Green Testimonials

I'm surprised no one has replied to this yet, but here goes:

Already done/currently doing (not necessarily in order):

Bought a Prius
Began recycling
Initiated a department-wide recycling program for paper. newspaper, and plastic.
Ride bike/ride bus to school (not so much anymore since finished with classes).
Walk to grocery store and use the canvas bags (recycle the occasional plastic bags we do get).
Forgot to mention use of CFL's in frequently used lights in the house.

Future Plans:
Utilize green sources of energy as possible
Buy/build reasonable house for maximal usage
Try to use efficient building techniques for house
Convince wife to use solar energy
Buy other hybrid vehicles (plan now is another Prius or hybrid minivan)

 

Not as much as I'd like, but we're trying:

-Bought a Prius.
-We recyle & compost (but really, it's so easy to do these things in San Francisco, what with the recycling and composting bins!)
-My son wears cloth diapers that I wash at home.
-I buy as much local produce/food from farmer's markets as possible.
-I also try to buy as much clothing as I can from thrift/consignment shops instead of new.
-We freecycle/donate as much as possible, rather than trashing things we no longer need.
-We have an electric mower for our backyard.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

 

Already done:

Bought Prius
Insulated attic, weatherstripped doors.
Programable thermostat
Drip irrigation in yard on timers.
Compact fluorescents replacing incandescents as they go.
Installed Solatube tubular skylight in kitchen for light during the day.
Ceiling fans that reverse for winter.
Dog for heat during the Winter. (he sleeps in the bed)
Stepped up the recycling. City now takes metal food cans so am rinsing and recycling in addition to the plastic, glass, aluminum. Am also rinsing and reusing the plastic and glass bottles and cooking more at home, thus reducing the prepackaged food, take out and fast food. Using more Tupperware as opposed to Saran Wrap or aluminum foil.

This summer I will be replacing an old kitchen door that is coming apart at the seams with a new wood french door. Yes, more glass but I will also be putting film on the glass to cut the UV and heat. And the new door will fit better and be weatherstripped better. Yes, it is a slab door. Yes, I will be hanging it myself. I use a hand plane and a wood chisel. I already did the door into the garage.

Want to do:
I want to install photovoltaic.
I want to install an ondemand water heater.

Not enough money. May look in to a home equity loan but don't have the time right now.

Someday in the future:

Will be planting a few trees...have identified locations.
Remove film from windows and install better film.

I think someday I will insulate and drywall as much of my garage as possible. I don't do a lot of work out there and it is an unheated space so that would be a wash. But I do have the washer and dryer out there and would probably spend a little more time in the space doing workbench stuff if it was a little more comfortable.

My current job is 12 miles away. There may be an opportunity in the future to move to a location less than a mile from my house but there are no guarantees. That's why I bought the Prius. When my parents and I go somewhere I usually try to talk them into taking my Prius rather than there Cadillac. Not only carpooling but in a car with fewer emissions and better mileage. Of course my ultimate plan is to get them so used to my car that when the day comes for them to replace the Caddy...they'll either by a Prius or a Cambrid.

 

My "greeness" is limited to that of my budget. I've done whatever steps are available to me but the big ticket items are going to have to wait.

What I've done:

-Installed 9 rain barrels around my house.
-Sealed all leaks (still have to caulk my windows)
-Added 12 inches of insulation to my attic
-Put hillbilly plastic on my windows every winter
-Installed a new, double paned sliding glass door in the kitchen
-Killed half of my lawn and have installed native flowers, grasses, trees shrubs and vines.
-Just purchased an electric lawn mower for the remaining lawn
-Bought a Prius!
-Buy organic produce and humanely raised meat when available to me.
-Don't dump paints etc. down the drain.
-Use all natural cleaners (mostly straight vinegar)
-Use all natural laundry detergent.
-Recycle, recycle, recycle.
-Installed CFL's throughout the house.
-Installed ceiling fans to limit use of a/c.
-Installed a wind break of trees and shrubs to reduce the need for heat in winter and a/c in summer.
-Don't use any fertilizer, pesticides or herbicides at all.
-Conserve water and have cut down our daily use to around 70 gallons between my husband and I.
-Try not to buy anything unless I absolutely require the item.
-Turn off all lights in the house when leaving the room.
-Upgraded to energy efficient appliances.
-Volunteer to remove invasive species from public lands.
-Planted a butterfly garden in which around 80 different butterflies lay their eggs
-Use low voc paints around my house. (benjamin moore ecospec)
-Installed programmable thermostat
-Use canvas shopping bags everywhere I go.
-Didn't do this for the planet, but have incorporated a vegetarian diet for the past 20+ years. The lighter footprint on the planet was just an unintentional bonus. Ironically, out of everything I'm doing I believe this has the most profound, positive effect.

What I want, but don't have:
-Electric car
-Solar panels
-Passive solar house

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Suburban600 @ Jun 9 2007, 08:00 AM) [snapback]458605[/snapback]</div>

If preservation is a main goal, you may wish to consider a conservation easement. We're doing this along the creek on our lot. There are tax benefits to implementing this as well. Downside: Potential decrease to resale value.

 

--Bought a Prius.
--Replaced light bulbs as they died with CFLs--(Sam's Club has great prices, btw)
--Recycle everything possible
--Take home the recycling from work in my department (30 people or so)
--Changed to green energy supplier through Dominion Virginia Power
--Replaced old dishwasher and fridge with energystar models. Sold old appliances.
--Totalled Prius . Decided I couldn't afford another one (job insecurity), but went the route of the ULEV at least.
--Organic food (mostly)
--Shut off rooms of the house that I don't use frequently to reduce heat/AC needs
--Only use AC if temps get in upper 80s.
--Compost, compost, compost.
--Use manual rotary lawn mower for 2 out of 3 mowings.
--Invested several thousand dollars in companies like SunPower. (I did this mostly because of Warren Buffett. He said that he made his billions by investing in companies that interested him or he knew something about; he said he wouldn't invest in something he didn't know anything about, regardless of recommendations. So I invested in green energy. So far, it's paying off.)

I'd like to live in a green house with all the different tiles, panels, rain collectors, heating sources, and hot water heaters that we talk about at length here. However, it's not in my budget right now. I'll keep making changes and hopefully build up to that.

 

My turn:
- bought a Prius
- use CFLs
- recycle/freecycle
- installed insulated vinyl siding (OK, I had the installers do it)
- use "green" cleaners (Shaklee, Method, etc.)
- dug a hole so the wife could plant a tree

Future:
- replacement windows
- add insulation to attic
- re-weatherstrip doors
- PV shingles, maybe?
- on-demand water heater/solar powered water heater
- EV, if I find some extra $ in my pocket
- switch to green electricity
- develop electricity from cat/dog hair (this will win me my Nobel Prize )

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Skwyre7 @ Jun 11 2007, 01:33 PM) [snapback]459640[/snapback]</div>

Ha ha. I have three cats and a bunny. I'll donate all hair to you, even the clumps.

A note on the on demand water heaters. I've heard that these are great for small, low resident households but that if there's a lot of hot water multi tasking going on, they don't perform well. In other words, it would be difficult to take a hot shower and also run a hot laundry load at the same time. Same goes for homes that have a lot of people all wanting hot water at the same time. If anyone that actually has one would like to comment, I'd appreciate it as I had been considering these as an option for our tank replacement, when that becomes necessary.

 

I own a Prius. And leave it parked.

Yup, driving the Pruis is about the most environmentally damaging thing I do around here. So I don't do it all that much.

/smug

 

Prius
Solar Panels
Compost

 

I went Vegan.
We bought a Prius.
When we remodeled, we insulated and got better thermal windows.
CF bulbs all around.
Recycle as much as possible here.
Only biodegradable cleaners, personal care.
My cat is vegan (okay, so only her kibble is vegan. She grabs every fly she can, and if she nabs a mouse, what I don't know doesn't hurt me).
Cloth bags for shopping.
Joined food co-op.
We pay extra on our electric bill for "Green Energy Blocks"
Dear Hubby is vegetarian.

It takes 4200 gallons of water, per day, to feed the average American meat-eating omnivore.
It takes 300 gallons of water, per day, to feed the average American Vegan.

 

Painted the house 3 shades of Green :lol:

 

Here are some things I have done/am currently doing:

- Bought Prius to replace a Jeep Liberty (other car is a 1995 Honda Civic)
- Replaced light bulbs with CFL's
- Recycling
- Limit Heat (temp kept @ 60) and A/C use at home ( just have single unit for our bedroom)
- Instead of moving lawn every week, now do it every 2 weeks.
- Instead of taking trash to transter station every week, now do it every 2 weeks.
- Wash clothes in cold water ONLY.
- Contribute money to renewable energy projects such as wind farms.

Plan to:

- Convert Prius to PHEV when available if price is right.
- Install clothes line outside to cutdown, but not eliminate dryer use.
- Purchase Hybrid or PHEV when Honda Civic dies.
- Look into wind turbine and solar energy.

 

I like the green paint idea, but stucco looks awful in green, imo.

Ok here goes:
Done or doing:
considering Prius (drive small car and consolidate trips)
converting to CFLs as they go out.
no landscaping, no lawn (actually I'm just too lazy)
cutting down on waste in my lunches-- bento boxes, etc.
cloth napkins, etc.
I do take plastic bags but reuse them over and over and over.
Take my own water bottles (Nalgene and refill)
cold water laundry
replaced windows
computerized thermostat
going more local on produce, etc.
shut off a room I don't use (no heat or air)

Considering short term:
xeroscape front lawn (back au naturale) to cut down on maintanence (mowers, etc.)
donate so many credits to wind power projects.
much more local produce, meat, etc.
more green cleaners.
recycling (the city does not do this!)

Longer term:
solar thermal panels?
a bike? (I can't ride one that's why this is longer term).
cut down on meat...
plug in hybrid or solar


--des

 

kewl. Now, just replace the incandescent bulbs straight away. You're not gaining anything by keeping them around. In fact, they're costing you money!

 

Update:

The photovoltaic will be going in Aug. 6. After that's done I'll slowly be insulating the roof of the attic space.

I'm replacing the driveway (which is cracked and down to the aggregate) with Drivable Grass that will allow me to plant green living plants in between the little concrete squares. This will sop up some of the runoff from washing the car. It will be drip irrigated on timers to begin, but it eventually will be on it's own with rainfall. It will NOT be grass but some other sort of herbal ground cover. (Suggestions welcome)

Along with the UV film on the new French Door (currently on sawhorses awaiting paint and hanging) I'll be mounting an encloseable miniblind to the inside. This will further insulate the glass in the door.

The recycling goes well but I do have an awful lot of cardboard piling up. I may have to fill up the Prius and make a run to the recyclers at the landfill. The blue bins are only emptied every other week.

I don't think the budget is going to stretch to the instant on demand water heater so that's going to have to wait.

I will be repairing two windows this August with a special sash kit that is supposed to cut air leakage. After they're in I can fill the sash pockets around the windows. We'll see how it goes with these two before I commit to the rest of the windows. I looked into it and replacing the windows isn't as effective as keeping them. New windows would have to be replaced every 20 years whereas these are four times that old and will last another 100 years if taken care of. There's no insulation in the walls so doing the windows isn't cost effective. Putting a "lid on" by insulating the attic is the biggest bang.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jul 18 2007, 02:57 AM) [snapback]480786[/snapback]</div>

Love this idea! This'll also allow rain fall to permeate back into the ground instead of running off to the storm sewer. But, what's wrong with grass? There's a grass that's native here called Carex pennsylvanica (sp?) that grows to 6 to 8 inches, spreads by rhizome and is very delicately beautiful looking with pretty seed heads. Also, it's drought tolerant and it can grow in shade. I've seen it flourishing under Sugar Maples. Or, maybe there's a similar quality native grass for your area. Whatever you do, don't plant any introduced clover (Medicago or Melilotus) or you'll be sorry. Unless you want the crap in your regular garden carpeting the entire area. Supposedly creeping thyme is nice as it releases a scent when crushed by walking, etc. Pretty too. Whatever you plant, you may want to make sure it's not categorized as invasive or you'll be creating a world of work for yourself (and people like me who have to go remove this stuff from public lands).

I have a friend who owns a plumbing company who installed an on demand water heater. It's already required a part as it broke down. Second time I've heard that they still need refining in order to be a reliable replacement for conventional systems. Maybe you're better off that you're unable to afford it right now.

I'm most interested in how your driveway performs and any draw backs you encounter as when ours goes, we'll be looking to do something similar. However, I have to keep in mind snow and ice conditions as I live in a true winter climate.

I put attic insulation in last Fall. Supposedly the gas company told me my reliance dropped by about 30-40%, but I'm not feeling a great monetary drop. I know prices had increased, however. But, this summer I've noticed a tremendous difference with cooling requirements. I can now go to 90 degrees without having to turn on my air. Even with these hot outdoor temps, my internal temp remains at about 79 degrees. Last summer, any temps over around 83 required the A/C. Not for me, but for my pets. It truly has made a world of difference providing comfort in the warm months.

Lots of luck on your projects. Very cool you're able to do all of this stuff!

 

Only reason I'm keeping them, is that I am short and need someone to come over and do it.
The other thing is that I had gotten cool color ones and I wanted the warm color ones.

If you come over and change them, I'll do it today. ;-)

--des

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Jul 18 2007, 03:37 AM) [snapback]480783[/snapback]</div>