Ideas for Reducing Environmental Footprint
It seems like there is a nice conversation developing here around things people can do to help reduce their environmental footprint. So, I thought I’d see if I could help foster this even more by creating what will hopefully turn into an ongoing conversation where we can all share our experiences with one another.
A few months ago, my wife was reading a blog whose author had a goal of finding one new way, each month, to reduce their environmental footprint. My wife and I thought that was a neat idea, so we have been trying to adopt a similar goal.
I thought I’d share out some of our successes and failures and see if others have other thoughts.
Just to make this clear, I am not trying to be “preachy” here and say that you should do these same things. This is just a forum for sharing some ideas that you can choose to pay attention to vs. not.
Anyway, as we try things here, I’ll share our experiences out.
If you are interested in submitting your own ideas, let me know and I can set you up with an account so you can post your own articles. You can try to use the “comments” feature, but I’ve found that isn’t necessarily as good as a full posting since the postings get e-mailed out to people. So, if you want to post your own ideas, just let me know.
on April 20th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
One idea is that when you’re landscaping, think about selecting plants that are native to your area. In some circles, the idea is called xeriscaping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeriscaping). One huge benefit is that you reduce the need to water all these plants once they get established.
A great example of this practice comes from Arizona. In the Phoenix area, where a lot of people have chosen to landscape with grass lawns, big trucks filled with water come by and basically flood the lawns to keep them going. An alternative is to landscape with rocks and cactus, which looks more appropriate and is far less wasteful of precious resources.
Closer to home, the New England Wildflower Society is a huge proponent of this technique. They have a lovely piece of land on the Framingham/Sudbury border that you can visit. You can also take a look at their web site — http://www.newfs.org/ for some ideas.
Around my house, I still have plenty of grass but there’s also a lot of native landscaping. Unless I’m establishing a plant, I almost never water. I figure “if it’s green, it gets to stay.” I’m not sure my father-in-law entirely approves (his lawn in Colorado is perfect), but I’m happy, and so are the butterflies, birds, and other animals who frequent the yard.
Sometimes doing something small makes a difference.
on April 20th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
In my house, I have made many changes of the years, but I don’t think many or any of them would have been done by the rest of my family (wife and 3 kids). They support me, and live with the changes I make, and my kids can talk the talk. I hope they will all walk the walk on there own too. Changes include, but are not limited to CF light bulbs pretty much through-out, lower house temps on an auto-thermostat, lower water temps, 1.5gpm shower heads and faucets. Extra insulation blown into attic. Efficient burning wood stove. a Civic Hybrid in ‘03 and a Prius in ‘07. Am looking into replacement windows, but won’t decide on that until I have a thorough home audit done.
on April 20th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
p.s. while landscaping your yard may seem like a big bang gesture, you can go in small increments. For example, as I gaze out my window at a bush that seems to be dying, I’m thinking that I can make careful choices about how to replace it. What if you replaced four square feet of yard a year with local perennials? You can take small steps and have a larger impact eventually.
on April 20th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
We have a lot of what looks like grass from a distance, but upon closer look consists mostly of moss. We don’t do a good job of “keeping up with the Jones”, because we never fertilize. The most we have done is lime, and some organic (raw sewage) fertilizer at one point. We had an battery-electric mower for a few years, but the battery did not work well, and I ended up replacing it with a four-stroke gas mower. At least a 4-stroke mower is much better than a 2-stroke mower. I wish the electric mower had worked. I ended up doing a mower swap through http://freecycle.org so the electric mower got a new home and we got a new used mower.
on April 20th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
http://www.nwf.org/backyard/
on April 21st, 2007 at 9:34 am
On the landscaping point, also consider consulting your local college extension agent. They can suggest which types of plants will work in your area, and are generally very knowledgeable.
One point of clarification: I understood xeriscpaing to mean planting for arid environments. Perhaps its meaning has expanded?
on April 21st, 2007 at 4:38 pm
hi, perhaps I misused the term “xeriscaping” but I’ve heard it applied to the New England area too. I’ve always thought that it meant “minimal watering” or “plants that can grow with little care as if they were in a natural setting”. Good idea to talk to the college extension folks
on April 21st, 2007 at 4:40 pm
another idea — join coop america (http://www.coopamerica.org/) or just check out their web site. For years they’ve been concerned about protecting the earth, although that isn’t their only concern. But they have a lot of good ideas about small and large things you can do to better support the earth.
on April 21st, 2007 at 4:46 pm
earth day — concord
If you’re not busy on earth day (April 28, 2007) and you’re local to Concord MA, you might consider heading over to their earth day celebrations (http://www.emersonumbrella.org/content_current/musketaquid/earthday.html).
A friend who’s involved with painting for the event says that there’s a huge parade with giant puppets. I imagine it’s inspiring and educational, a small way of showing solidarity with a group of like-minded folks.
on April 21st, 2007 at 5:19 pm
On the xeriscaping, I think both Josh and Liz are correct. As I understand it, the movement started in the Southwestern US when people acknowledged they were living in a desert and probably shouldn’t be wasting all of that water to get nice green lawns. Since then, the definition seems to have expanded to include sustainable practices like avoiding chemical fertilizers.
I also think Liz’s point about incremental improvements is a great one. Too often, people get overwhelmed by the idea of overhauling their entire lives, and so do nothing. If instead, you look for small changes, over time, they can add up to the grander solution you didn’t originally think was possible.
on April 22nd, 2007 at 10:34 pm
thanks, Vicki, for nicely articulating that point about little steps, which are especially effective when many people are making the effort!
Here’s another idea — recycle those old cell phones!
I get a new cell phone every couple of years. There are a lot of organizations out there that take them, but some of them seem a little questionable. One that I like is Collective Good (http://www.collectivegood.com/) which supports both national and local charitable organizations.
If mailing your cell phone sounds like a pain, Staples has agreed to take phones on behalf of Collective Good. Last time I did this, I didn’t even have to break my stride — I was in that area anyways, walked in the In door, was met by a customer representative who immediately saw the phones and gratefully accepted them from me, and then walked out the Out door.
In the words of the Staples ad — “That was easy!”
on April 24th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
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