Green remodel follow-up

I've been enjoying the bamboo floors for 6 months now, and stumbled upon an article on Slate.com today that had me revisit the decision.

If I'm remembering properly, this is the flooring that we bought.
I have searched and searched but I can't find anything about this company on the internet. Next time I'm at HD, I'm going to look for the company's number on the box... although it's possible i'll have to call HD instead.

I'm still pretty happy with the floors. They're easy to clean and haven't undergone any real damage since I've been using them daily. I wonder, though, about the points cited in the Slate article.
What kind of sealant is on there? what kind of growing practices were used on that bamboo?

In the end, i guess, there's only so much we can do. There are only so many hours in the day. I hope that, like my Prius purchase, my buy will spur others to also buy bamboo products and make them more popular and prevalent. But I can't spend all day, every day researching the minutae of different companies. It feels exhausting.

I'm doing the best I can, I guess, and ultimately I'm happy with those floors b/c they were the best decision I felt I could make.

And they are just so pretty...

Thanks, Mom

There's been discussion around the office of late about moms.

My mom made an awesome wall hanging that I get to babysit until she has a place to display it.

But to the point, Stephanie brought up just how green our moms have always been, and we're only just now actually taking their advice. She's writing her mom a letter for mother's day (their tradition left over from the days of post-grad-no-cash-even-for-ramen, and quite a green tradition in and of itself), and this year she's writing about how her mom was green before it was cool.

Some stuff we brainstormed about mom-advice that now everyone is touting as being green:

Let it Mellow - why waste water on just flushing pee? Even I, in my please-dear-lord-let-it-sell-soon condo with the dual-flush toilets lets it mellow once or twice before flushing. You can save 1-7 gallons per flush depending on your toilet!

Washing dishes by hand - this is actually not true. Steph was talking about how her mom made them fill one side of the sink with hot water and the other with cold so that they didn't use running water or the dishwasher. This was true, with older appliances, but with the new Energy Star appliances, it turns out that even the most disciplined hand-dishwashers only equal the efficiency of newer dishwashing machines (according to a German study). Your best bet for greening your dishes is to use a soap that's biodegradable like Seventh Generation or the Melaleuca stuff I get).

Turning off lights when you leave a room - I've actually seen an increase in my electric bill since I started leaving a bunch of lights on. Since it's on the market, I leave the lights on when I know people will be coming to view the place, and it really is costing me money.

Close the refrigerator/front/back/car door - If you've never heard Jeff Foxworthy's imitation of his mother yelling out the front door "we're not gonna heat up the neighborhood," I highly suggest it. This is just good advice, and to take it a step further, think about adding those little insulator pads to your electrical outlets and light switches and moving your fridge away from the stove or dishwasher so it doesn't have to work so hard.

Use one cup a day - I've pretty much swapped over to all reusable cups, but even with that I end up using three or four a day. Steph and I had the same experience as kids, her in her own house and me at my cousin's - we were only allowed to use one cup a day, and we had a spot on the counter where we sat it when we were done with it. This can really cut down on the number of times you fill up your dishwashwer!

Hang the clothes out to dry - a while ago, Burban mom had a great string of posts about reducing her use of their clothes dryer. I'm not there yet (oh, I dream of the days I'll be in a place that's not for sale), but I can't wait. I did drag out the drying rack when i was living down at Matt's, and it was great. I kept it in the laundry room, where it was already warm.

Clean your plate - I always felt like this was encouraging me to overeat, but really, if we thought about the amount of food we put on our plates to begin with , we'd end up with the same result. Check out Crunchy Chicken's Project NOWASTE.

No buying drinks - when i was a little little kid, we weren't allowed to buy drinks when we went out to eat - we could get water or sometimes milk. This rule fell by the wayside as we and the Grand Southern Tradition of sweet tea wore our mother down, but my stinginess has brought me back to it, and brings up another great point about drinking bottled beverages, especially water. Just don't do it.

I'm sure we'll be coming up with others over the next week as we get ready for Mother's Day, but that's all we've got for now - any suggestions from y'all?

Good news abounds as we head into March

Well, today is a red-letter day in my greening little world - it is my last day at my current job, meaning that I will be starting my new job on Monday! I told you before about some of the green-issues I had with my job, but another one was that I was still driving too much for my tastes - about 20 miles round trip a day - make that up to 40 if i went home or out for lunch.

The new job (can you hear me squealing with excitement?) is only .6 miles from my intended new condo (still waiting on the old one to sell before I can get into the new one, but even if the world ended and I moved back in, it's only 3.3 miles from the old one!)! I WILL GET TO WALK TO WORK!

I cannot tell you how exciting this is. As much as I love the little Prius, she's been put through her paces with these 40 mile drives back and forth from Murfreesboro, and walking to work will seem like HEAVEN (I hear Sinatra crooning faintly in the background...)

And that 40 mile drive is weighing even more heavily on me with the rising gas prices (gas in the 'boro hit $3.09 last weekend, the highest I've seen it down there - the highest I've ever seen was $3.33 on the corner of Belmont and 21st after Katrina). And timely as ever, my uncle popped this in my inbox this morning - Volkswagen is unveiling a hybrid that's supposed to get 69.9 mpg.

So a happy Leap Day to you all! VU Baseball began last week, and the Music City Classic is underway as I type. Come on Spring, get sprung already!

Green Remodel phase 2: bathrooms & painting

Obviously this remodel is getting to me - three days late on posting! Last week we tore up the carpeting in the back bedrooms. It was only 2 years old, and with the exception of about 5x11 feet in one room, was clean and totally usable. I put in on Freecycle and within 4 hours, found someone to come get it that same night! Freecycle is AWESOME.

Anyway, we are now laying the bamboo flooring, so my mind is of course looking forward to the next project: bath fixtures, toilets, countertops + sinks, and painting!

First of all, i did not know it, but you can replace the face of a shower fixture without actually having to install a completely new set-up. I was looking at something like this, but then decided that, since the plumbing is perfectly fine, it would be better to look to replace the rusty facing on the shower fixtures. We're still looking for a place to buy them.

As for the toilets, I think this might be my favorite 'green' item of the moment - a dual-flush (or "dual flow" or "european") toilet. These toilets let you use only a little bit of water if a big flush isn't necessary. This is so much better than letting something "mellow"! This should really be a visible 'green' upgrade, so I'm anxious to see if people like it. (if you search eBay for "dual flush toilet", bunches will come up - I think we're going to buy this one)

On to the countertops... we're still not sure what we're going to be replacing the bathroom sink countertops with. There are three options: silestone (what's in the kitchen), granite (a piece from the salvage yard), or "vetrazzo". Vetrazzo is the brand name (like Kleenex) for a concrete + glass slab. We are in the process of getting an estimate from 3D Concrete Design down in Murfreesboro. The concept is really cool - use recycled glass and concrete to make a really stunning, unique countertop. Check out their site for an idea of what i'm talking about.

On top of the countertops, we're going to have vessel sinks, the kind that sit on top of the countertop like a bowl. They have perfect ones at Southeastern Salvage, but they didn't come with the fixtures (which are insanely expensive at Home Depot), so we bought them off eBay instead.

Lots of 'green' stuff is about being healthy, and the paint we're going to use is more on the 'healthy' side than the truly green side. Dubbed "low VOC" (VOC meaning "volatile organic compounds"), it will smell less and release fewer harmful chemical compounds. Low-VOC paint is new - not recycled (which you can get but isn't good for interior surfaces) - but it is specifically formulated to not have that "off-gassing" effect that a lot of products have. Check out this article for more information.

So, that wraps up today's remodeling post - I'm sure there's more to come, as we are neck-deep in jazzing this place up. Next post, I'll talk about keeping your body healthy while doing a remodel - not an easy feat in many places, where demolition can be quite a rough ride!

Green Remodel phase 1: floors, tiling & lighting

So, we're getting pretty gung-ho about this green remodel!

Admittedly, some of the stuff we have done thus far has not been very green - we did buy standard lumber to finish out the header in the kitchen/living room (to create a bar pass-through from the kitchen to the living room, creating an actual dining area), and we have used standard sheetrock to finish it out. The door we put in to replace the window in one of the bedrooms was just a normal ole door - nothing really special except that it should be MUCH more insulative than that old drafty window that was there.

Still, we're working on some really big projects that ARE green, including flooring, tiling and lighting.

The flooring is what i have been most excited about for the longest time - we have 100% bamboo sitting in boxes ready to be laid. We looked for a long time for a product that was not veneer - I do love the look of bamboo, but what really flips my skirt up is the fact that bamboo is so very sustainable. Yes, taking out the old flooring to put in new isn't exactly 'no impact', but the idea here is to do a remodel, which buyers want, while also being as low-impact as possible. We are planning to 'freecycle' the old floors if possible, so ultimately i hope that someone will get some use out of the old wood floors.

The bathroom tile we're using is standard ceramic tile, which is made out of mud and then baked in ovens. There are tiles that are sun-baked, but they break easily; one of the perks of using ceramic tiling is that, if you get a quality product, it should last for a really long time (scroll down for the meaty part). We were able to buy this at the closest Home Depot, rather than have something specially shipped (I'm going for the least of any evils here while being on a tight budget, so I grudgingly went to HD for the purchase). We will install this ourselves in a few days, over the existing, broken/gross tiles. Sadly, Home Depot does not offer any overtly 'sustainable' tiling (they have this promo going called "Eco Options," so I thought they might, but the store associate we talked to didn't have ANY clue about this. If you're going to shop big-box, you've definitely got to come prepared and know exactly what to ask for. Sure, our tile is made of mud, but what about the grout compound? and what about the manufacturing process?)

We have already had the new lighting installed; we purchased 'Radium' track lighting from ikea - this replaces the old tracklighting, and it's only mildly green. First of all, they're halogen lights, which are the gluttons of the lighting world. However, these halogen bulbs have a lower-wattage than those used in the Home Depot version of the fixture. So, you get the same pretty lights without as much of an energy sink. We will also be reusing an old tracklight set for above the bar area, and reusing some old pendant lights. The rest of the house will be outfitted, where possible, with CFL bulbs (there are already a few).

So, that's it for the biggest projects - next up, I'll talk about the bathroom counters & sinks, dual flow toilets, and re-painting. Also,

If you're still hungry for more info, check out this site... I am finding it incredibly useful!

my A/C addiction - an addendum (new thermostat)

The delayed post can be entirely explained by the fact that my life is in complete physical chaos due to the remodel/possible move.

Since all I can think about is that, I suppose it's appropriate to talk about something green that we're doing in the remodel (in amongst many un-green things, like floor refinishing and buying plastic tubs for packing).

I'm installing a new thermostat that is programmable. It's most likely that I won't get to see the benefits of it (no heat for me!), but it is DEFINITELY green - it automates the temperature control in your house, so you can set it to be less or more depending on when you're home, and you can schedule it for specific days (like, say you are away from the house from 8am-8pm on Mondays but home by 5 on Tuesdays, you can set it to that schedule)

Not only that, but they don't contain mercury (the analog ones do), and they are supposedly more accurate (because you can set it exactly to 75 as opposed to just turning the dial close to the 75 mark).

Now, if you're really crazy, really type A, or really nerdy, you could pick yourself up one of these puppies. It's a thermostat that you can control remotely over the internet. Sounds like something my brother (who has a remote to control his ceiling fan) would LOVE. Probably those who would get the most use out of it are people who travel on a regular and impromptu basis - perfect for me, especially with the crazy who-knows-when-or-for-how-long travel to Georgia I do. If i decided to stay for a day longer or go home early, i could have the atmosphere in my house be ready for me.

Yes, it's a very high-maintenance sort of thing, but it eliminates the cost of forgetfulness, which is the biggest selling point for me.

I am a little apprehensive, though, because I am intensely slow to learn new devices (there's still stuff my cable box will do that I don't know about). Maybe I can just make my brother be in charge of it - if i got an IP one, he could just manage it remotely all the time! Man, wouldn't that be an awesome way to screw with someone - hack into their thermostat!

Ahhh, what a cool world we live in :)

New Year's Resolution - stop whining and start acting

I'm pretty sure that, with my hamburger-part-2 post, I hit rock bottom.

I was pretty depressed about price versus cost.
Probably, this depression came from the fact i was eating crap (read: free crap).
I feel SO MUCH BETTER when i eat fruit for breakfast and spinach salads for dinner!

Anyway, just about the time I hit "publish" on that post, I started reading Going Green: "A Step-A-Day Program for Lazy Suburbanites". It's a blog by a mom who is making one change a day toward going green.

WOW. She is so positive, ambitious, creative, and driven! One change a day! Reading through all of her past posts, I have decided to get busy doin' instead of being busy whining.

Thanks to an awesome Christmas present from my brother, a "Living Green" page-a-day calendar, I think I'll have an easier time of keeping perspective on all of this.

After all, I already do some pretty green stuff without really thinking about it... so perk up, D!

- I don't use paper towels anymore (still using toilet paper, though... there are some people who are much braver than I am!)
- I don't run the water hardly at all when i brush my teeth
- The heat hasn't been on all winter, and I've used the fireplace like 3 times.
- I'm not showering and/or washing my hair as much. I find that, when I'm doing *nothing* but sitting all day (i.e. not going out for dinner with friends or going to a meeting during lunch), I don't need to shower every day. My day job really is conducive to not showering as often, so if all I'm doing in a day is going to work and back, i can shower every other day. Washing my hair every other day has become so much of a habit that I forgot to wash my hair the other morning on an "on" day! It didn't make too much of a difference, really, so i might need to re-evaluate the every-other-day thing.

Stuff I still consciously think about:

- Recycling. Some days, I just want to throw stuff "away". Since I'm in the middle of a giant house purge (moving soon, maybe?), I'm getting rid of a lot of stuff, and it's very tempting to just throw it in the trash. The sheer volume is overwhelming. I have been able to set some stuff aside for eBay, and recycle some parts of things (cereal boxes, for example) - other stuff (damn those envelopes with plastic windows!) seems like it takes too much mental energy to figure out if it can be recycled.
- Turning off lights. I have to consciously make myself turn off lights, because I'm so lazy I'd really rather not - so it's still not a habit. But I'm getting there!
- The dogs' mess. The topic of Georgia being on reusable puppy pads deserves a post of its own - but suffice to say that, though I've got it set up so that cleaning up after the dogs is relatively green, there are still parts of it that are hard. When we travel, Georgia uses reusable pads and I use paper towels to clean up messes. When I give them baths, I use too much water. The Green Pets Initiative is still a work in progress! More on that later.
- Treating my car gently. It really requires presence of mind to maximize my use of the Prius. Easing up on acceleration, turning it off when i run inside somewhere, driving at 60 on the highway instead of 75, using the windows instead of the a/c - all of this really takes concentration for me.
- Buying stuff. Christmas had me thinking about how much stuff I and my family buy. It's really quite staggering. Even with my recent reductions, we're still going through SO MUCH STUFF - which creates trash, of course. I did some reading over the past week about "green" Christmas presents - buying handmade, giving sustainable gifts (events or services rather than things), and one of the items I stumbled on (I can't find it now) was about how one woman asked for things like having a family member take one less shower a week - this was a gift to her because it not only helped her in her pursuit of being greener, but it also meant that if she wanted to take a longer shower every once in a while, she could rest easy knowing that someone else was using less water so she could enjoy that luxury.

So, moving forward into 2008, I'm very optimistic. I don't expect to ever fully change my stripes (my packrat tendencies are primal, somehow), but developing new habits is good practice for life as well as "living green". The page-a-day calendar will help me stay focused on my desire to develop good habits, which is what I hope 2008 will be about.

scary but cool experience - call your congressman!

Okay, so thanks to the wonders of Facebook (O, Facebook, what would I do without you?), I found out that H.R. 3221 is going to be brought up for a vote this week.

Here's part of the note from the creator of the group 'Advocates for Energy and Environmental Policy' Gabriel Koch...

At some point this week (the specific day has not been set), the House of Representatives will vote on whether to increase fuel efficiency to 35 miles per gallon and whether to use 15% of our electricity from renewable energy sources.

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES, both where you attend school and where your home is, and ask them to vote for this bill, H.R. 3221. You can find out who your Representative is and what their number is at www.house.gov

If you have a second, pick up the phone and call your Rep.

Davidson County is District 5 (with some of the south in District 7 - check out a map here.), and our Rep is Jim Cooper. I called his D.C. office today at 6:30PM EST and someone answered!

It was a spur of the moment thing, so I'm not sure that I sounded as well spoken as I might have liked, but the guy who answered was really nice, and took my name and address.

I am not sure if I've done anything useful, given Toyota and Detroit railing against it, but it was really easy (if sort of scary - I got a little stage fright!), and felt very green indeed.

So! Go forth and call! And if you can do it with free long distance, even better!

Irritating news from the auto-industry

I just got wind of an article in Newsweek about Toyota and how their actions speak louder than their words when it comes to being green. (Thanks, NoImpactMan, for the link!)

Basically, Toyota is talking a big game (have you seen their Why Not? ads? - if you go here and click on the Advertising navigation link, you can see the commercial), but they aren't fully committed to lowering mpgs.

Toyota—in contrast to Honda and Nissan—sided with Detroit to try to block legislation currently before Congress to boost fuel economy for all new vehicles to 35mpg by 2020, up from 25mpg today. Toyota, in a familiar Motown refrain, says achieving such a hard target is not technologically feasible

I think that "technologically feasible" here actually means "financially feasible." They can't reach the target number for their quarterly earnings if they have to go so high on mpgs. Yet another reason I wish more companies could go "B" (here's info on B-Corporations from a previous post) - because that bottom line is most likely the reason Toyota is waffling so badly. The Prius isn't enough of a money maker (because of the gas-electric propulsion system), so Toyota is also producing vehicles like the 14 mpg Tundra pickup, which has a profit margin of $10K. The thing is, I probably would have paid $5K more for my Prius! Yes, a big reason I bought it was the mpg factor, but another BIG factor was that I wanted to support green technology! So if more money is required, LET'S DO IT! Argh!

I'm sad that my Prius purchase went to a company that is not full-on behind the green movement. I still love my prius mightily (she's getting about 55 mpg right now), but I'm disappointed that the company I thought I was supporting in their efforts is trying to undermine my efforts (which are so small compared to what they can do).

Man, maybe it's the weather, but my posts are depressing lately. I promise posts that are more optimistic soon!

How very un-green my relatively green job is

Happy post-Turkey day to you all! I must say that I am very thankful for many things, including being in control of my own bowel movements, the luxury of being able to travel to see family, and the game of football. Anyhow, here's my belated offering from last week that, in a haze of sugar and pigskin, I didn't post :)


Most of you know my many and varied feelings about my Day Job, and this isn't exactly the forum to discuss it, but a week or so ago, an email came through the pipeline that seemed relevant to this discussion.

-----Original Message-----
...
Sent: Fri 11/16/2007 1:27 PM
Subject: It's easy being green...

I know that with all of our busy schedules, thinking about what we can do for the environment isn't exactly top of mind. But did you know that by reducing power consumption and monitoring paper usage we can help save money - and the planet?

* 10,000 sheets of paper are used by a single office worker every year and 95% of it is thrown away without being recycled. Businesses that actively manage their printing infrastructures can reduce their overall cost of printing by up to 30%.
* Companies can save 40% to 80% of their energy costs simply by adopting conservation practices like making sure lights are turned off when not in use. Something as simple as making sure you turn off your monitor at night and shutting down your computer completely will really add up if everyone participates.

Please look for ways to save electricity and paper over the next year - it really can make a difference.

Thanks,

Now, I should be happy about this, right? Well, yes, in a sense I am. I appreciate that someone other than me is saying something about this. Since I started work there last November, I have desperately tried to reduce the amount of paper I use. It was just getting ridiculous, printing out every step of the processing for sending out an e-mail. Still, though, we are required to print 3-5 sheets of paper for every eBlast we process, and that's just for the client I work on. I've noticed that, for other clients, there's even more paper. And this is just for e-mail. This is to say nothing of the junk mail they print and mail from the back warehouse.

I don't know much about the environmental impact associated with the energy & resources used for electronic file storage, but at first glance it seems that storing all of these files electronically, on an external jump drive or something, would HAVE to be less impactful than printing out the documentation! Yes, like with my Prius, there is an environmental cost to the production of the microchips, and to the energy supply needed to run the electronics.
However, we can't assume that business will simply stop. So can't we use the reusable microchips to store our documentation? I am sure that the answer lies in the fact that it is "more expensive" to store the data electronically. Which touches back on the idea of economies of scope - the cost of the paper appears less than the cost of the microchips, even though ultimately we are paying a huge price that isn't readily quantifiable.

I asked if we couldn't do all of the documentation electronically, but was told that there still had to be paper documentation of some sort. ::sigh::

So that's my two cents on the first "*". On the second "*", I began to recognize that this person was appealing to people's sense of "cost". But in reality, people don't understand that energy cost as being borne by THEM! They see the Giant Corporation as bearing the "cost," and this has no real impact on their paychecks or their consciouses.

I think that this person's email would have been much more effective had s/he appealed to the employee's sense of morality.

My worry over being clean while being green, part 2

So now you all know about my historical mania over being clean, but what I didn't talk about yesterday was the product-end of the whole thing.

One of the first times I was really confronted with what we're putting into our environment came from my friend AblePonder, when she told me about how she was looking for a shampoo without sulfates. AP was living off-campus in a darling little house, and we were both taking that Oil & Water Use class. While talking about the expense of living off-campus and the expense of living, generally, she mentioned something about the sulfates in shampoo, and that started a domino effect in my head about the stuff I use to clean, both me and my living space.

Now, it wasn't immediate, but it got me curious, and then curiouser. I was shocked at the price sticker on "environmentally safe" shampoos and cleaning products - and especially when something is expensive, I'm slow to change. I bought some shampoo from my stylist, Shana, that was sulfate free; she was selling it because it was safer for color-treated hair (oh yes, that's another topic altogether, one that I'm afraid to start researching). But I started talking to her about it, and got more than I bargained for.

Shana had just started buying Melaleuca products, and got me to go to one of those in-house presentations (Amway, anyone?) where they convince you to buy their stuff. I was not really enthused about it, because I didn't really have an extra $50 a month to spend on something silly.

But then, of course, due to peer pressure I started using the stuff. I'll quit after a few months, I thought. But then I started taking the vitamins. I don't know if it's psychosomatic or what, but I sleep better and have more energy when I take the vitamins on a regular basis. And since I was buying the vitamins, I started trying the other stuff, too. This was around the time that I moved out of my Hillsboro Village apartment and into my Green Hills condo, and I was cleaning a LOT - cleaning the apartment to move out, cleaning the new house to move in... and I used the Melaleuca cleaning stuff to do it. It didn't burn my throat and nose, and it didn't make me dizzy, like 409 or Clorox cleanup does.

As I've used this stuff more and more, I keep being surprised by it. Using their body wash & deodorant, I don't smell at the end of the day (or the next day, since I've started alternating days on showering). I always felt like using the Olay body wash and Secret deodorant that I was just covering up my smell - but with this new stuff I really feel like I just smell like myself, not a stinky, gross version of myself.

Still, I wasn't really sold on the "Melaleuca" label... until my ex-roommate Alex moved out. Alex's dog, Chance, had assisted Alex in making the carpet in their bedroom really gross. It's pretty near impossible to keep the carpets clean anyway, what with the city dirt combined with the tar-sealed parking lot outside and the wood floors in the rest of the condo. I told Alex that he'd need to clean the carpets after he moved out. Well, Alex was pretty strapped for money, and so he and his girlfriend tried to clean the carpets themselves. They got into my cleaning closet and got out the "Sol-u-mel" stuff, which Melaleuca bills as a triple-threat stain-remover, deodorizer and cleaning product.

I sort of hate myself for raving like this (I feel like I sound like an infomercial), but that stuff is AMAZING. Case-in-point was Alex's carpet. It went from dingy-grey to the off-white "ecru" it was when we moved in! I was really stunned. Not only that, but I started using it as an additive to my laundry when i did sheets and towels - it removes smells COMPLETELY. I wash my dogs' towels and rags, there is NO TRACE of urine or "dog"smell. My friend Steph used it to wash stuff that her cats had peed on, and it also came out of the laundry smelling like new.

Now, AP uses a lot of vinegar and baking soda when she cleans, and I've taken that up, as well. Using vinegar and water on the wood floors seems to be keeping that nasty black dust at bay, and baking soda is a great laundry and cleaning additive.

Frankly, even though I'm impressed by the Melaleuca stuff, there's still a part of me that wonders if I'm not making a mountain out of a mole-hill. Would using vinegar and baking soda on everything - from my hair to my laundry to my floors - not be just as effective? And cheaper?

I'm still quite in the middle of this thought process. With the new Whole Foods & Whole Body down the street, I've been wanting to try to get away from Melaleuca (because there's a minimum to buy every month, and there's a shipping charge, both bank-breakers - and the shipping isn't a very green option).

Any suggestions for stuff that you love would be very welcome! What do you use to clean?

My worry over being clean while being green, part 1

First, a little update for you all - since I turned off my a/c, my NES bill went down by 30%! This is very good for my pockets!

Now, on to this week's topic: being clean.

First of all, I've always been a little manic about being clean. When I was in elementary school, there were these two boys who smelled simply awful, and I was not very nice to them about it - I vividly remember telling them, in front of everyone, to stand behind me in line because they had to be downwind. I was not (nor am I, actually), a very discreet person. I don't like other people being dirty and I don't like being dirty myself. My dad is a pretty smelly person, and my dogs are pretty smelly, too. Trying to eliminate the smells and dirt around me is a losing battle that I continue to fight, and part of that fight for me has always been showering at least once a day, wearing deodorant like a madwoman and spending Sundays cleaning. I talked before about being sweaty; maybe this is where my being clean paranoia comes from? I'm extra-paranoid because I've always found myself to not be very clean? I'm not sure.

Anyhow, several things have conspired lately to have me thinking about being clean in a bigger sense than just me.

A while back, there was news of Cate Blanchett taking two-minute showers and foregoing hair-washing in an effort to conserve water and therefore be earth-friendly. I thought about it, and although i generally take short showers, I have started experimenting with only showering every other day... and it is actually okay. I wash my face in the morning and put my hair back or in a braid, and I don't find that I smell or that I look gross. Maybe this is because I do nothing but sit in an office chair all day - not moving equals not sweating. Maybe it's because i've finally made it out of greasy-gross adolescence. Maybe it's because, like with the a/c, winter makes it easier. Whatever it is, I'm doing okay with alternating days.

Another factor may be the new dog in my life, Madeline. Now, Georgia, who we've had since I was 10, has never really smelled. Sure, she'll lay in the sun every so often and come away stinking, but in general she's never had that signature dog-smell. Madeline, however, definitely smells. It's sort of a dog smell, but it's also sort of unique to her. I love cuddling with her, so maybe i've gotten used to it, but maybe overall i'm just getting less manic about being so hyper-clean all the time.

In October, Slate ran a story on why being really clean can cause problems. I've always agreed with this in theory (of course, not with any actual science or self-research to back it up) - I've heard that kids who grow up on farms are less likely to develop allergies, etc. I think that being so manic about it is akin to a lot of other manias - if we'd just let go and be sensible about things, we would be better off in the end. I mean, living in the city has sort of encouraged me to let go. I track in black sooty stuff every day and so trying to keep my floors clean all the time would just be insane. And with two dogs in the house, it's just not possible to keep the place free of hair - mine or theirs!

So with that, I bid you a hearty adieu this Friday - I'll be back tomorrow with a follow-up to this, to tell you about my obsession with green cleaning products and how much happier I am with them!

NBC's Green is Universal

WOW.

First it was Fox's Bones and the CW's Top Model... now NBC has jumped on the bandwagon, and how!

I was watching this week's The Office on my DVR last night, only to discover NBC's Green is Universal campaign. Apparently the head honcho mandated that all the shows include some green theme.

I was rolling my eyes, but I am also kind of excited. If pop culture can sell mainstream culture the green movement, then it will get even easier and cheaper to be green... maybe.

I think that it will still be hard. After all, it is being sold, which leads naturally in this consumerist era to "buy new stuff to be green!" It's a slippery slope, but I hope that those of us who aren't just trying to sell-sell-sell will be able to use this new pop development to our advantage to affect real attitude change.

aside: my favorite part of the NBC green site is about how to have a green wedding. It totally made me smile :) Also, shout out to my brother, who has used a push mower - we actually have one at my parents' house.

Taking the bad with the good, part 3: the Prius

Hymotion will be making their Hybrid conversion packs available to individuals in early 2008!!!

So I thought that today I would tell you all the story of my Prius, dubbed Thumper by my friend Saralyn.

Back in May, things were going well for me. I was up for a "fast track" promotion and I had finally decided that not only I was ready to make the commitment of buying a car, but I also knew which car I wanted.

The Toyota Prius had been on my mind for several years (all through driving two cars that I hated, that guzzled gas and coolant), and after much thought and research, I decided that it was worth the monthly car payment, and I took the leap. I bought a Prius (hahaha - "bought" meaning "put myself into debt for")

1. Though the payment would take up the entirety of my expendable income, I would save $60 a month or more in gas (depending on how many trips I took down to Murfreesboro & Georgia to see my family), and I should be getting a tax credit for the purchase, but it remains to be seen how much (I'm crossing my fingers so hard i'm cutting off circulation!)

2. Though I would have the mental stress of a new car (worrying about every little scratch and ding, driving thoughtfully instead of balls-to-the-wall abusive like with my other cars), I would have the opportunity to add a Prius to the road, helping to "spread the word" and talk about the technology.

3. Though the eco-cost of producing a new vehicle would be large, I would be supporting the hybrid technology, putting out fewer emissions and using less gas.

It was a lesser of two evils situation, and I chose to take the leap.

The landing has also been a take-the-bad-with-the-good experience, and here's why:

I didn't get that promotion (what a lesson in putting the cart before the horse), so now I'm consuming lots of mac-and-cheese, bananas and water at home, and I'm going into debt. This is pretty bad, because I love to eat fresh and organic. I love the new Whole Foods and would gladly spend my entire paycheck there, eating salads and breads and milk. So eating like a college student really stinks.

On the good hand, though, I am IN LOVE with the Prius. She runs so smoothly that it's fun to drive, I fill her up once a month normally instead of 3 or 4 times, and I get into conversations about her all the time. She gives me an excuse to talk about why I bought her, which lets me talk about Greener Nashville, shopping locally, eating organic... all the things that I love to talk about right now because I'm so obsessed with them. I feel good when I get in the car in the morning, instead of dreading that i'll be stuck on the side of the road, the car overheating because it guzzled a gallon of DexCoolant in just a month (thanks, Pontiac...). She also has a lot of trunk space (ahhh, we have so much in common).

So, owning the Prius has been both a bad and a good thing, but I do feel that it was the right decision to make. I was even more convinced of that when I saw the news about Hymotion's conversion packs.

Hymotion's Battery Range Extender Modules (BREMs) convert Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) into Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHEV) with 100+mpg fuel efficiency...

Right now, they're only available to fleets, but soon they'll be available to anyone. Obviously, they're going to cost thousands of dollars, but tax credits will supposedly be offered to those buying them (the bill has only been introduced, so this isn't for sure yet).

Back when I was thinking about buying it, I was sad that there wasn't a plug-in option. Yes, the energy from an outlet in my home is coming from fossil fuel (about 60%), but in buying the BREM, I would be one step closer to being independent of fossil fuel, just like i was a step closer with the purchase of my Prius.

I do think that buying less is one of the strategies I want to use for reducing my carbon footprint, but also think that the development of technology is going to be an important way for us, collectively, to reduce our consumption. It's not realistic to think that we will all completely stop driving, stop using electricity and stop eating food from far-away places. So, if we can do both at once - reduce our consumption while funding the development of new things, maybe we can get somewhere.

I just have to keep the idea of small steps in mind, because size is relative. After all, the Prius purchase was a big step for me, but a very small drop in the bucket for the alternative fuel industry. I hope that that big step was the right step to take.

Taking the bad with the good, part 2: my A/C addiction

Happy Friday, all!
Nov. 5 is my 25th birthday, so I have all sorts of fun plans for the weekend... and the Nashville weather is cooperating so well.
This is definitely my favorite time of year... the slant of the sunlight, the chilly nights that call for a jacket, the changing leaves...

But by far my favorite part lately is that I have been A/C free for three weeks now! The windows are thrown open, the door is open with a gate up to keep the dogs from wandering off, and I am looking forward to my electric bill.

It feels so good to have it turned off. The air is cold, which I love (I would be happy to have life at 40 degrees all year round), but it's fresh, too. Yes, I live in the city, but even the city-dirt has a tang to it that the A/C doesn't provide.

Colin over at No Impact Man talked about changing social norms a while back, and it got me thinking about having my front door open. I really like it - I like saying hello to the neighbors as they walk by, and the dogs love it, too, laying on the door mat and watching the squirrels and birds and people. This morning, because my door was open, my neighbor Sarah and her new roommate came by to say hi and we talked for 15 minutes or so.

I wish more people had their doors open around here - I'm not a social butterfly, but it did feel good to get to talk to Sarah for a bit. But thinking about it has got me apprehensive about summer - yes, it's far away, but I'm enjoying my open door and windows so much that I'll hate to see it end.

And at this point, I know I will see it end, because I haven't been able to live without cold air. In the summer, the A/C has to be below 73 at night or I can't sleep! I've tried (the penny-pincher in me had me turning it off to try it out), but i just ended up tossing and turning. Growing up (and now) my family keeps the house around 69 degrees, and we've never used the heat. We did have space heaters for the frigid winter months, but in general, our house was cold year round. Thinking about giving up the A/C, for me, is akin to thinking about not driving - it is so ingrained in my ritmo de vida that I am actually afraid to give it up! Changing this social norm, for me, is a scary proposition.

So I'm going to use these next cold months to think about how I can reduce my A/C consumption come spring. Maybe I'll just end up being a really sweaty person? Or maybe I'll give in and hope that by not using the heat for as long as I can this winter, when I turn down the thermostat this coming spring, I'll have been able to balance out my footprint a little.

Taking the bad with the good, part 1: CFL bulbs

A happy Friday to you all! I hope that, wherever you are, you/those you love/your things are not on fire. I've been watching the news and feeling very doomy and gloomy, but I heard this morning that a very sweet quilt shop out there is doing just fine.

Anyhow, today's post will try not to be as big-picture and pseudo-philosophical as the last few.

My consumer habits are, to say the least, less than perfect. Now, I haven't gone into Wal-Mart for over a month now, which I'm very proud of. I don't want to give them any more of my money. But still, I buy pre-packaged foods (oh, frozen Kashi meals, why do you have to be so good?) and I buy non-local foods and i get my cleaning supplies & vitamins shipped USPS ground from Melaleuca.

But, there are some green-alternative choices that I've been preoccupied with lately.

I bought some CFL bulbs to replace burnt-out filament bulbs in my condo. There are a few lights that I leave on pretty much all the time - the laundry room, where the dogs' stuff is (the vet confirmed that leaving lights on for them will help, given that they both have really bad cataracts), and my closet, which has an automatic doorframe switch that drives me crazy because the door doesn't latch well and therefore constantly pops open, leaving the light on. I also put one in the shower part of the bathroom. I don't want the dogs constantly running head-first into the washer/dryer (they do enough running into things as it is), and I'm not really doing a lot of small-print-reading in the shower or closet, so I thought that some low-watt CFLs would be a good swap for those places.

A while back, my dad put CFLs in all of their out-door lights and in their closets, and I HATED them. The light emitted really messed with my eyes. German Chancellor Angela Merkel complained about them, too (in case my opinion isn't quite enough - see paragraph 4). But those places don't really require much focus for me, so I gave it a go.

Thus far, it's working out well enough. The light means that I don't run into things. And the ones that I bought aren't the same as the ones that dad used, so they're growing on me.

However, and it's a big however, right after I bought the bulbs, I read on Slate.com about Wal-Mart pushing to sell fluorescent light bulbs.

CFLs appear destined to become a consumer staple, either because hordes of people realize they're cheaper or because the alternative will be prohibited... Thus far, green goods have been pitched to the top: expensive Priuses for guilty yuppies, solar installations for rich techies. But to have real impact, energy-efficiency products need to make economic sense to those who congregate on the lower rungs of the economic ladder.

That's awesome, I thought. It's good to hear that the green thing is making its way down to us normal people. I mean, just because I want to have a solar panel doesn't mean I can afford to get it. I pretty much put all my eggs in the basket that is my Prius. Maybe Adam Werbach is slowly-but-surely making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

But here's the kicker - those CFL bulbs shouldn't be thrown away in your normal garbage (thanks, NoImpactMan, for noting this!). The EPA isn't very helpful in explaining this to Joe Schmo on the street, but you can find info from them here. The EnergyStar website doesn't mention this until the very end of their page about the bulbs. CFLs are considered Household Hazardous Waste. Davidson County has a recycling facility off of Trinity Lane...

It seems like an awful lot of effort to exert when I thought initially that I was doing something good for the environment. I am willing to make that effort, but I wonder how many other people will also be willing? It's the same sort of thing as the beverage companies not wanting to be responsible for all of the empty plastic bottles that end up out there (see my post on Keep America Beautiful). NoImpactMan's solution is a pretty good one (see the end of his post about it), I think, but I'm skeptical and cynical enough to think that it won't happen without a fight.

All of this new technology is good, but if its side-effects are going to be polluting just as much if not more than the old technology that it replaced, we're just succeeding in fooling ourselves that we're going something good.

This all goes back to my main goal - think about what I choose to buy and do. I'd love to hear from y'all how you discipline yourself so that you do remember to be thoughtful. It's kind of and endless loop for me, so I've had to try and make it a habit, so that I don't have to consciously remember.

In my next post, I'll be talking about my Prius and it's battery - definitely another one of those, mixed-blessing, lesser-of-two-evils choices in my life.

The problem of hipocrisy in my little world

Thinking about coming to work today - after a wonderful weekend in the vibrantly green world of AblePonder and then two days in a miasma of being ill - reminded me of a post on AnimalBlawg.com about hypocrisy.

"Today it is impossible to avoid hypocrisy in any struggle against the status quo. The political and economic structures are constructed so that it is practically impossible to avoid being implicated in their workings." - quoted in the blog from Crimethinc’s Days of War, Nights of Love.

I feel as though I am often struggling against the status quo - the assumptions and habits of Corporate America, the habits and attitudes of consumerism, the attitudes and behavior of selfishness.

I guess what it all comes down to for me lately is that people buy into these structures without thought. I happen to be a big proponent of Ayn Rand's brand of selfishness - I think that people SHOULD take care of themselves! I think that capitalism and the service economy is great - people SHOULD be rewarded for their excellence, hard work and creativity!

It just all seems to fall apart out there (out here?) in the "real world."

At least I get the sense that I'm not alone in my (rather wimpy) rage at/against the system. Still and all, I find myself struggling with myself as I struggle against the system... You shouldn't have put that totally recyclable item in the trash - why did you stop at Sonic when you know full well you're buying a styrofoam cup and subsidizing the system that makes those cups - why, oh, why, can't you stop going into Wal-Mart just because it's cheaper? ... and the list of questions goes on.

I find it very similar to my constant (well... constant isn't the right word - more like recurring) efforts to eat healthfully and lose weight. The very real limits of time and money seem to beat me every time, and turn me into a hypocrite to boot. It's so much cheaper and easier to eat Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or stop at Sonic than it is to cook a healthy meal of grilled salmon and spinach salad. It's so much cheaper and easier to just throw the trash "away" than it is to haul it over to the recycling center.

It's as though I don't subconsciously really believe things that, consciously, I am convinced of and will bend your ear to breaking about.

High Fructose Corn Syrup? Bovine growth hormones? Poision!

NES's Green Power Switch? Public/Hybrid transportation? Important to invest in!

And yet, I just had a (definitely not grass-fed beef) burger last week... I drive my car to work every day... I stop at Sonic like I'm addicted...

This struggle with my weight and struggle with my carbon footprint are becoming eerily similar - I have good intentions, but in the end, I fail and eat a big, sugary doughnut -slash- throw away a trashcan full of recyclables.

It's a problem with consumption.

And I can't help but feeling that I, one who is gifted with (to reference NoImpactMan) a middle birth and a stellar education, am the worst kind of sinner/addict. Because I know the consequences of what I do, but I still do it.

Maybe if I can figure out how to be green, I can figure out how to be healthy, as well.