It’s darn cold outside where we live and the hours of sunlight are limited (along with the fact that the skies seem like they’ve been gray forever!). We’re not completely unconscious to the fact that we’re likely using more energy for heating and lighting, as well as taking more hot baths to soak away that chilled-to-the-bone feeling. We consider that our household is already fairly energy-efficient and eco-friendly, but there are surely ways we could improve.
So, for February’s Monthly Impact Challenge*:
- Present your ideas on how we can better Green Our Home (submit as comments below), e.g., looking at what kinds of things you’ve done is a good place to start.
- Submit as many energy-saving and eco-friendly tips as you like (as often as you like), but please keep them small, simple and do-able, i.e. while we’d love to install solar panels on the roof of our apartment building, that’s just not going to happen — at least not this month.
- Each tip will be counted only once, and credited to the first person submitting, i.e., so, if you already see a particular tip posted, don’t submit it again, you won’t get credit for it.
- The winner will be the person who provides us with the maximum number of energy-saving or eco-friendly household tips that we implement and/or incorporate into our daily lives.
- The Impact Challenge closes on February 28th at 6 PM, Eastern Standard Time.
- We’ll then start counting up all the tip submissions that we’re actually using and determine who provided us with the most number.
- The winner will be determined by us (Nils and Corinne) and announced during the first week of March (the exact date depends on how many submissions we receive, how many tips we will be using and what we have going on in our life at that moment).
Our Week 5 (starting today, Feb 1 – 7) Impact Event kicks off the MIC and follows this theme: we’ll begin to look into what we can do to better Green Our Home. Help us get started with your suggestions and work toward winning the February MIC.
The Prize! Oh right, I almost forgot: This month, there’s an added incentive. If you’re the winner of “Green Our Home,” along with being able to tell all your friends and family that you were the “52 Weeks of Impact February Monthly Impact Challenge Champ” (that’s a mouthful, eh?), having your name (or login name) listed here in BIG BOLD LETTERS, you’ll also receive a packet of three lovely greeting cards from StartSmall, a not-for-profit company with a “unique range of products … hand made by skilled Kenyan artisans.” The cards are made from wire, beads and/or recycled tins (cans) … and they really are cool! (interior is blank so can be used for all occasions). Full disclosure: I bought several of these cards at a market in London. I love them and think it’s a good cause to support, so I’m sharing them.
So, Quick! Submit your tips as a comment below. Be the first! Be the winner!
* What’s a Monthly Impact Challenge: Every month we pose a challenge (e.g., to collect and deliver as many canned goods as possible to your local food bank, or perform random acts of kindness). Everyone can participate and the First Place “Monthly Impact Champ” will be featured and announced on this blog! (woo hoo!)
Look at changing out your lighting one room at a time. A good quality (and quality is the key) LED light can lower your 65 watt incandescent lights to 6-12 watts depending on the light you select. That is an instant 80-90% energy savings. If you are using the CFL lights you can still cut your energy usage by 50% with a much better quality light output.
Thank you, Walter. Timing is everything. Nils and I just discussed replacing most of our remaining incandescent bulbs with CFL this coming weekend. (we’re currently about 2/3 CFL).
However, based on your posting, I did some surfing and was surprised to see how far LED lighting (bulbs) has come as a home lighting solution.
We were not going to replace a couple of our incandescent bulbs because we needed bright light immediately (and CFLs take too long to warm up). Since LEDs light up immediately, we can have energy efficient lighting in all our rooms.
Cost will be a factor to move over immediately, but looks like LEDs get two thumbs up. Energy efficiency AND no mercury!
Just hear me out on this one. Bubble wrap. For seams of windows or to completely cover a window. It’s terrific insulation because of all that trapped air, and still lets in light (although the view gets interesting). But I’ll recommend not popping the bubbles. At least not till spring.
Absolutely REFUSE to do take-out food that’s packaged in styrofoam. Bring your own containers if you have to, but better to try to find establishments that use biodegradable or recyclable containers. And don’t buy things like eggs packaged in styrofoam—cardboard is still available.
Thanks for these!
I particularly love the bubble wrap insulation tip! And I just surfed and found out that all you need is bubble wrap, an xacto knife, and water in a spray bottle (no tape or caulking). You just cut the wrap to the size of your window, spray the window, place the wrap — bubble side to the window — and you’re done. The water “glues” the wrap to the window. And when you don’t need it anymore, just pull it off. Cool!
And yes, why are places still using styrofoam. Everyone knows it’s evil!
Unplug your chargers when not in use. They can still pull electricity and while the amount is small every little bit helps.
I also always turn off the power strip that supplies my computer, modem and printer when I’m not using them.
Oh yeah! We’re right with you here! It’s frightening how much electricity we use unknowningly! Thanks for this!
Unmentionable? Not!
In my home, we use recycled toilet paper. I read an article a while back about how many trees are chopped down to make “squeezably soft” TP, and vowed never to buy those brands again.
Here in Austria there is a brand of TP and paper towels appropriately named Danke (thank you). I remember buying 7th Generation paper goods in the US. It might cost a little more, but doesn’t your conscience feel better?
OK, I admit it, I couldn’t help but cringe just a little bit over the term “recycled toilet paper.”
. But, this is an excellent tip! According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (nrdc.org), a U.S. environmental action group, “If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees.”
Remember that reuseable shopping bags are good for ANY shopping – not just the grocery store. I take mine with me clothes shopping and to the library. They also hold up better than most of the bags you get at stores.
“Reusable shopping bags … also hold up better than most of the bags you get at the stores.” How true this is! Not only are the bags you get at the store still plastic, but they’re poor quality plastic so you often can’t even reuse them! So, yes, I’m a big fan of the reusable!
Here’s one I learned in the kitchen industry – Don’t rinse your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. Of course you should scrape plates clean of bones and large food items but rinsing simply wastes water, time and your energy.
Most new dishwashers are equipped with a food grinder or disposer and will take care of anything left on your dishes.
If your dishwasher doesn’t it’s probably time to get a new one.
Also – your dishwasher will use less water than you will.
Eat locally, eat seasonally!
Don’t buy foods that were grown half way across the world, they have such a hefty prize tag for the earth on them. In stead buy food on farmer’s markets, or if you buy from the supermarket, they usually display the country some veg is imported from.
Also eat what is good right now. If you buy flimsy summer salads right now, you know one thing for sure: they were grown in a greenhouse. There are plenty of lists around of which vegetables are in season now, and enjoy!
Re plastic grocery bags: The ones from our grocery are recyclable and our store collects the used ones, so every time we go we bring back whatever we have. We also use them to line small trash cans, though. And since I do a fair amount of shipping these days, I scrunch them up and use them for packing material. We do have reusable shopping bags and we have a laundry basket in the car for those bulk Costco items…
I also recycle padded envelopes (ok, I shop QVC too much, so I have a bunch) and resend items in them or, when not usable for that, I use them as packing material. I used to have more of them, but I’m conserving another limited resource these days — money.
Water, our most precious resource:
We’re very, very lucky in Vienna, Austria to have perhaps the best drinking water in the world (okay, I’m a bit biased, I’ve called Vienna home for 10+ years). Here are some ways to watch less water run down the drain on a daily basis:
1. Overfill the diswasher so you use it less
2. Fill the sink with soapy water when doing pots; don’t let the water run
3. Turn off water when washing face, teeth & even body, if you can stand it!
4. Bathe less (ewe) and try short showers instead
5. Another unmentionable–do we need to flush as much as we do?
6. Fill washer to the brim with colored/white clothes together on cold cycle (this one is the hardest for me—I admit to trying this more on husband’s/children’s clothes).
7. Speaking of impact around the water issue, there’s no reason to buy bottled water in Vienna. Every time we pass up buying a plastic bottle, we help out a little bit!
I love these! And, we definitely want to do something on water conservation, so these tips will come in handy!