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When it comes to "living green," I suspect that I'm a lot like most Americans -- a walking bundle of contradictions. I do a pretty good job in some areas and fall down badly in others. My environmental report card would contain mostly B's and C's, with a smattering of A's and D's.
Commuting confessions. Let's get the ugly stuff out of the way first: On most days, I drive to and from work, alone in my car. I'd rather commute on Washington, D.C.'s excellent subway, which I use during my workdays to get around town to appointments. But the closest Metrorail station is about a mile from my house, which makes it tough to use for regular commuting. (Excuses, excuses.) Sometimes, my wife drives me to the subway and meets me there after work.
Another demerit on my report card: This publishing company, which I head, subsidizes parking for its employees. That's generous but not environmentally responsible. On the other hand, we also subsidize employee commuting by subway, but the parking benefit is more lucrative.
Okay, so what are my wife and I doing right? Our cars get more than 20 miles per gallon of gasoline. The electricity that powers our home is generated by wind turbines in West Virginia rather than by coal-fired plants. For this, we gladly pay our local utility a premium rate.
We set our thermostat at 68 degrees in winter, 76 in summer. Whenever the legendary Washington humidity drops to comfortable levels, we cut off the A/C and use our exhaust fans to draw air in through first-floor windows and out the attic. Some of our hot water is supplied by an on-demand heater, which is more efficient than a big tank. We're gradually replacing our single-pane windows and swapping incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents.
When our children were teenagers, it was a constant struggle to get them to turn off lights, computers and stereos after they were done using them (I tagged my children and their peers as the "always-on generation"). Now, as twentysomethings, they get it.
They kid me that my energy conservation is rooted more in Yankee frugality than in environmental awareness. They're probably right, and I come by it genetically. My paternal grandmother, of thrifty Ohio stock, was a passionate recycler long before it was chic. Every Christmas morning she would carefully remove the Scotch tape from gift wrappings and fold the paper for re-use the next year.
A cousin of mine, from the New England side of our family, often invokes the old admonition, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." Practicing this myself, I have a strong preference for repair over replacement.
That means buying things of high quality and classic design -- whether clothes, cars or furnishings -- and maintaining them well. Repair requires vastly less energy than making new things, and those who do the repairing almost always are -- or work for -- local businesspeople rather than faceless global enterprises. The two trends -- frugality and environmental concern -- intersect in a burgeoning movement called simple living, which I find enticing.
Other steps to take. How can I improve my green report card most dramatically? By moving to a much smaller, more energy-efficient home in an urban neighborhood close to a subway stop. And by focusing my grocery shopping on locally grown, seasonal produce, which requires far less energy to transport than fruits and vegetables that come from the far reaches of the U.S. and the globe.
In the words of Kermit the Frog, "It's not easy being green." Realistically, my attempts to contribute to a cleaner and safer environment are likely to remain inconsistent. But whatever steps I take will be well worth the effort.
POSTED BY: Alex Lebedinsky (September 16, 2007 09:48 PM)
The claim that locally grown fruits and vegetables are more energy efficient
is likely to be not true at least for two reasons:
1. Locally grown produce is often more expensive than produce grown
elsewhere. The difference in price is most likely due to a simple reason -
it takes fewer resources (land, irrigation, electricity, fertilizers etc. )
to grow produce where it comes at a lower cost. Thus, locally grown produce
requires more inputs per unit of output.
2. Locally grown produce is usually delivered in smaller batches. It has to
be true that an eighteen-wheeler uses less fuel per pound of produce than a
pickup truck - otherwise we would not have trucking industry. The amount of
fuel is small enough to make it possible to deliver produce from other
countries. The concept of "food miles" - how far food travels before ending
up on the consumers' tables - has been studied at length by
environmentalists. Some pointed out that that it's not the "food miles" that
are relevant but "food gallons" - how much fuel it takes to deliver food.
Even focusing on seasonal produce can have a detrimental effect on the
population as a whole: in the winter, there is not much seasonal produce
that can be grown locally. Thus, we are likely to suffer the consequences of
not consuming vital nutrients from fruits and vegetables.
"Eating locally," can also be viewed as a variation on protectionism that is
likely to harm developing countries. Most food-exporting countries are lower
income countries. By refusing their exports we will lower their incomes and
drive them deeper into poverty. And as any other protectionist measure,
switching resources to domestic production of food will divert them from
other uses.
POSTED BY: Patrick Taylor (September 17, 2007 11:03 AM)
Being an Environmental, Health and Safety professional, the world should be more concerned about how industry is effecting our globe. Don't get me wrong, if every person had the mindset of being more green we would be much better off. It is difficult to change a persons habit in a day. But we have to see that we must change our habits if we want our children to have a better standard of life. If only one person stands up for environmental changes that is one step closer to a change that our children will benefit from. I am not trying to preach here, but let's be realistic, we have to continue to find alternatives to energy. I believe Mr. Kiplinger should be thanked for his honesty. He openly admits he still can find better ways of doing things. I know I can find better ways too. Maybe we all need to step up to the plate and be honest about how green we really are. Nothing comes easy right?
