It's been a year since I last posted here! We've done a lot of "green" stuff since then, and kept up with the things I had already posted about. I wish Scott would do some calculations to show the savings we've had from using cloth napkins and bar mop towels (instead of paper towels for both uses) and dropping bottled water.
One of the things we've started doing is switching all of our cleaning products over to natural versions. Right now we've been using the Clorox versions (Green Works). We've also started using natual, locally-made soap for the shower. It's made by Indigo Wild here in Kansas City and comes in lots of great scents.
We continue to use the KCP&L Energy Optimizer thermostat, which is great. I love that it turns the heat down at night and during the day when we're at work automatically, saving us energy and money.
We have been really bad at carpooling all winter - I'm not so good at getting up when it's still dark out. Hopefully with nice weather arriving we'll be able to get back in the habit of driving in together. It hasn't hurt us too much though, since the cost of gas has gone from above $3.00 a gallon down to around $1.75 a gallon. Definitely a help.
For Christmas Scott got me a composter, which I'm looking forward to setting up - maybe this weekend. I'll try to take pictures to post once we get it up. I've been reading a book called COMPOST! by Ken Thompson to learn how to effectively make compost. I need to start thinking about plants and what vegetables I want to plant this spring. Can't wait to get things growing. Also, I'm excited to have the composter and knowing that that much more of our garbage WON'T go into the garbage can!
I love Spring!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Where is "away?"
I heard an interesting anecdote a while back on Big Ideas for a Small Planet. One of the scientists on the show said something to the effect of: "You know, our whole lives we talk about throwing things away. 'I'm going to throw this away'. Where is away? Away doesn't exist."
Upon hearing this it occurred to me how true this sentiment is, and it startled me to think that something as simple as realizing that trash doesn't just disappear can change your whole outlook on how the system works.
I had a conversation with my parents about this during our visit to their house over Christmas. Shortly after returning home, my mom sent me a link to The Story of Stuff which is a great way to learn how our American system of consumption is hurting our planet in more ways than many people are aware. The video is about 20 minutes long, but it's fast paced, so take the time to watch it - it might change your outlook.
Upon hearing this it occurred to me how true this sentiment is, and it startled me to think that something as simple as realizing that trash doesn't just disappear can change your whole outlook on how the system works.
I had a conversation with my parents about this during our visit to their house over Christmas. Shortly after returning home, my mom sent me a link to The Story of Stuff which is a great way to learn how our American system of consumption is hurting our planet in more ways than many people are aware. The video is about 20 minutes long, but it's fast paced, so take the time to watch it - it might change your outlook.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Water Success
Since my previous post about bottled water, we have completely weaned ourselves off of bottled water altogether! It took a little while, but I now use my outdoorsy reusable water bottle all the time now - I fill it from the refrigerator pitcher in the morning before I go to work, then refill throughout the day at work, then refill again when I get home, if I need to. I use the bottle at the gym, too. We ran out of bottled water quite a while back - November, maybe? - and haven't purchased any more since. Hooray! Success!
Sacking It
Whew, it's been a while. This is not to say we haven't been working on our "greenability" in the off time. For Christmas I decided to push my green agenda on my loved ones by giving them all ChicoBags as gifts. I got enough that I was able to keep two for us, and I really like them. I am able to keep both in my purse all the time without them being in the way, and it's nice to just pop them out when we make a quick stop at the grocery.
Additionally, I have picked up three different eco-bags that are grocery store-themed. At Harris Teeter in North Carolina they sell a really nice tote for 99 cents to their card members (you know, the little value-added card grocery stores give you to get discounts, all the while they track every purchase you make in a creepy 1984-esque way?). I had only seen similar bags back home for over $1.99 each, so I was impressed and purchased one. Upon returning home, our Hen House & Price Chopper had both added similar bags to their stock, selling them at the same price, so I picked up one from each place. Those bigger totes we will keep in the cars at all times (assuming we can remember to return them to the car after using them, which has proven to be more difficult than one would think).
We routinely end up at the grocery without any of the bags in hand, which is frustrating, but we're getting better at it. Plus, at Price Chopper they give you a 5 cent discount when you use a reusable bag! Very nice.
Additionally, I have picked up three different eco-bags that are grocery store-themed. At Harris Teeter in North Carolina they sell a really nice tote for 99 cents to their card members (you know, the little value-added card grocery stores give you to get discounts, all the while they track every purchase you make in a creepy 1984-esque way?). I had only seen similar bags back home for over $1.99 each, so I was impressed and purchased one. Upon returning home, our Hen House & Price Chopper had both added similar bags to their stock, selling them at the same price, so I picked up one from each place. Those bigger totes we will keep in the cars at all times (assuming we can remember to return them to the car after using them, which has proven to be more difficult than one would think).
We routinely end up at the grocery without any of the bags in hand, which is frustrating, but we're getting better at it. Plus, at Price Chopper they give you a 5 cent discount when you use a reusable bag! Very nice.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Water Water Everywhere...
About a month ago we decided to stop using so much bottled water and invest in a new purifier. We have always had a faucet purifier, but I am very touchy about tap water and have a problem differentiating between tap water that doesn't go through the purifier and tap water that does. We were going through a lot of bottled water - I was using at least 2 bottles a day, which is not just costly but also extremely wasteful. So, we have started the process of curtailing that habit.
We purchased a Brita water pitcher - the model that is not technically a pitcher, but that sits in your fridge and has a little spigot on it. I still take a bottle of water to work with me each day and refill it throughout the day, but when I get home I use the filtered water to refill the bottle instead of using a new bottle. On the weekends I rarely use a bottle of water at all, unless we go somewhere and I want to take one with me. I have noticed that I drink a lot more water at home now, which is good. I think Scott hopes to figure out the monetary value of all this and how much money we will save as well as how many bottles we will keep from using. He's a geek that way.
My hope is to get to the point where I'm not using bottled water at all, but instead have a re-useable bottle that I can re-fill at work and home. So far I have not found a suitable bottle for this purpose. I like the normal water bottles because they are just the right size - all of the re-useable bottles tend to be way too big for what I want/need. The next step is to find that "perfect" bottle that I can use all of the time and stop buying bottled water all together!
We purchased a Brita water pitcher - the model that is not technically a pitcher, but that sits in your fridge and has a little spigot on it. I still take a bottle of water to work with me each day and refill it throughout the day, but when I get home I use the filtered water to refill the bottle instead of using a new bottle. On the weekends I rarely use a bottle of water at all, unless we go somewhere and I want to take one with me. I have noticed that I drink a lot more water at home now, which is good. I think Scott hopes to figure out the monetary value of all this and how much money we will save as well as how many bottles we will keep from using. He's a geek that way.
My hope is to get to the point where I'm not using bottled water at all, but instead have a re-useable bottle that I can re-fill at work and home. So far I have not found a suitable bottle for this purpose. I like the normal water bottles because they are just the right size - all of the re-useable bottles tend to be way too big for what I want/need. The next step is to find that "perfect" bottle that I can use all of the time and stop buying bottled water all together!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Energy Optimizer
Today I applied for us to receive an Energy Optimizer unit through KCP&L (Kansas City Power & Light, our electric company). Basically, they upgrade your thermostat and you give them the ability to "cycle" your air conditioning on days that are extremely hot. On the hottest weekday afternoons from June through September, demands on KCP&L’s system are the highest. At these times, they may either raise the temperature a few degrees, or cycle the air conditioning compressor off and on for 15-minute increments for no more than 4 hours. This means that the air conditioner still circulates air, it's just not "conditioned" air. From their description they only take advantage of this option between noon and 5pm on weekdays, and we're never home then anyway. It's good for the environment and our electricity bill!
The cool thing about this is you can control your thermostat from the internet! We would be able to turn it up or down from any computer hooked to the web, which will be great when we are on vacation or if the weather changes drastically during the day. It would be nice to turn the thermostat way down when we go to North Carolina to visit my parents this winter, but turn it back up from their house before we head home so it's a comfortable temp when we get there! Convenient and wallet-friendly!
I don't know how long it will be before I hear back from them about getting it all set up - they have 1,000 units in place in the KC area already, and it sounds like the demand is pretty high, so I don't know how long it will be before we get called. I look forward to it, though. I think it's great that KCP&L is offering a program of this nature. I hope that a majority of KC residents take advantage of it!
The cool thing about this is you can control your thermostat from the internet! We would be able to turn it up or down from any computer hooked to the web, which will be great when we are on vacation or if the weather changes drastically during the day. It would be nice to turn the thermostat way down when we go to North Carolina to visit my parents this winter, but turn it back up from their house before we head home so it's a comfortable temp when we get there! Convenient and wallet-friendly!
I don't know how long it will be before I hear back from them about getting it all set up - they have 1,000 units in place in the KC area already, and it sounds like the demand is pretty high, so I don't know how long it will be before we get called. I look forward to it, though. I think it's great that KCP&L is offering a program of this nature. I hope that a majority of KC residents take advantage of it!
Cutting the Paper
For many years we have relied on paper towels at meal time, to clean up messes, to wipe our hands dry. I have always understood how wasteful this is, but just couldn't get out of the habit. Last weekend we started the process to finally break it. We bought some inexpensive but nice cotton napkins that we can use a few times then wash. Bought them in a bunch of pretty colors, too. I think we spent $18 and got 12 napkins. We also bought a package of 6 bar mop dishcloths for cleaning up messes - $8. This way we can use our handtowels specifically for our hands, rather than using them to clean up messes and then not wanting to wipe our hands on them. =) For me I guess it comes down to getting excited about a change so I want to do it, and then eventually just getting used to it and making it part of the routine. We'll see how the napkin thing is going in a month.
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