Faucetful of blessings November 26, 2010

The day after Thanksgiving is as good a time as any to be thankful for the conveniences in our lives: clean water from the tap, sanitation in a flush, and the (mostly) invisible infrastructure that makes it all work. Here’s four ways to conserve that most basic of our resources, water, and help ensure there will continue to be a-plenty:

1. Broken sprinkler shut-off: this special valve prevents irrigation water (10 gallons per minute) from being wasted at a broken sprinkler head by holding the water in the pipe. This will save about 65% more water than an irrigation system without this feature. Around $4 (www.conservco.us)
2. Shorter shower: the Waterpebble (www.dry-planet.com) tracks your water usage from the valve, with the first use establishing your normal shower time. Each subsequent shower, it alerts you when you’ve reached that point, flashing slightly earlier on each shower to subtly speed up the amount of time you spend in the water by 5% over three showers. About $12.
3. Native Grass: the University of Nebraska is developing a new type of lawn grass, based on buffalo grass which is native to the US. Traditional grass used for lawns (like fescue or blue grass) are native European strains, thus needing more water and general maintenance. About 50 cents per sod plug (www.toddvalleyfarms.com)
4. Go with the Flow: installing low-flow aerators on your faucets couldn’t be easier; for a few bucks at your local hardware store, take the average 2.2 gallons per minute (gpm) down to meet the EPA standard of 1.5 gpm. Take it even further by using Niagra Conservation’s aerator, which has 3 settings: .5, 1.0, or 1.5 gpm, allowing you to adjust based on the task at hand. About $11.50 (www.niagaraconservation.com)

 The upside of saving water (besides the obvious) is parallel energy savings – less hot water used = less energy spent heating and moving it.

These tips and more from Popular Science, www.popsci.com

The average American uses almost 1200 gallons of water per day – that includes “virtual” water. For more on water conservation, and an interactive water footprint calculator, try www.h2oconserve.com . I used the calculator, and am relieved that my individual use is “only” 820 gallons per day – incredible… that still seems like a ridiculous amount. I think I’ll be ordering those aerators…

real Trash to Treasure November 12, 2010

It’s stories like this one that gives me hope for our greener future. I’ll never be a technophobe, or a luddite for that matter (well, all 8 billion of us can’t return to the land), because while some people will complain that technology is why  we have global warming, it’s also one of the most effective tools we have for getting ourselves out of it. The most effective tool or method we have to use? Changing our habits, but that’s easier said than done…

 The take-away from this clip is 1) it is possible to recycle petroleum, thus reducing our dependency on outside sources, and 2) it seems like a low-energy process, with lots of benefits all over the triple-bottom line (environmental, economic, and equitable).

 More thinking like this, and we’ll be on our way to a cleaner, greener world. My only question for Dr. Ito is – won’t burning this fuel perpetuate the CO2 problems we already have? But at least in the meantime we won’t have to rely on more drilling to keep our engines running while we find cleaner ways to move and make stuff. 

Tradeoffs in a green world November 7, 2010

Making the greenest decision is most often about trade-offs, because we are still in a transition period where there are not perfect options (yet). There are many examples of the dilemmas a green-thinking shopper may face, and one recent conversation I had provides a good one. My neighbor is going to be “retiring” her 1984 diesel Mercedes 300SD soon – the engine just isn’t reliable anymore, after 272,000 miles.

 When talking about transportation, the greenest option by far is your own muscle power: walking or biking – or mass transit (especially light rail). But, that is not always possible or convenient.

 So what’s the next best option?

A few ways to go: high fuel efficiency standard engine, bio-fuel engine (for the average car owner, that means a converter kit and a pioneering attitude, or electric/hybrid technology.

 Seeing as my friend is not yet ready to make the leap to bio-fuel, her reasonable options are the standard-but-better engine, or electric/hybrid.

 High fuel efficiency (hfe) cars are difficult to pin down – be prepared to do some homework. There is no standard for this terminology, so marketers take liberty with it. For some carmakers, hfe means “higher than our SUV model at 10 or 13mpg” – which could mean a smaller SUV or pick up truck with 15mpg is considered hfe. To me, this is blatant greenwash, and highly aggravating to the well-intentioned shopper.

A good fact to keep in mind is the average American mid-size car gets about 21mpg (city) / 27mpg (highway). Tiny conventional-but-super-efficient cars like the Smart or MiniCooper still don’t beat hybrids in mpg, so these should be considered in the general “conventional” category.

 Diesel engines tend to be more efficient, but a bit dirtier on the exhaust, and fuel cost is usually higher.

 Electric and hybrid technology is making the biggest gains in fuel efficiency, starting in the low/mid 40mpgs (city)  – the greenest option then, right? Well….maybe. Setting concerns of safety and quality aside (these cars are much lighter in weight compared to conventional cars of similar size), are these cars really that much greener? They are made with a lot more plastic in the body, engine, and interior compared to a conventional car – good for fuel efficiency, but plastics are problematic on many levels (petroleum based, energy intensive to make, often not recyclable), not to mention the highly toxic lead-acid batteries (though these are highly recycled and recyclable). Some life cycle comparisons show hybrids and electrics as being  worse than conventional cars for the environment; there are so many factors and variables it’s hard to know how accurate these comparisons are, but it seems possible.

 Assuming electric technology will only improve (cleaner production, better batteries, etc.), one benefit of going with an electric or hybrid car is the clear message it sends to the car industry and our government – we want greener options. A big purchase like this is more effective than your vote in communicating to our world that you want these organizations to spend time and money in research and development of cleaner technology.

 So we’re still wondering, what’s the greenest option? Tradeoffs are a real buzz-kill for the well-intentioned shopper – unless you have a very focused goal you are trying to achieve (highest fuel efficiency, best end-of-life options, cleanest exhaust, etc.) it is impossible to say definitively that one option is indeed better than another.

 In the end, the advice I gave to my beighbor is this: buy a used Honda Civic or other hfe conventional car, and wait out the learning curve.

 Check out this blog for “clean car myths”:  http://alturl.com/p3swy