hand in hand with the idea of needing to “protect” the environment, which seems rather arrogant (Captain Eco-Human to the rescue to save the damsel environment in distress). I like “respect” the environment as a term, because to me it takes humans down a notch … relating to the environment around us more as a peer, rather than a master. Anyway, there’s my preamble… probably riddled with philosophical holes… oh well.
here’s my score:
Autos: 1 Toyota echo (7 yrs old), don’t drive it much other than long trips out of the city. Walk to work.
Water: apartment dweller, no dishwasher, no lawn. I do like showers though.
Dwelling: as an apartment dweller (350sqft/person), I share 4/6 sides of my space with others. Insulation on the remaining 2 sides seems good. Our hot water heater and heat supply is shared with ~60 others, so maybe there’s an economy of scale(?). Cooling is provided by a box fan in the window on whichever side of the building is shaded.
Laundry: we use shared machines. Drying is usually done with a rack and a box fan.
Composting, CFLs & recycling: check, check and check.
Charitable donations: small donations <0.1% of income to what I would call environmental initiatives.
overall: I’m guessing this would be “greener” than a Canadian average … most of the advantage probably comes from choosing a modest living space close to work that is shared with others.
room for improvement: in terms of energy, a smaller fridge and smaller oven would be good. in terms of doing-more-good, I could probably be more involved with local organizations (e.g. improving stream habitat).
@Traciatim,
(1)thanks for pointing out the Quench showers… they seem awesome!! the shower of my dreams.
(2) when you say “use CFLs where appropriate, which is almost nowhere in Canada” what do you mean? Is it that the “wasted” heat from an incandescent bulb just offsets other heating energy?
(3) I can relate to your frustration about schools teaching eco-paranoia … I can’t believe some of the things I hear.
The fear mongering that the schools are doing are comparable to the “Reds under the beds” and “When the bomb drops hide under your desk” mentality of younger days, but I tend to talk to my kids about this stuff, and hopefully they have inherited their Dad’s skepticism gene.
I forgot that I actually do give to a Green charity, so I feel even more SMUG about my Green-ness.
–C8j
Automobiles? One, I drive about 12K KM a year, I live about an 8 minute commute to work. I drive a large car, but I’m not going to worry about it until there are viable alternatives.
Water? I’m a glutton. You should look in to a dual flush toilet since we all know how well low flush toilets work. Dual flush actually uses even less water for the #1 flush, but a more normal amount for a #2 flush when you need it. All in all it will actually end up using less water. Also, if you are ever remodeling and pull your shower you should look in to something like Quench Showers that recirculate water. I love a long hot shower, so I really should look in to something like this.
I need to re-insulate the basement, it all got torn out last year after a huge water problem.
Home heating is efficient enough for most purposes.
We compost (city wide program) and seem to have less garbage than most of my street. So as long as I’m slightly better than average I feel fine about it.
I use CFLs where appropriate, which is almost nowhere in Canada, but in my basement and hallway they are fine.
Green cleaning? Nope, but we use green pest control outside. I still use windex and tilex and dioxin, or whetever inside 🙂
I am however seriously considering a home heating system by solar since there is an awesome place in the back yard and my home is already heated by electric hot water baseboards (The oil furnace was replaced by a tankless water heater).
After earth day I had to spend a while teaching my daughter that hunters don’t die when they eat deer meat because all of the water on the planet is not poison . . . it was great. I love how the school teaches this trash.