Great tips on using the web to reduce your footprint
June 11, 2008
This link was sent over to me by Derek. It is a great read, and I thought one of the coolest things was seeing how much solar panels would generate on your house using Virtual Earth. Some tips I had seen before, and others were brand new to me.
Also, a blatant plug for Derek’s band, Sun Tornado. July 11th in Baltimore at Metro Gallery.
Enjoy,
greg
Use the Web to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
From Wired How-To Wiki
Given the steady drumbeat of news about climate change, water shortages, food riots and high oil prices, many of us are pretty well-versed in the basics of protecting the environment.
What’s lacking, particularly for us tech-lovers, are the tools to help us live our on-grid, totally Wired lives with the smallest possible impact. And we do need some help. If everyone lived like North Americans, we’d need at least five planets to support our lifestyles.
Here are some online actions you can take to “plug in greener.”
This article is a wiki. Got extra advice? Log in and add it.
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iHitchhike
Ride sharing is an effective way of reducing the impact of transportation on the environment, but it comes with two thorny problems: How do you a) find a car going your way and b) make sure that driver isn’t a psycho? The Facebook app, Carpool, or something like it, could eventually be the solution. By using your own social network to search out rides, it allows you to differentiate between your friends and creepy truckers, and if the app can gain some traction — which it hasn’t yet — you could be hitching a ride anywhere with your mouse-button index finger, not your thumb. Or getting paid to provide rides.
Drive the “Network Effect” of Carbon Footprints
Back in July of last year, Clive Thompson wrote, “Imagine if your daily consumption were part of your Facebook page — and broadcast to your friends by RSS feed…. You’d work harder to conserve so you don’t look like a jackass in front of your peers.” Well, that day has come with the Facebook Carbon Minder application. Get it, do your calculations, and start shaming your friends.
Another must-read is Katie Fehrenbacher’s article on earth2tech about the “Network Effect” of carbon footprints.
Calculate Solar-Payback Time for Your Home
Sungevity allows you to get your home fitted for solar panels. Using Microsoft’s Virtual Earth satellite imagery platform, it calculates not just how much power the panels would generate, but also how long it would take you to recoup your initial investment. This image is the app’s workup for the apartment building that I live in here in San Francisco.
Fly Green
Flying to Vegas this weekend? A new calculator from TerraPass and TRX will show you which airline has the lowest carbon emissions for any route in the world.
Stop Your Junk Mail
GreenDimes is a classic win-win. You, as a consumer, get a service that removes you from catalog mailing lists and cuts down on the amount of junk that lands in your mailbox. By making your life better, you also help the environment, because all those catalog are printed on paper, and you can bet most of it isn’t the nice, recycled stuff. The company claims to have stopped 3.5 million pounds of waste already.
Offset Your Blog’s CO2 Emissions
CO2Stats lets you track the carbon dioxide emissions of your website, blog or individual posting. Based on the traffic it receives, the company calculates the carbon footprint of the content and offsets that amount of emissions. They hope to pay for this scheme by selling advertising.
More than 1,000 sites have signed on, and even though the widget’s design is simple, it works, albeit with a fairly minor impact.
Buy Data-Hosting Powered by Renewable Energy
If offsetting the emissions from the traffic to your site isn’t enough for you, try out GreenestHost or AISO and purchase some solar-powered hosting.
Plot an Alternative Route to Work
If you need to get from here to there, walking or riding your bike has a smaller environmental impact than taking a motor vehicle. But if you’re a novice like me, you might not know the best route across your city. That’s where Bikely comes in, a website that allows grizzled bike messengers to let you in on their fastest routes. Then, just send that data to the handlebar-mounted GPS you built, and away you go. l The same goes for taking public transportation instead of dragging your 2,000 pound wheeled metal exoskeleton into the company parking lot. Google Transit tops the list if you’re in an urban environment and want hitch a ride on your city’s people transporters.
Add Your Own Tips Here
We know you’re out there scouring the internet for good tools too, so let us know what sites you find most useful for reducing your impact on the environment.
Great way to rid yourself of Junk Mail
May 5, 2008
At our stores, I always call the catalogs myself and ask to be taken off of their mailing lists. It is pretty effective, but to do this at home is an entirely different story. There is so much junk mail coming in, that to imagine the scale nationwide, is pretty scary.
There is a pretty cool organization that can help you with it called Green Dimes. They get you removed from 95 percent of all the junk mail lists, and they give donations to American Forest, Trees for The Future, and Sustainable Harvest International.
Check out their site, and let me know what you think…
www.greendimes.com
21 things you didn’t know you could recycle
December 9, 2007
Coop America has put out a great article talking about all the “other” stuff that goes into landfills that could be recycled. I have included some other info that pertains to MOM’s, which I will put in bold and italic to separate it from the article..
21 Things You Didn’t
Know You Can Recycle Read more
Compost Your Pumpkin
October 30, 2007
see first comment for post
To Tumble or Not to Tumble?
May 7, 2007
Every week I accumulate a small pile of dirty clothes. Come Sunday, which is my chore day, I pick-up the pile and head down to the laundry room. I push the pile into my front loading washing machine, pour in a small cup of Seventh Generation laundry detergent and set it washing on cold. When I pull it out after the cycle, I have two choices: to tumble or not to tumble? Do I put it in our clothes dryer or do I hang it out on a clothes line? Do I consume energy or do I let the sun and breeze do the work? For me, the answer is simple. Hang drying clothes is free, it often dries faster than it would in a clothes dryer, it smells better (I think) and I’m giving a helping hand to the environment.
Clothes drying systems can be cheap to install. All you need are two pullies, at least a 20 foot long cord or thin rope, and some practice with your knot tying abilities. You pick two points in either your yard or even in your home, install a pully at either end, string the cord through, tie a knot, and get drying. Easy! If you don’t want to go through all of this, you can also get creative and hang dry your clothes over your stair banisters, or on hangers in open windows or in door frames. The key here is to get creative and find ways to avoid using the clothes dryer and making a positive environmental impact.
Tip #10 - Going Green With Building Materials
April 23, 2007
Around this time each year there are countless households throughout the nation making additions to their homes, renovating, making improvements, fixing leaky roofs, etc. With all these home improvements comes the materials. Instead of using new materials, whether it be doors, window frames, bricks or shingles, try finding previously used materials, which are just as reliable and a bit cheaper. (Not to mention the fact that you are using recycled materials and helping the environment.) You can also try finding “green” building materials, which are made from fast growing renewable resources, such as wood flooring made from bamboo or countertops made from compressed sunflower seed hulls. You can find local green building materials at Amicus Green Building Center
Tip #9 - Don’t Leave Home Without It
April 12, 2007
Many of the things that we do in our day to day lives we do without giving much thought, as it is all part of the routine. Every morning on our way to work or even late at night for that long drive home, millions of Americans pull over for a cup of coffee to go. These single use to go cups are sturdy, have a waxed liner so that your cup doesn’t fall apart and will come with a plastic sip lid for no splash. Ideal right? If millions of people are using these each and everyday, we’re looking at a ton of landfill waste as these cups are not recyclable. Solution: bring your own reusable mug. Simple! You won’t only be helping the environment out and doing your part, but also, at most coffee shops they will give you a little money back.
Tip #8 - Taking Care of Business
April 10, 2007
Pets are great to have around the home and can be some of our best friends. Greening our day to day lives doesn’t have to be just for us. We have talked on and off again on this blog about reusing what we can, reducing our waste production where possible and recycling everything else.
What about pet waste? Let’s stop to talk about this for a moment. We train them to go outside and do what they need to do, and we follow behind with a plastic bag in hand. These are plastic bags that we save up, knowing that we’ll use them nearly every day for just this task. While many people argue that they are reusing the bag, which is technically true, it can still be said that the plastic bag (a recyclable item) will head for the waste stream. Solution: Do your part by spending the extra few dollars on a roll of biodegradable / compostable “doggy bags”, and keep the plastic bags out of the landfills.
Tip #7 - Cycle Those Nutrients Around
April 10, 2007
As you prepare your dinner in the evening or crack those eggs to make your favorite cake, what do you do with your egg shells, vegetable clippings or even your leftovers? If you are a person that throws them directly in the trash, you are essentially throwing away gold. Your food scraps can be collected and composted in your yard to create a beautiful nutrient rich additive for your garden. Once composted, it is essentially the same thing that you are buying for $8 a bag from your local gardening shop.
So, what is composting? Good question. You are essentially taking all of your food scraps and putting them in either a) a pile in the corner of your yard or b) in a closed container with ventilation. The key to both of these is that the food waste is getting plenty of air as well as the heat from the sun. You mix the food clippings around once every couple of days and before you know it everything starts working together to break it down into what looks like soil. If done right, it should be unrecognizable and soil-like in about 40 days. The compost is not meant to replace soil, but meant as an additive, as it containers millions of the good nutrients that soil needs to be healthy and that plants need to grow well.
Tip #6 - In Control of the Temperature
April 9, 2007
Sometimes the biggest difference you can have in your home all starts with a push of a few buttons. What I’m talking about here is the change in your thermostat settings. In finding the right thermostat and settings for your home, you can save money on your heating bill and reduce your carbon footprint.
Here is a small list of things to get you started:
1) Find a thermostat for your home that you can program for the week. You can program them to shut off when you leave for work, come on 20 minutes before returning home and change temperatures and certain points during the day. This will help save you time and can save as much as $150 a year on utility bills.
2) Adjust your thermostat down 2 degrees in the winter and up 2 degrees in the summer. For every 1 degree you turn your thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer, you save 2% on your heating and cooling bill.
3) Instead of adjusting your thermostat when you’re cold, put on a sweatshirt and grab a blanket. In the summer when it’s too warm, turn on a ceiling fan to keep the air circulating.
The Daily Compost has a new look!
