Five Percent: Conserve a Little Energy

A brief check-in on our progress with perhaps the single most important change we have made, or should I say “we are making” as we proceed to adopt an energy-efficient, yet pain-free lifestyle. Not, not changing light bulbs, or even our Prii (we have 2, count ‘em, Prius’es). Vegetables! (more…)

Paper of plastic? Well, of course the answer is “neither”. Without going on an environmental bent, the amount of resources needed to make, then dispose of paper or plastic are both tiny in the singular and huge in total. Some interesting data is here on a site devoted to making bags that we can use over again. Their focus is the environment, but mine, as always, is on the sheer waste. 100 billion plastic shopping bags and 10 billion paper bags in the US every year.

So, in my tiny way, I followed the lead of my environmentally minded boss, David. (more…)

In my previous post, I talked about the difficulty of choosing any one personal action to take to save energy when there are so many that could be taken. It takes mental energy, and not many of us have a lot of that to spare.

Why can’t our government step in and make some of the choices easier for us? Ok, credit where credit is due: there are tax credits for hybrid cars, and a few others for doing basic energy saving actions. But this is really an expensive way to get things done. (more…)

Ignorance is bliss. I do a number of things that I suspect are wasteful, without actually knowing. This is nice, because I can continue to do them without really feeling badly. Perhaps this is not bliss, just denial. Whatever it is, it works for me. I can live my complicated life without a nagging sense of not doing enough.

I can, however, accept and incorporate new information. Gradually. I think I am probably representative of a group of people who are concerned, but also busy, rushed, pulled in lots of directions and kind of can only deal with a few big things at a time. If it comes too fast, I’ll turn off; it just takes too much mental energy to deal with. Sound like anyone you know? (more…)

In January, after the onslaught of Christmas catalogs, I did a massive round of catalog stopping — here’s a progress report. (more…)

In Justifying a Laptop Computer I asserted that a laptop could be justified on energy savings grounds alone. Well, of course this is absurd … or is it?

Having a laptop replace a desktop and CRT monitor has been nothing but good, for me. (more…)