Viva Verde!

My overall goal for 2008 is to become more sustainable. Here is how I plan on doing it...

1. Cut Energy Consumption: use powerstrips, unplug appliances that require "standby" to power a clock (!), use LEDs or CFLs, passively heat my home in the winter, unplug my computer!!, buy Energy Star appliances

2. Reduce Water Consumption: choose native, drought tolerant, xeric plants for my summer garden, don't leave water running while brushing teeth or doing dishes, anytime I have left over water in my water bottle--water my indoor plants with it, take shorter showers, be mindful of laundry

3. Eat Local, Organic: in the winter it is harder to find local, organic fruits and veggies but they are out there! In the summer, there is no excuse with an excellent farmers market! Also buy organic skin care and health products

4. Reduce my Greenhouse gas emissions: Bike everywhere I can, offset vehicle emissions with Terrapass, purchase renewable energy

5. Purchase only environmentally friendly products to protect my indoor air quality

6. ELIMINATE PLASTIC from my consumption: start with plastic bags from the grocery store and the ziploc you store stuff in, then move to products that aren't packaged in plastic , then phase out plastics from your home and replace with alternatives. Certainly don't use plastic water bottles.

7. Organic Pet Food: if I am eating organic, so should my pets!

8. Support local businesses: choose local, small businesses instead of large, national corporations.

9. Give back: volunteer for some environmental clean-up groups

10. Stay informed: keep up to date on current green trends and news

Recently there were some building ordinances passed to beef-up the city of Boulder's Green Points Program and the passed measures are largely focused on energy conservation and offsetting with renewables. The idea behind ordinance 7565 is increased energy efficiency, beyond the IECC (Int'l Energy Conserv. and Insulation Code) and the percentage of increased efficiency is calculated according to structure size. For example, any new construction between 3,001-5,000 sq feet must be 50% more energy efficient than 2006 IECC. Anything 50% energy efficiency increase (so the bigger the house) is going to require the use of renewables for the property: anything under 50% is do-able with modified construction and materials. This is great news--alas, people are being held accountable for having a bigger footprint and hopefully they will start to build for what they actually need and not for what they want.

This trend is catching on across america and it seems to be the latest "fad" within the green movement: increased energy efficiency both commercially and residentially. It is kinda like a continuation of the renewables fad when solar energy caught on: the great Renewables Awakening. Well, this energy audit trend nicely compliments the Renewable Awakening and helps the renewable energy generated go a little further. Increased efficiency means 1 kW goes a lot further and saves a lot of energy production. This means decreased CO2, NOx and SOx emissions because of decreased demand for coal and natural gas fueled power plants. Anyhow, those are the points of energy audits: to increase energy efficiency, concentrate on energy conservation, and renewable energies.

So how is an energy audit conducted. In Boulder, it is recommended/required you get a RESNET accredited HERS rate. Lots of acronyms, lets break them down because I know you'll be hearing a lot more about them: (RESNET: Residential Energy Solutions Network. HERS: Home Energy Rating System). A HERS can be involved in several stages of the process, depending on the certification you are trying to obtain. If it is new construction or a remodel, they can help with the plans to make sure they are maximized efficiency BEFORE install. Secondly, they can be installed at the "pre-drywall" phase. Third, they can conduct energy audits on conventional structures to pin-point target areas. For the second and third, HERS raters perform tests. These include: blower test, sight inspection, insulation assessment and test hot water heater settings. This helps them determine your HERS score and give advice on how to improve your home's energy inefficiency.

If you don't have the ability to get a HERS rater out to your home, here are some basic energy conservation tips for your structure:
1. Insulation
2. Seal cracks
3. Increase window efficiency/ Energy efficient windows
4. High efficiency HVAC (heating, ventilation and air condition) systems
5. Utility Bill Analysis

If you haven't thought about having an energy auditor come out to your house, atleast take some of the initial efforts to make your home more energy efficient and reduce your footprint. Decreasing your energy consumption can be one of the most impactful efforts you make to combat global warming. Residential/commercial energy efficiency coupled with transportation efficiency and a significant improvement in renewables technology....and we're on our way to protecting our future.

I am sick of junk mail. Under my desk is my paper recycling bin and it is overflowing with mail and office waste from the past week. And it is the constant flow of this junk mail that gets me going. You see, the thing is these junk mailers are being produced, contributing the environmental degradation, and for what?!?!--I don't even want most of the crap they send me! Did you know that 19 billion catalogs are printed per year in the United States. That equals 53 million trees or the equivelant of 2000 Central Parks cut down each year.

If we stop 5 million catalogs from being produced = 225 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water are saved/ year; saves enough energy to power 350,000 homes per year; is = to removing 6,000 cars off the road per year in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

Those are GREAT reasons.

Most of the time I am apt to think/feel that the reason for most of the waste on the planet is because humans are over consumers and have created this demand. On a large scale, this is still very much the truth. However, on a personal level and dealing with this problem in particular...it frustrates me. These mailers are being sent to everyone--whether they like it or not which means the good that is produced (in this case, the junk mail) that has also consumed ALL those resources has no purpose at all other than WASTE. Those resources were consumed for no purpose and that frustrates me. People aren't necessarily demanding this service directly (maybe indirectly by being overconsumers, thus creating a general demand across all industry)...instead, the business is trying to create the demand even when it isn't there. Can I completely blame them--no because I know you need marketing tools to stimulate business development....but maybe we can start going the paperless/more eco-friendly route...

Luckily, for me, most of the catalogs and junk mail sent to me can be recycled. But for some, their local recycling facilities don't accept glossy paper or other such materials that this junk mail is often printed on. So I atleast get to recycle it, but the fact still remains that even MORE resources are having to be put into this piece of junkmail just to get a second life that is hopefully more useful than its first life as junk. But what about those who can't recycle it and it just has to go in their trash? The cradle to grave process yielded nothing that was beneficial to the people or planet, rather just contributed to the environmental degradation and frustration of the homeowner.

So instead of just ranting and not giving you an adequate solution to change the overall situation...here ya go. It is a website that you can do to, see all the catalogs you are currently getting and then unsubscribe to them. And, it really is easy and won't take your entire work day to do. Here is the info:
Stop Catalog Sign-up
www.catalogchoice.com