Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste (and one third of municipal landfill waste). Municipal landfills account for one third of human-related methane emissions (and methane is 23-times more potent a greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide).
From "15 Facts about the Paper Industry, Global Warming and the Environment" at The Daily Green.
Showing posts with label Sustainable Lifestyles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sustainable Lifestyles. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Paper Factoids: NYC Recycles?
Each year in New York City we throw away 400,000 tons of recyclable paper.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Paper Factoids: Paperless Bills
According to Javelin Strategy and Research, here are some of the benefits if all U.S. households viewed and paid bills online:
o Saves 2.3 million tons of wood, or 16.5 million trees.
o Reduces fuel consumption by 26 million BTUs - enough energy to provide residential power to San Francisco for an entire year.
o Decreases toxic air pollutants by 3.9 billion pounds of CO2 equivalents (greenhouse gases), akin to having 355,000 fewer cars on the road.
o Reduces toxic wastewater by 13 billion gallons, enough to fill almost 20,000 swimming pools.
o Lowers solid waste generated by 1.6 billion pounds - equal to 56,000 fully loaded garbage trucks.
o Removes 8.5 million particulates and 12.6 million nitrogen oxides from the air - on par with taking 763,000 buses and 48,000 18-wheelers off the streets.
o Saves 2.3 million tons of wood, or 16.5 million trees.
o Reduces fuel consumption by 26 million BTUs - enough energy to provide residential power to San Francisco for an entire year.
o Decreases toxic air pollutants by 3.9 billion pounds of CO2 equivalents (greenhouse gases), akin to having 355,000 fewer cars on the road.
o Reduces toxic wastewater by 13 billion gallons, enough to fill almost 20,000 swimming pools.
o Lowers solid waste generated by 1.6 billion pounds - equal to 56,000 fully loaded garbage trucks.
o Removes 8.5 million particulates and 12.6 million nitrogen oxides from the air - on par with taking 763,000 buses and 48,000 18-wheelers off the streets.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Paper Factoids: Recycled Content of Different Types of Paper
Recovered paper accounts for 37% of the U.S. pulp supply. Printing and writing papers use the least amount of recycled content -- just 6%. Tissues use the most, at 45%, and newsprint is not far behind, at 32%.
From "15 Facts about the Paper Industry, Global Warming and the Environment" at The Daily Green.
From "15 Facts about the Paper Industry, Global Warming and the Environment" at The Daily Green.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Paper Factoids: Electricity Needed to Make Paper
Production of 1 ton of copy paper uses 11,134 kWh (same amount of energy used by an avg household in 10 months)
1 ton of paper = 400 reams = 200,000 sheets
GreenPrint
GreenPrint is a software program that helps companies and individuals eliminate wasteful and unnecessary printing.
1 ton of paper = 400 reams = 200,000 sheets
GreenPrint
GreenPrint is a software program that helps companies and individuals eliminate wasteful and unnecessary printing.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Paper Factoids: Deforestation and CO2 Emissions
Deforestation currently contributes about a fifth of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.
The New York Times.
The New York Times.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Paper Factoids: Harvesting Forests
Most of the world’s paper supply, about 71 percent, is not made from timber harvested at tree farms but from forest-harvested timber, from regions with ecologically valuable, biologically diverse habitat. (Toward a Sustainable Paper Cycle: An Independent Study on the Sustainability of the Pulp and Paper Industry, 1996)
From the Environmental Paper Network.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Paper Factoids: US vs. the World
The United States, which has less than 5% of the world's population, consumes 30% of the world's paper.
From reduce.org
From reduce.org
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Paper Factoids: American Paper Consumption
The average American consumes more than 700 pounds of paper a year -- that's the world's highest per capita figure.
From "15 Facts about the Paper Industry, Global Warming and the Environment" at The Daily Green.
From "15 Facts about the Paper Industry, Global Warming and the Environment" at The Daily Green.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Reduce Your Catalog Waste
Looking for a quick and easy way you can help "save the planet"...? Here's one! www.catalogchoice.org
Each year, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to American consumers--more than 170 per household each year. What’s the impact?
*Number of trees used – 53 million
*Paper used – 3.6 million tons
*Energy used to produce this volume of paper – 38 trillion BTUs, enough to power 1.2 million homes per year
*Waste water discharges from this volume of paper – 53 billion gallons of water, enough to fill 81,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools
*Contribution to global warming – 5.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equal to the annual emissions of two million cars
www.catalogchoice.org offers a FREE SERVICE that eliminates unwanted catalogs from your mailbox! You choose which catalog you still want to get and which ones to remove. Your information stays private.
Pass it along and help save the world!!!
Friday, January 18, 2008
Paper Factoids: Bills Bills Bills!
Hard copy bills generate almost 700,000 tons of waste and almost two million tons of carbon dioxide.
From The Green Guide.
Solution: Paperless e-billing.
From The Green Guide.
Solution: Paperless e-billing.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Setting Priorities: My family in 2008
Having used last week's post to sum up my family’s achievements in reducing our carbon footprint during 2007, I will continue in the January tradition by forming resolutions for 2008. This is not quite as feel-good a process as tallying up our victories. For one thing, we have made a lot of the easier (for us) changes. Most of our bulbs are CFLs, we are very conscientious about recycling, we even compost; as New Yorkers we already rely heavily on public transportation. Other potential changes— for example reducing air travel or canceling our two newspaper subscriptions—would require actions that go by the highly-charged name of “sacrifice.” Changing to CFLs and starting worm composting felt like improvements—they saved money or were interesting. Cutting our newspapers would require reading them online which I hate.
But without making specific promises that may not be met, here are some areas that I would like our family to emphasize in the coming year:
Target #1: Reduce Paper
Switch the rest of my accounts to online billing
Reduce the deluge of junk mail and catalogues
Reduce paper at work
Target #2: Food
Reduce our consumption of meat
Increase our consumption of fruit, vegetables, and legumes
Make more of an effort to get “local” food
Stop drinking bottled water
Reduce food waste
Starting with target #1, reducing paper:
At a recent Green Drinks, a monthly "meet and greet" for New Yorkers concerned about environmental issues, two people separately admitted that they do not recycle at all. Given New York's mandatory but also fairly user-friendly program, I found that somewhat disheartening--if even environmentalists can't be bothered, it is hard to see how New York is going to increase its already modest participation rates which appear stuck at about 50%.
So to encourage holdouts to begin recycling and everyone to reduce paper, Green Factoids will devote the next series of posts to facts about paper.
But without making specific promises that may not be met, here are some areas that I would like our family to emphasize in the coming year:
Target #1: Reduce Paper
Switch the rest of my accounts to online billing
Reduce the deluge of junk mail and catalogues
Reduce paper at work
Target #2: Food
Reduce our consumption of meat
Increase our consumption of fruit, vegetables, and legumes
Make more of an effort to get “local” food
Stop drinking bottled water
Reduce food waste
Starting with target #1, reducing paper:
At a recent Green Drinks, a monthly "meet and greet" for New Yorkers concerned about environmental issues, two people separately admitted that they do not recycle at all. Given New York's mandatory but also fairly user-friendly program, I found that somewhat disheartening--if even environmentalists can't be bothered, it is hard to see how New York is going to increase its already modest participation rates which appear stuck at about 50%.
So to encourage holdouts to begin recycling and everyone to reduce paper, Green Factoids will devote the next series of posts to facts about paper.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Setting Priorities: Which Activities Have The Most Impact?
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists' Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, the following consumer activities are the most harmful to the environment:
Cars and light trucks
Meat and poultry
Fruit, vegetables, and grain
Home heating, hot water, and air-conditioning
Household appliances and lighting
Home construction
Household water and sewage
The Union analyzes the impact of each of these activities on global warming, air and water pollution, and habitat alteration.
Looking at the environmental impact per household on global warming:
32% can be attributed to transportation
35% to household operations
12% to food
Cars and light trucks
Meat and poultry
Fruit, vegetables, and grain
Home heating, hot water, and air-conditioning
Household appliances and lighting
Home construction
Household water and sewage
The Union analyzes the impact of each of these activities on global warming, air and water pollution, and habitat alteration.
Looking at the environmental impact per household on global warming:
32% can be attributed to transportation
35% to household operations
12% to food
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Taking Stock: 2007
Green Factoids returns after a 2 month hiatus during which work pressures left little time for other activities. I will brave the risk of falling into the well-worn cliches of the season in order to look at what I have personally accomplished in the past year in my goal to develop a more sustainable lifestyle.
Successes:
I have managed to cut my family’s monthly and daily electricity use roughly in half. After 6 months of tracking our use, I can confidently say that our low kWh readings are not a fluke. I have made the following changes which have helped bring this about (in order of impact):
1. switching every light-bulb I can to CFLs, especially in the most heavily used rooms
2. becoming much more careful about not leaving lights on
3. using our 350 watt halogen fixtures as little as possible
4. replacing our ancient air-conditioner with an EnergyStar model
5. cutting way back on our air-conditioning
6. adjusting the controls so that my computer sleeps after 2 minutes
7. putting my printer, modem, computer and hard drive on a power strip and turning them off most nights
I switched our electricity supplier to one that relies on wind and low-impact hydro-electric.
I switched from traveling by car to traveling by subway on roughly half my commutes.
I started worm composting in my apartment.
I made “sustainability” an express issue on the syllabus of the courses I teach, emphasizing strategies for reducing paper. In addition to distributing all assignments by email, I encouraged my students to hand in their essays printed on the clean side of scrap paper—of whatever color. I set the example by printing my exams and other materials on scrap paper. I also asked that they eliminate title pages and other opportunities for white space and waste. I would estimate that about a third of my students took advantage of my request, saving about 300 sheets of virgin paper. I also printed out the final essay (submitted by email) on scrap paper, saving about another 300 sheets. Not exactly an enormous reduction of impact, but I believe that the gesture raised my students’ awareness of sustainability in a low-key way that did not involve preaching or departing from the “official” curriculum—18th-century literature. I believe that those students who participated have likely changed their paper habits permanently—as have I. I am going to continue to do this for all of my classes, and also suggest it to my colleagues.
Successes:
I have managed to cut my family’s monthly and daily electricity use roughly in half. After 6 months of tracking our use, I can confidently say that our low kWh readings are not a fluke. I have made the following changes which have helped bring this about (in order of impact):
1. switching every light-bulb I can to CFLs, especially in the most heavily used rooms
2. becoming much more careful about not leaving lights on
3. using our 350 watt halogen fixtures as little as possible
4. replacing our ancient air-conditioner with an EnergyStar model
5. cutting way back on our air-conditioning
6. adjusting the controls so that my computer sleeps after 2 minutes
7. putting my printer, modem, computer and hard drive on a power strip and turning them off most nights
I switched our electricity supplier to one that relies on wind and low-impact hydro-electric.
I switched from traveling by car to traveling by subway on roughly half my commutes.
I started worm composting in my apartment.
I made “sustainability” an express issue on the syllabus of the courses I teach, emphasizing strategies for reducing paper. In addition to distributing all assignments by email, I encouraged my students to hand in their essays printed on the clean side of scrap paper—of whatever color. I set the example by printing my exams and other materials on scrap paper. I also asked that they eliminate title pages and other opportunities for white space and waste. I would estimate that about a third of my students took advantage of my request, saving about 300 sheets of virgin paper. I also printed out the final essay (submitted by email) on scrap paper, saving about another 300 sheets. Not exactly an enormous reduction of impact, but I believe that the gesture raised my students’ awareness of sustainability in a low-key way that did not involve preaching or departing from the “official” curriculum—18th-century literature. I believe that those students who participated have likely changed their paper habits permanently—as have I. I am going to continue to do this for all of my classes, and also suggest it to my colleagues.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
1000 New Pets: Worm Composting
Our family has taken up vermiculture, or worm composting, the primary composting method that can work in an apartment.
Basically, it consists of a plastic bin, some shredded, damp newspaper, a supply of red worms, and our fruit and vegetable waste. We obtained our bin and worms from Flowerfield Enterprises, the company founded by the late Mary Appelhof, aka the "worm woman," and author of "Worms Eat My Garbage," which came with our bin. I recommend them highly.
Worm composting can work indoors because it is aerobic, rather than anaerobic, and thus does not produce the offensive odors we usually associate with rotting food. We started our bin about 10 days ago. Since then we have added such yummy articles as mushy carrots, soggy lettuce, old basil, roasted pepper skins, moldy fruit, tomato cores, corn husks, and watermelon rinds. Unlike our garbage can, which in the summer heat smells horrendous after one day, the worm bin smells almost poetically pleasant: phrases such as "a forest after the rain" come to mind.
Worms are extremely low maintenance--for example, you can easily go on vacation for a week or two without worrying about feeding them. You must make sure that the conditions in the bin are okay--not too wet or too dry and adequately aerated. Every few months, you must harvest your worm compost, either by dumping out your worms and separating them from the compost, or by putting new bedding and food on one side of the bin, allowing the worms to migrate, and then removing now mostly-worm free compost.
here is a short list of some of the environmental benefits of worm-composting:
1. it reduces amount of garbage sent to landfills, (including fuel needed to take waste to the dump)
2. it eliminates the methane produced when organic matter decomposes in anaerobic conditions: methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases with more than 20 times the heat-trapping capacity of CO2; a principal source of methane emissions is dumps
3. worms produce compost which increases the organic matter (and stored carbon) in soil, matter that in many parts of the world is being rapidly depleted through soil erosion
4. worm castings are a form of organic fertilizer that can reduce or eliminate the need for traditional fertilizer, which is energy-intensive to produce and causes serious environmental problems from run-off
Earth 911 has an excellent article about the benefits of compost for your plants.
While these benefits are real enough, the environmental effects of a single family's composting efforts are pretty modest. In the scheme of things, it is probably more important--in the sense of directly beneficial to the planet--for people to cut their electricity and gasoline use than for them to compost 500 pounds of vegetable scrapings each year.
Actually, I think the more significant benefits may be mental, but I think these also need to be articulated and defended.
Our worm bin is an ongoing biological experiment that is (to say the least) educational for the children and adults in our house--there is a good reason these bins are popular in schools. It helps educate my children about waste, ecology, "bugs," and the life cycle, among other things.
Even a few short days of composting has made us all newly conscious of what is going in our garbage can and how much we toss out every week; this awareness is a necessary first step to reducing our waste.
Most importantly for me, composting has enabled our whole family to recognize that our vegetable scrapings are not worthless--they do not have to be garbage. They can be put to use. As a society, we treat many things as garbage that actually have value: we just don't bother to discover and acknowledge that value. Rainwater is another example of this--in NYC we literally mix it with our sewage.
We need a new way to think about waste: one meaning of waste is "by-product," whatever is left over from a process--in this case carrot peels from dinner and worm castings from our bin. But another form of waste--the one that injures our minds in the deepest sense--is the destruction of potential.
These kinds of mental shift are absolutely key if we are going to adapt as a society to confront the challenges ahead of us.
Basically, it consists of a plastic bin, some shredded, damp newspaper, a supply of red worms, and our fruit and vegetable waste. We obtained our bin and worms from Flowerfield Enterprises, the company founded by the late Mary Appelhof, aka the "worm woman," and author of "Worms Eat My Garbage," which came with our bin. I recommend them highly.
Worm composting can work indoors because it is aerobic, rather than anaerobic, and thus does not produce the offensive odors we usually associate with rotting food. We started our bin about 10 days ago. Since then we have added such yummy articles as mushy carrots, soggy lettuce, old basil, roasted pepper skins, moldy fruit, tomato cores, corn husks, and watermelon rinds. Unlike our garbage can, which in the summer heat smells horrendous after one day, the worm bin smells almost poetically pleasant: phrases such as "a forest after the rain" come to mind.
Worms are extremely low maintenance--for example, you can easily go on vacation for a week or two without worrying about feeding them. You must make sure that the conditions in the bin are okay--not too wet or too dry and adequately aerated. Every few months, you must harvest your worm compost, either by dumping out your worms and separating them from the compost, or by putting new bedding and food on one side of the bin, allowing the worms to migrate, and then removing now mostly-worm free compost.
here is a short list of some of the environmental benefits of worm-composting:
1. it reduces amount of garbage sent to landfills, (including fuel needed to take waste to the dump)
2. it eliminates the methane produced when organic matter decomposes in anaerobic conditions: methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases with more than 20 times the heat-trapping capacity of CO2; a principal source of methane emissions is dumps
3. worms produce compost which increases the organic matter (and stored carbon) in soil, matter that in many parts of the world is being rapidly depleted through soil erosion
4. worm castings are a form of organic fertilizer that can reduce or eliminate the need for traditional fertilizer, which is energy-intensive to produce and causes serious environmental problems from run-off
Earth 911 has an excellent article about the benefits of compost for your plants.
While these benefits are real enough, the environmental effects of a single family's composting efforts are pretty modest. In the scheme of things, it is probably more important--in the sense of directly beneficial to the planet--for people to cut their electricity and gasoline use than for them to compost 500 pounds of vegetable scrapings each year.
Actually, I think the more significant benefits may be mental, but I think these also need to be articulated and defended.
Our worm bin is an ongoing biological experiment that is (to say the least) educational for the children and adults in our house--there is a good reason these bins are popular in schools. It helps educate my children about waste, ecology, "bugs," and the life cycle, among other things.
Even a few short days of composting has made us all newly conscious of what is going in our garbage can and how much we toss out every week; this awareness is a necessary first step to reducing our waste.
Most importantly for me, composting has enabled our whole family to recognize that our vegetable scrapings are not worthless--they do not have to be garbage. They can be put to use. As a society, we treat many things as garbage that actually have value: we just don't bother to discover and acknowledge that value. Rainwater is another example of this--in NYC we literally mix it with our sewage.
We need a new way to think about waste: one meaning of waste is "by-product," whatever is left over from a process--in this case carrot peels from dinner and worm castings from our bin. But another form of waste--the one that injures our minds in the deepest sense--is the destruction of potential.
These kinds of mental shift are absolutely key if we are going to adapt as a society to confront the challenges ahead of us.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Getting Rich Going Paperless
It took me a long time to come round to electronic statements and e-bills since I am neurotic about filing and had an irrational fear of computer clutter, irrational because we are utterly drowning (or whatever the metaphor) in paper clutter. But in doing my research for Green Factoids, I realized that if I had gone paperless way back when, I would have been able to check out my old electricity bills so that I could more accurately track our kWh use. Then I discovered some cool factoids about going paperless.
According to Javelin Strategy and Research, here are some of the benefits if all U.S. households viewed and paid bills online:
o Saves 2.3 million tons of wood, or 16.5 million trees.
o Reduces fuel consumption by 26 million BTUs - enough energy to provide residential power to San Francisco for an entire year.
o Decreases toxic air pollutants by 3.9 billion pounds of CO2 equivalents (greenhouse gases), akin to having 355,000 fewer cars on the road.
o Reduces toxic wastewater by 13 billion gallons, enough to fill almost 20,000 swimming pools.
o Lowers solid waste generated by 1.6 billion pounds - equal to 56,000 fully loaded garbage trucks.
o Removes 8.5 million particulates and 12.6 million nitrogen oxides from the air - on par with taking 763,000 buses and 48,000 18-wheelers off the streets.
But imagine this cheapskate’s amazement when I realized that some fund companies, including mutual fund behemoth Vanguard, will waive their yearly fees, now about $20 per year for small investors, if you agree to electronic statements and prospectuses.
So pulling out the old calculator, or actually Quicken’s investment planner, I decided to play with some numbers, and that amazement quickly turned to tears of joy.
Let’s say I treat the fee savings like a $20 investment, to which I add $20 each year. That $20/year is the “principal.” Assuming an 8% investment return I will make:
5 years: $146 (“principal”: $100)
10 years: $332 (“principal”: $200)
20 years: $1008 (“principal”: $400)
PER FUND!!! That’s the miracle of compound interest.
Obviously the environmental benefits are more to the point. But going paperless is yet another powerful example of how eliminating waste also saves money.
According to Javelin Strategy and Research, here are some of the benefits if all U.S. households viewed and paid bills online:
o Saves 2.3 million tons of wood, or 16.5 million trees.
o Reduces fuel consumption by 26 million BTUs - enough energy to provide residential power to San Francisco for an entire year.
o Decreases toxic air pollutants by 3.9 billion pounds of CO2 equivalents (greenhouse gases), akin to having 355,000 fewer cars on the road.
o Reduces toxic wastewater by 13 billion gallons, enough to fill almost 20,000 swimming pools.
o Lowers solid waste generated by 1.6 billion pounds - equal to 56,000 fully loaded garbage trucks.
o Removes 8.5 million particulates and 12.6 million nitrogen oxides from the air - on par with taking 763,000 buses and 48,000 18-wheelers off the streets.
But imagine this cheapskate’s amazement when I realized that some fund companies, including mutual fund behemoth Vanguard, will waive their yearly fees, now about $20 per year for small investors, if you agree to electronic statements and prospectuses.
So pulling out the old calculator, or actually Quicken’s investment planner, I decided to play with some numbers, and that amazement quickly turned to tears of joy.
Let’s say I treat the fee savings like a $20 investment, to which I add $20 each year. That $20/year is the “principal.” Assuming an 8% investment return I will make:
5 years: $146 (“principal”: $100)
10 years: $332 (“principal”: $200)
20 years: $1008 (“principal”: $400)
PER FUND!!! That’s the miracle of compound interest.
Obviously the environmental benefits are more to the point. But going paperless is yet another powerful example of how eliminating waste also saves money.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Bottled Water Factoids
Here are some factoids from the Earth Policy Institute:
The global consumption of bottled water reached 154 billion liters (41 billion gallons) in 2004, up 57 percent from the 98 billion liters consumed five years earlier.
Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year.
Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.
According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter.
The global consumption of bottled water reached 154 billion liters (41 billion gallons) in 2004, up 57 percent from the 98 billion liters consumed five years earlier.
Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year.
Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.
According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter.
Bottled Water Consumption per Person in Leading Countries, 1999 and 2004 | ||
| Country | 1999 | 2004 |
Liters | ||
| Italy | 154.8 | 183.6 |
| Mexico | 117.0 | 168.5 |
| United Arab Emirates | 109.8 | 163.5 |
| Belgium * | 121.9 | 148.0 |
| France | 117.3 | 141.6 |
| Spain | 101.8 | 136.7 |
| Germany | 100.7 | 124.9 |
| Lebanon | 67.8 | 101.4 |
| Switzerland | 90.1 | 99.6 |
| Cyprus | 67.4 | 92.0 |
| United States | 63.6 | 90.5 |
| Saudi Arabia | 75.3 | 87.8 |
| Czech Republic | 62.1 | 87.1 |
| Austria | 74.6 | 82.1 |
| Portugal | 70.4 | 80.3 |
| Global Average | 16.3 | 24.2 |
| * Belgium figures include Luxembourg | ||
| Source: Beverage Marketing Corporation, cited in John G. Rodwan, Jr., "Bottled Water 2004: U.S. and International Statistics and Developments," Bottled Water Reporter, April/May 2005. | ||
Bottled Water Consumption in Top Ten Countries and World, 1999 and 2004 | ||
| Country | 1999 | 2004 |
| Billion Liters | ||
| United States | 17.3 | 25.8 |
| Mexico | 11.6 | 17.7 |
| China | 4.6 | 11.9 |
| Brazil | 5.7 | 11.6 |
| Italy | 8.9 | 10.7 |
| Germany | 8.3 | 10.3 |
| France | 6.9 | 8.5 |
| Indonesia | 3.4 | 7.4 |
| Spain | 4.1 | 5.5 |
| India | 1.7 | 5.1 |
| All Others | 25.9 | 39.9 |
| Total | 98.4 | 154.3 |
| Source: Beverage Marketing Corporation, cited in John G. Rodwan, Jr., "Bottled Water 2004: U.S. and International Statistics and Developments," Bottled Water Reporter, April/May 2005. | ||
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Seriously lower energy bills: A philosophy of Air-Conditioning
Despite the risk of sounding like a braggart, I feel impelled to boast for a minute about my last electric bill. For the month of June we used only 575 kWh, down from 630 kWh in May and 759 in April. For the month we hit what must be our lowest daily average ever, 18 kWh per day. That is less than half our average of 38 kWh/day from last June. I should add that I was working from home that month and we were not away on vacation.
In case you have no idea what your own usage is, the average American household uses 800 kWh per month. According to the EIA, the middle-Atlantic region, which includes my home city of NY, averages about 650 kWh/month; presumably that number is higher in the summer because of A/C.
How did we cut our electricity use by half? Since I started boning up on all things electrical, I have made the following changes:
1. I have continued to switch our remaining incandescent bulbs to CFLs
2. I do not leave any lights on in rooms I am not in or when I leave home
3. I avoid turning on our halogen sconces (450 watts) as much as possible
4. I have become much more careful about turning off things like fans in rooms that are not being used
5. I set my computer to go to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity
6. I set up surge-protectors so I can easily turn off my computer, modem, and printer at night
7. I replaced our oldest (12+ years) air-conditioner with an Energy Star model
8. We were lucky with the weather--I don't think there were any days in June where the temperature went over 90.
9. MOST IMPORTANT: I DID NOT USE THE AIR-CONDITIONER UNLESS IT WAS REALLY HOT--during that billing period, I think I only turned it on twice and only for a short time.
There is no question that the final three made the biggest difference.
If you are serious about cutting your electricity use, the quickest and most dramatic way is to rethink your air-conditioning. In my case, this is not about suffering for a good cause. There is a reason people love air-conditioning. I can't stand feeling hot and sweaty, and when I overheat, my productivity and sense of well-being take a dive.
Here is the Green Factoids environmental philosophy in a nutshell:
we are going to have make changes, but I prefer not to think of them as sacrifices; I genuinely see them as improvements.
So with air-conditioning here is my new philosophy:
1. fans work amazingly well, especially ceiling fans in your bedroom and T.V. viewing room; I rarely feel uncomfortably warm with a fan blowing directly on me
2. if the temperature is below 85, you probably don't need A/C--again this is not martyrdom; you will adjust to this a lot quicker than you think
3. 75% of the air-conditioned homes or stores I spend time in are much too cold--(I think we should complain--it is one way to get businesses to be more responsible; congratulations to Starbucks for leading the way by seriously rethinking the appropriate use of air-conditioning)
4. when you do use A/C, blast it for a few minutes and then turn it to the lowest possible setting and hit the energy-saver button--usually when you turn the A/C on, you are overheated; once you cool down, you don't need it on high, or sometimes even at all
5. test how high a temperature setting is comfortable for you
6. this one should be obvious, but never leave the A/C on when you are not home; there is absolutely no efficiency advantage to running it all the time--quite the opposite it is a massive waste that luckily is simple to eliminate
7. if you feel you must leave it on for a pet, keep it to one room, with the door shut, on the lowest possible energy mode--your dog does not need it set to 68; the low 80s should be fine; make sure your rooms are shaded and that your dog has access to plenty of cold water
8. don't beat yourself up for using it when it is really hot
As far as the final point goes, instead of feeling like we have to quit A/C like some sort of evil addictive drug, I think we should be looking to change our assumptions about when and how we use it. The closest parallel I can think of is seat-belts. When I was growing up, I don't think my parents ever once told us to wear a seat-belt. They would do things like ride with a baby in their lap in the front or let me and a bunch of friends smush into the front passenger seat--no one ever wore a seat belt. Now, seat-belt compliance in the U.S. is above 90%--far higher than Europe by the way. My kids have never ridden in the front seat. I don't even back up my car without a seat-belt on. Attitudes change. 20 years from now, I may be marveling with my grandchildren about how you needed to wear an overcoat in the supermarket in July because they kept the temperature so darn low--now we know better.
In case you have no idea what your own usage is, the average American household uses 800 kWh per month. According to the EIA, the middle-Atlantic region, which includes my home city of NY, averages about 650 kWh/month; presumably that number is higher in the summer because of A/C.
How did we cut our electricity use by half? Since I started boning up on all things electrical, I have made the following changes:
1. I have continued to switch our remaining incandescent bulbs to CFLs
2. I do not leave any lights on in rooms I am not in or when I leave home
3. I avoid turning on our halogen sconces (450 watts) as much as possible
4. I have become much more careful about turning off things like fans in rooms that are not being used
5. I set my computer to go to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity
6. I set up surge-protectors so I can easily turn off my computer, modem, and printer at night
7. I replaced our oldest (12+ years) air-conditioner with an Energy Star model
8. We were lucky with the weather--I don't think there were any days in June where the temperature went over 90.
9. MOST IMPORTANT: I DID NOT USE THE AIR-CONDITIONER UNLESS IT WAS REALLY HOT--during that billing period, I think I only turned it on twice and only for a short time.
There is no question that the final three made the biggest difference.
If you are serious about cutting your electricity use, the quickest and most dramatic way is to rethink your air-conditioning. In my case, this is not about suffering for a good cause. There is a reason people love air-conditioning. I can't stand feeling hot and sweaty, and when I overheat, my productivity and sense of well-being take a dive.
Here is the Green Factoids environmental philosophy in a nutshell:
we are going to have make changes, but I prefer not to think of them as sacrifices; I genuinely see them as improvements.
So with air-conditioning here is my new philosophy:
1. fans work amazingly well, especially ceiling fans in your bedroom and T.V. viewing room; I rarely feel uncomfortably warm with a fan blowing directly on me
2. if the temperature is below 85, you probably don't need A/C--again this is not martyrdom; you will adjust to this a lot quicker than you think
3. 75% of the air-conditioned homes or stores I spend time in are much too cold--(I think we should complain--it is one way to get businesses to be more responsible; congratulations to Starbucks for leading the way by seriously rethinking the appropriate use of air-conditioning)
4. when you do use A/C, blast it for a few minutes and then turn it to the lowest possible setting and hit the energy-saver button--usually when you turn the A/C on, you are overheated; once you cool down, you don't need it on high, or sometimes even at all
5. test how high a temperature setting is comfortable for you
6. this one should be obvious, but never leave the A/C on when you are not home; there is absolutely no efficiency advantage to running it all the time--quite the opposite it is a massive waste that luckily is simple to eliminate
7. if you feel you must leave it on for a pet, keep it to one room, with the door shut, on the lowest possible energy mode--your dog does not need it set to 68; the low 80s should be fine; make sure your rooms are shaded and that your dog has access to plenty of cold water
8. don't beat yourself up for using it when it is really hot
As far as the final point goes, instead of feeling like we have to quit A/C like some sort of evil addictive drug, I think we should be looking to change our assumptions about when and how we use it. The closest parallel I can think of is seat-belts. When I was growing up, I don't think my parents ever once told us to wear a seat-belt. They would do things like ride with a baby in their lap in the front or let me and a bunch of friends smush into the front passenger seat--no one ever wore a seat belt. Now, seat-belt compliance in the U.S. is above 90%--far higher than Europe by the way. My kids have never ridden in the front seat. I don't even back up my car without a seat-belt on. Attitudes change. 20 years from now, I may be marveling with my grandchildren about how you needed to wear an overcoat in the supermarket in July because they kept the temperature so darn low--now we know better.
Understand Your Electricity: which appliances use the most electricity?
Here are some numbers from the Energy Information Administration. They are from 2001, the most recent available.
The two biggest components of household electricity use are heating, ventilation and cooling, which go by the catchy acronym "HVAC," and kitchen appliances. HVAC accounts for 31% of the total household use and kitchen appliances account for another 26%.
Air-conditioning is the single biggest electricity user in American households, totaling more than 182 billion kWh. More than 85% of that is for central A/C.
Space heating alone accounts for more than 10% of U.S. household electricity use, more than 115.5 billion kWh; space heaters account for more energy use than either lighting or home electronics, even though space heaters are found in only 43% of all households.
After A/C, refrigerators are the biggest electricity users, requiring 156 billion kWh per year. The average fridge uses 1239 kWh per year. Current Energy Star models use between 400 and 500 kWh per year.
Stand-alone freezers use a remarkable 3.5 % of the household total, even though they are found in only 34% of all homes. Dishwashers, which are found in 56% of all homes, account for only 2% of the household total.
Lighting accounts for 8.8% of the U.S. household total, about 100 billion kWh.
All home electronics account for only 7.2%, or 82.3 billion kWh.
Not surprisingly, TVs are the most common household electronic item, averaging more than 2 per household; they account for about 33.1 billion kWh. or 2% of the total.
Way down on the list, cordless phones and answering machines each account for less than .2% of the household total, or about 4.4 billion kWh between the two of them.
The two biggest components of household electricity use are heating, ventilation and cooling, which go by the catchy acronym "HVAC," and kitchen appliances. HVAC accounts for 31% of the total household use and kitchen appliances account for another 26%.
Air-conditioning is the single biggest electricity user in American households, totaling more than 182 billion kWh. More than 85% of that is for central A/C.
Space heating alone accounts for more than 10% of U.S. household electricity use, more than 115.5 billion kWh; space heaters account for more energy use than either lighting or home electronics, even though space heaters are found in only 43% of all households.
After A/C, refrigerators are the biggest electricity users, requiring 156 billion kWh per year. The average fridge uses 1239 kWh per year. Current Energy Star models use between 400 and 500 kWh per year.
Stand-alone freezers use a remarkable 3.5 % of the household total, even though they are found in only 34% of all homes. Dishwashers, which are found in 56% of all homes, account for only 2% of the household total.
Lighting accounts for 8.8% of the U.S. household total, about 100 billion kWh.
All home electronics account for only 7.2%, or 82.3 billion kWh.
Not surprisingly, TVs are the most common household electronic item, averaging more than 2 per household; they account for about 33.1 billion kWh. or 2% of the total.
Way down on the list, cordless phones and answering machines each account for less than .2% of the household total, or about 4.4 billion kWh between the two of them.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Understand Your Electricity: Sleeping your work Computer
From the Alliance To Save Energy
New Report Highlights the Power of Powering Down
A new report on personal computer usage and power consumption released this month suggests US business could be saving billions of dollars simply by shutting down machines at night. The survey, commissioned jointly by the Alliance to Save Energy and power management software company, 1E, found that nearly half of all corporate computers (roughly 31 million PCs) are not regularly switched off at night. According to the study, this lack of inactivity is costing US businesses $1.72 billion annually and adding over 14 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere per year.
Comment: pulling out my handy calculator, and borrowing a few PC numbers from Mr. Electricity, we can estimate that an average workplace computer uses about 100 watts just sitting there. The Alliance estimates that as many as 31 million PCs are left on at night. Forgetting about weekends, let's assume each of these is on instead of off or asleep for 10 hours every day, four nights a week; each one would thus waste 1 kWh per day, or 208 kWh per year. For 31 million computers that adds up to more than 644 million kWh per year, or a year's electricity for 586,181 homes. (Using my 11,000 kWh/year average). Each computer that is left on for 60 hours over the weekend wastes another 312 kWh per year. If 15 million of these were left on over the weekend year round, they would waste more than 4.68 billion kWh, or enough electricity to power more than 4.25 million homes.
Let's hope that these companies are sensitive to the other green, cost: according to the EIA, the average commercial cost for electricity this year is 9.28 cents/kWh. Using my numbers, each computer left on overnight during the work week wastes about $19 a year and each one left on over the weekend wastes another $30 a year.
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