Commitment to Change

I’m happy to report that many of my friends are now using .pdf software as the final version of their documents and if they, on occasion, print out something with an error, they cut the paper into quarters or thirds or whatever the size of choice and use the back as scrap paper (a small accomplishment, but one small step for the home office, one giant leap for the environment).

To further prevent paper waste, we networked the house to use one printer. The printer is an old printer and is not equipped with the infra red ability to print from a device, but hooking it into a Belkin wireless printer hub (which cost about $75 ), I was able to network all of the household printers and laptop to use the one printer.

Using one central printer helps to reign the kids in from printing 20 copies of the lyrics to their favorite song or 8 full color copies of the cutest puppy in the world. The kids also understand what it means to print on both sides of the page.

Paper Saving Software

The more mature folks in the house understand the need to conserve paper and print on an ‘as needed’ basis. Therefore I installed PDF Create (a software program that makes pdf’s out of just about anything) on each computer. If anyone wants to share documents its pdf’d and sent electronically. After a little training its amazing how infrequently it becomes necessary to print.

Old School

This post may sound very old school and very ‘yesterday,’ but not everyone is equally ecologically evolved. There are still a few folks out there who have several household printers and could stand to help the environment by consolidating and printing less.

One hundred ideas is a lot to digest, but I think it’s worth a review.  If it’s too much for one sitting why not institute one or two ideas each week.  Imagine how much of a difference you and your family can make in a year’s time.  Better yet, share the list with a few relatives and friends.  See how much of a change the bunch of you can make.

Just a Few Ideas

The list starts off with the most practical of all ideas, buy less stuff. Then it continues on with things like growing your own veggies, having green picnics, fixing leaks and another practical tip, live within your means.

Updates

In addition to the great post on 100 Green Ideas for the Family, the Tree Hugging Family blog seems to be updated regularly (ahem… unlike this blog) and has tons of great information on making green choices to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.  I think it’s a must read for anyone interested in converting.

For the Non Bike Rider

How many times have you gotten a great idea to get in shape, run out purchase a gym membership, order the Total Fitness Gym from TV or the latest get in shape video/DVD only to fizzle out and realize that you spent a ton of money for nothing? C’mon, you know you’ve done it once or twice or more in your life.

Well, the idea of a recycled bike sounded great. Currently I don’t have a bike, and my old ’spend and waste’ personality would have gone to a bike store and allowed the salesperson to convince me that I needed the latest, best most expensive bike loaded with a ton of useless gadgets. After purchasing such a bike, with all of the intentions of riding it regularly, I would ride the bike once or twice and it would sit in the garage, or my kids would ride and ruin it.

Recycled  Bike

A much more economical approach is to find a second hand bike, and fix it up. Not only is it more cost effective, it’s recycling at its best. You just have to know what to look for in a used bike. After all, brakes can always be repaired, tires replaced and gear chains replaced and oiled. A bent or broken bike frame is another story.

For folks like me looking to get back into the swing of biking, I think a used bike is a great place to begin. However, once I get to Lance Armstrong’s level, then I’ll contemplate getting a new bike.

While searching the internet, I came across these interesting sites involving bike recycling. If any of the recyclers are located near you, it might be worth checking them out:

Local Motion in Vermont
Recycle a Bike in Providence Rhode Island
Recycle a Bicycle in New York City
Recycled Cycles in Colorado

Keep in mind that your footprint includes your own CO2 production, and a portion of the CO2 emitted in the manufacture of products you use. It’s tough to allocate one person’s individual portion of the emissions created in the production of a disposable bottle of water, but there are websites and CO2 footprint calculators available on the internet to help you figure it out.

Below are a few websites to help you do just that, calculate your carbon footprint:

The Nature Conservancy Carbon Footprint Calculator

Household Emissions Calculator

Terrapass

Visit all three of the sites. Check your carbon footprint thrice. Sometimes it takes multiple times for it to sink in. If you’re anything like me, after seeing your carbon footprint, you’ll be a lot more receptive to the tips for reducing your CO2 emissions.

Consumer World has a fountain of information that everyone who buys anything should be aware of.  As a result of a link from their site, I recently read an article on how Purina Dog Food reduced the size of their dog food bag from 20 pounds to 18 pounds.  The price?  Well of course the price remained the same.

The folks at Mouse Print attempted on more than one occasion to get an explanation from Purina as to the reason for the downsized portions.  Rather than re-word their findings, check it out for yourself.

Lots of Info

No need for me to say anymore.  Check them out and check out the sites they link to.  If you’re like me, you’ll bookmark the Consumer World as a valuable resource.

This week I decided to look for the impossible and improbable. The economy is down the tubes, people are being laid off from their jobs and living green, for many, is being put on the back burner. If people would only recognize the fact that if we all instituted green living habits from birth, there is a possibility we wouldn’t be in this situation.

After all, we irresponsibly used our tomorrow’s resources, so now we’re facing a world-wide crisis. Just like we irresponsibly spent our tomorrow’s money and now many folks are in debt (I’m off of my soap box now).

Money Saving Offers for the Car

Here are a few articles/websites I wanted to share for folks looking to save a few dollars on car purchase and maintenance.

• If you’re willing to do the research, it is possible to get free car history reports. It takes a little more time than it would if you were to purchase a car history report from carfax.com or any of the other sites that charge, but it can be done.
• How about a free oil change for your car? Yep, that’s right, here’s a website that offers a free oil change. I’ve got to admit, I didn’t sign up as yet, but I thought the idea was interesting.
• The final one that I thought was really clever is the FreeGasHelp.com website. It seems that if you drive your car at least 1,000 miles a month and it’s in good condition, you can sign up to receive free gas if you’re willing to put allow advertising on your car. The advertisement is a magnetic sign. The size of the sign will determine how much free gas you’ll be entitled to. According to the site you can earn anywhere from $17 to $200 a month in free gas.

In a tough economy, we’ve got to search far and wide for ways to save money. I just wanted t share a few that I’ve found.

Shortly after watching that show, I received an electric bill. Hmmm, time to do some trimming. Immediately I went around the house to unplug and deactivated all unused electronic gadgets. I unplugged the few devices that weren’t in power strips, and I deactivated (or turned off) the power strips.

This is going to take some getting used to because my family believes that the dust particles in each empty room enjoys watching TV so they travel from room to room watching 15 minutes of a show never turning off the TV in the room they just left.

Nightly Savings

I think I’ll start them off painlessly. We’ll start by unplugging all unused electric devices every night. They won’t even know we’re saving money. Once I can show them the financial savings, maybe that will be enough motivation to get them to turn off and unplug devices as they leave the room.

They’re going to complain about things like the cable box taking time to reboot and TV’s having to warm up, but I’m hoping the savings will win them over.

I’ll report an update in a few months. Anyone with a few encouraging words?

BTW, check out the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy website. It’s a neat site that helps to explain the amount of energy some devices used even when they’re off.

More than just the monthly or annual expense for phone service, think back over the past three to five years and ask yourself this question:

• How many home phone systems or telephones have I purchased in the past three to five years?

Then ask yourself this question:

• How many cell phones have I purchased in the past three to five years?

And the Answer Is?

I’d wager to bet that you purchased more cell phones than you did home phones. Heck, you’re probably still using the same old wireless phone system you purchased several years ago. Your cell phone, on the other hand, probably has the latest bells and whistles.

Now, while you’re interviewing yourself, ask yourself this question:

• What did I do with all of my old cell phones?

Hmmmm, anyone who has read more than one post on this blog knows where I’m heading. It’s all about recycling the cell phones.

What to do with Old Cell Phones

I’m going to share with you a few places where you could put your old cell phone to use:

How to Donate Your Old Cell Phone: This quick how to lists three organizations that accepts donated cell phones. It also offers instructions on how to erase the data from your cell phone.

Below are more organizations that accept old cell phones. The cell phones are recycled, refurbished or sold. The proceeds are used for a good cause.

Support Network for Battered Women

Recycling for Charities:

Eco Cell – cell phone recycling

If these organizations don’t tickle your fancy, contact your State’s Department of Environmental Conservation or counterpart thereof.

For example the state of New York offers sites for cell phone recycling or donation:

Chicago has the Chicago Recycling Coalition

QC Canada has Charitable Recycling Program

No matter where you live, you can find a charity that can put your old cell phone to good use.

Marching Orders

I’ve got my marching orders. Now all I have to do is raid my daughter’s toy chest to retrieve all of our old cell phones and start donating them to charities.

Here’s the scoop. I have a difficult time reading my oil gauge. For some reason I panic every time it gets to the 4th level indicator. I always think the tank is about dry and I’m in need of oil (there are 5 indicator levels).

Well, it got to the 4th level and I called the oil company for a delivery. Boy was I surprised when they told me that they wouldn’t be able to deliver for a week. Yes, a full 7 whole days! Well, I went into shutdown mode (my poor family).

Shut Down Mode

Out came the extra clothes and down went the heat. I washed clothes in cold water and eventually, in my state of panic, ran out and purchased a self-contained oil heater. I call it my little heat puppy since it’s portable and has wheels. I’ve got to say it’s an efficient little fellow.

Anyway, during the time of extreme oil conservation, I realized that my little heat puppy is probably a better alternative during the day when the kids are at school and I’m working in my home office. Rather than heat an entire zone of the house with oil, all I have to heat is my little office area. My home office is not that large and my heat puppy heats it well (a little too well so I have to use the minimum heat setting).

I guess I’ll know for sure when I receive my electricity bill, but I’m thinking that I inadvertently stumbled onto a bit of energy savings. After all, when I work, I pretty much stay in the office except to get a cup of coffee or to let it out.

The Oil Gauge

Oh, and by the way, they came to deliver the oil only to find out that I had nothing to worry about. I probably could have gone another week without a delivery. Oh well, everything happens for a reason. If I work my little heat puppy right, I might not have to have another oil delivery for quite some time.

P.S. – After writing this post, I went downstairs to look at the oil gauge and take a picture of it. Do you know this is the first time that I actually got close enough to it to notice that the gauge actually has markings that say “Full, ¾, ½, ¼, Empty?” I ought to be ashamed of myself.

Since it’s located in the back of the garage (where the largest and juiciest and thickest spiders reside), I never get too close to read it. I stand in the middle of the garage to look and see how high or low the yellow floatie thing is and which black line it’s near. If it’s near the 4th line, it’s time to call the oil company.

Although posts have not been added here regularly, I’m still making my green choices one choice at a time. I’ve got to admit, however, that I’ve slipped a little here and there. My goal in 2009 is to recommit myself to making more green choices.

In my book living green is not just a buzzword; it’s a body, mind, spiritual connection. I look at the current financial situation that we are undergoing. It’s amazing how our financial situation mirrors the state of our environment. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth gives a good indication of what we’ve done to our environment and the various bailouts, company closings, layoffs and recession tells us what we’ve done with our finances.

I’m not pointing fingers because I, too, am suffering just like everyone else. I’ve made poor decisions in the past and am living with the consequences now. The one good thing is that it’s never too late to recognize the error of my ways and make changes one change at a time.

This year I’m looking at BLULOW as a venue to share and hear about ways that we can make small changes that will have a big impact on our lives. I still believe the only way out of this mess is by making better choices, one choice at a time.