A Retrospective Look

Working with The Cat Scan taught me a lot about green living, and doing this blog allowed me to explore many areas of green living that I personally wanted to know more about and share with my many readers...all two of you. A special thanks to Catherine for painfully reading through more than one of my blogs...but for my final blog I thought I'd take a look back at what I've done, and what I've learned along the way.

I began with a look at the Air Conditioner versus The Fan. An epic battle that has raged for centuries. I chose this topic because I had recently moved into my own apartment and things like the electric bill were a worry for my wallet, so my personal quest to save a few bucks became a blog. And what did I learn? Well running multiple fans is cheaper than using the AC, but if you're gonna use that AC, you can still be smart about it by only running it while you're home, turning the dial up a degree or two, and using windows on less toasty days.

Then I moved to a look at water conservation in the home. This blog was born while brushing my teeth on morning when I began to wonder how much water I was wasting and what things I could do to cure my wasteful ways. And what did I learn? Shorter showers and fully loaded dishwashers are a great and low-effort way to reduce water use in the home.

Up next, regular versus premium gas. My car has died many untimely deaths in the past couple months, and I was wondering if my choice in gas had anything to do with it. Plus gas prices are so high right now...who wants to pay the extra ten cents for fancy gas? Well what did I learn? Premium gas is silly nonsense gas. Unless you have a specially tuned engine, the regular unleaded will do just fine. So keep those extra coins to buy yourself a Thirstbuster.

I next wanted to know about playing sports and being eco-friendly. I play kickball and dodgeball every Tuesday night with co-workers and I wondered if we could somehow do our part while we played? What did I learn? Yes, we can do our part, because there are some fine corporations out there that manufacture environmentally safe sports equipment, go figure!

Then I moved to the hot topic, eco-sitting! I literally sat down at my computer to blog, and decided to see if sitting here could be done in an environmentally conscious way. And I learned that I can, because there are companies making desk chairs, and even full home furnishings with eco-friendly materials. This was also my favorite blog because I got a comment from someone! Made my day!

Next was batteries. My phone battery was the inspiration here, but I spun it towards more conventional batteries for the sake of the blog. And what did I learn? Batteries aren't good for the environment, but you can dispose of them in environmentally safe ways. A large chunk of toxic chemicals from dump are the result of things like batteries, that had they been disposed of properly, would have never been an issue. Your best bet is to try to use rechargeable batteries.

Ahh, the easiest blog for me was on riding the bus, because for four years now I've been riding the bus almost everyday of the school semester throughout my college career. I know the buses ups and downs. So what did I learn...not too much, but I did learn that Tucson's Sun Tran uses all Bio-diesel fuel for their buses, and my riding the bus actually made a big difference, and I'm only one man here!

Then I talked about the benefits of trees. I kinda stared out my tiny kitchen window from my desk and realized the tree out front might make for an interesting investigative blog. What did I learn? Well, trees provide way more benefits than just giving off oxygen, and planting one nearby could really improve your life.

Lastly I touched on green lawn care. I don't have a lawn, but I figured someone who may read this blog might have a lawn, why would I want to leave them out? What did I learn? There are a few good methods for caring for your lawn in an eco-friendly way, like leaving your grass a little bit longer, leaving the clippings on the lawn to replenish the grass, and choosing a grass that’s suitable to your climate.

Overall I learned a lot of things about a lot of subjects affecting me daily. I've applied a few things to even my own life, like only running that dishwasher when its at capacity. Sure that means running low on cups and fancy silverware, but its an easy choice to make and it just doesn't take much effort. In fact, there's so many thing that don't require any effort at all if you want to be green. All it takes is a Google search, a little motivation, and some perseverance. And I leave you all with that...
Eric...
The Average Green Guy

Gone Green...The Results

So I lived green. I did so for three days, but I did some other green activities throughout the weekend as time allowed. First off, it was easy to be greener, but it wasn't necessarily easy. Riding the Sun Tran bus everywhere came natural to me, because I ride the bus to school and back everyday, but riding the bus to school, then riding it home, then riding it again to work was exhausting. To top it off, I couldn't ride it home because I get off work late each evening, so I carpooled home. Carpooling is a little more fun than riding the bus, and it's still doing something positive for the environment. So transportation was as simple as that.

Around the house, I unplugged all the appliances that I was not using. That meant my entire entertainment center was unplugged all day. That meant no clock on the stereo either. I kept the laptop unplugged except to recharge, and kept the phone charger out of the wall except when in use. I opened all the window blinds during the day instead of using indoor lights. My apartment doesn't have the best window placement, but when I thought about it, I don't need it to be bright in my house to do my daily activities, like homework, or cleaning the kitchen, or cleaning up my room.

Two habits I quickly had to break was turning on a light as soon as I enter a room, regardless of the need for a light, and not turning the light off when I walk away. I have a habit of flipping on a light, even if I'm in the room for just a second, and then not turning that light off when I walk away. I feel like the majority of my personal energy conservation came from breaking this habit.

For water, I did a couple different things. Firstly, I did those two minute showers to save water use. It really surprised me how much concentration and focus it took to shower in two minutes. I guess I hadn't paid attention to how much time I lose in the shower, and how much of that time the water is running. I guess that's because I usually shower to wake up in the morning, and I'm just not coherent enough that early in my day. I also followed expert advice and didn't run the dishwasher until it was completely full, and I didn't rinse dishes before they went in the dishwasher. This saves a ton of water, and using the dishwasher meant I didn't need to stand in the kitchen and use up a light to see what I'm cleaning. I also had to shave during my experiment, so to save water there I filled up a cup with water for rinsing my razor, rather than filling the sink, more than once, and then rinsing out the sink with running water. The cup contained all my clippings and that poured down the drain and there was minimal sink rising to do. I found that I saved a ton of water using this method and I will continue to practice from here on out.

I purchased some Green Works all purpose cleaner at Wal-Mart. This product is made by Clorox, but it is environmentally safe and friendly. It worked great on my messy kitchen, and I plan to continue using this product well after this story is written.

For food, being organic was difficult, but the first thing I did was avoid fast food for three days. Eating organic can't be done at any major fast food chain. I had to rely on Wal-Mart for organic choices, and they were limited. The best things I found were pesticide-free tomatoes, and organic cookies and milk. The cookies, made by Back to Nature, and the milk, made by Shamrock Farms, were both tasty, even if they were a little more expensive. I found that eating organic can be pricey at your major chain stores, so shopping around for a good deal is important if you have a limited budget like myself.

So overall the project was a success and I learned a few things that will carry over into my regular life. I have a bus to catch, and the laptop battery is dying, so until later, be green when you can, because even a little bit adds up over time.

Caring for the lawn being all green

I don't have a lawn, but I thought I'd blog about how to care for one if I did. How to care for it...and be Earth-friendly, that is!

The first step to a good lawn is good soil. An article at PioneerThinking.com provided by the Environmetal Protection Agency suggests numerous things for caring for a lawn while being environmentally. To improve soil quality they suggest adding sulfur to soil that is low in acid, and adding lime juice to soil that has too much acid. Monitoring acid levels in the soil can be very important to the health of a lawn, and avoiding chemicals and going with limes can be much more environmentally friendly. They also recommend growing grass that's right for your area, which according to GardenPlace.com, has all the traits a Tucson lawn would need, mainly the ability to thrive in dry climates that don't receive regular rain. In our region, water use is a major concern, so growing grass that doesn't need constant water attention will be popular with the neighborhood, the water bill, and you'll still have a friendly patch of grass to play catch on during the cooler days of the summer. GardenPlace.com says it's also a good safe grass for pets.
PioneerThinking.com also suggests two more tips. Firstly, cut your grass often, but allow it to stay long. By keeping it long, the grass will stay healthy and will require less overall care. And secondly, don't pick up those grass clippings when you're done. They help keep your lawn healthy too by keeping nutrients in the lawn instead of removing them.

Prepping For My Project

In the coming weeks I will be doing a story for The Cat Scan which will force me to live green for three full days, while my co reporter Michael Schwartz does the complete opposite, and we'll compare the damage we've done in a story for the site. To prepare myself for this project I decided that I must set out and find things that I can do in my daily routine that will make myself more green without too much hassle or expense. I hear a lot of people on the greener side of the fence say that being eco-friendly takes little effort, just a willingness to commit to doing things a little different than everyone else. I wanna see just how true this is by testing some of the ideas I've found...

Think Green Media suggests that I (a)Buy Organic and (b)Take Mass Transit. Well folks, I'm going to be doing both. In order to fully emmerse myself in the project. I will go out on my limited budget and purchase some organic alternatives to food, like Target's Archer Farms brand which offers a wide variety of organic products for my temporary green diet. And I will be taking the bus everywhere for those three days, which will include a trip to work and probably walking back home, since Sun Tran doesn't run when I'm off work. We'll see how these things go.

Earth Easy suggests in their 25 Ways to Save Water at Home article that I can save water by taking shorter showers. I am notirious for long showers, so this will be a great challenge, but I will be up to the task.

The Federal Trade Commission has numerous tips for home owners for ways to reduce energy in your home. As an apartment renter, I found one area where I could reduce energy use, and that is to recycle. Their website had numerous definitions of different recycling terms. For my project, I'm going to recycle for three days. My apartment complex does not offer recycling so it will be up to me to separate my trash and find a place to take it, so we'll dive into that when the time comes.

The University of California at Berkley says one way to reduce electricity use in the home is to unplug those electronic devices that just sit on standby all day. Everything in your home with a little red light on it or that has a rechargable battery is simply wasting electricity. So that means this laptop I'm using, it's gonna be unplugged. The stereo and TV, they don't need to always be plugged in either, so I'll be living with empty sockets for three days to further reduce my carbon footprint on this Earth.

So check out my story coming up at the end of April and we'll see how I fare, roughing it green.

Trees: They do more than keep us breathing...

I had the good fortune of spending a day over spring break on Mt. Lemmon, doing a little bit of camping with the future in-laws. I've never been the camping type but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Being around tree is such a rare occurance in Tucson that when a native Tucsonian is near one or more of these green and woody monstrosities, they feel the need to tell others. It felt great to be around trees again, as I spent a few years lof my life growing up with a forest in my backyard in North Carolina, and just being around trees made me feel a lot closer to nature than the dry wasteland that is the desert. Dirt, rock, and cacti just fall short of what I would truely consider nature. So being around trees was having a positive affect on my mood, and I began to wonder what elese trees are doing for me? I know they give off oxygen, which I suppose is somewhat important, but what other benefits do they provide?



Treesaregood.org answered some of those questions for me. They say trees can actually offer social benefits like improving people's morale and helping sick hospital patients recover faster. I would certainly agree with trees improving morale because I slept in the front seat of a truck and I was still having a good time.

Trees also provide countless environmental benefits like improved air quality, water conservation, climate control, and bringing wildlife to your door. Trees can shelter your home from wind, and keep the surrounding area cooler in the summer. Having birds and insects around restore a natural wildlife setting to your home and can be fun to watch as well. Hey if you get enough trees maybe you can have a bear! Ok, not likely, but it's fun to think about.



So you want to plant a tree now? Here's some websites with tips and suggestions for how to do things right.

Picking and Planting a Tree
Planting and Locations for Fruit Trees
Avoiding Problems When Picking A Tree
Tree Selector for Your Area

Riding The Bus

I've been what's referred to as a commuter student at the University of Arizona for all four years of my college career. For four years now, I've gone to school each morning, and returned home on a city bus, which in Tucson means riding the Sun Tran buses. Many of the bus stereotypes are true...buses can be dirty and smelly, bums often ride them and may even try to talk to you or will at least sit uncomfortably close to you, the buses usually run a couple minutes late, and good luck trying to get any homework done with all the nasty roads we have in Tucson. But the one thing I've always told myself when riding the bus is at least I'm doing the environment a favor. I may much prefer the privacy of my car, where the Barenaked Ladies are always on the radio and the AC is always full blast. but when I'm riding the bus, I doing something small but significant for the environment. Doing my part, if you will. I sat down for this blog knowing that riding the bus helps the environment, but I actually have no idea how much I'm really helping, so I'm going to attempt to find out.

According to The Twin Cities Green Guide, riding the bus reduces overall air emissions, emits less carbon dioxide, and reduces traffic congestion. According to the American Public Transportation Association, taking public transport, like buses, reduces energy bills. It also saves the U.S. 45 million barrels of oil each year from Saudi Arabia, contributing to our decreasing dependency on foreign oil. And public transportation releases 95% less carbon monoxide and about 50% less carbon dioxide per mile traveled than taking your car. Also, just being located near a bus route makes a huge difference, as people who live between 0.25 and 0.1 miles from a bus stop drive an average of 4,400 less miles each year.

According to Mapquest.com, I live about 12 miles from the University of Arizona. Using the APTA's statistics, a person making two trips a day for a ten mile commute year round covers 4,720 miles in a year. That person would save around 236 gallons of fuel each year if they drive my rundown Toyota Tercel, which gets about 20 miles to the gallon. That means I'm saving a great deal as well, because while my trip is a couple miles longer each day, I also don't take that trip for three months out of the year, each year, but even if I did take the bus to the U of A each day for four years, and rounded off to a ten mile trip, I'd still be saving 944 gallons of fuel in my college career. That's a huge dent in energy conservation, by one poor college kid no less!

Also, looking into Tucson's Sun Tran system itself, the buses use compressed natural gas and biodiesel, which are environmentally-friendly fuel alternatives. Also, the bus stops themselves use solar power for lighting, taking full advantage of Tucson's year-round sun. So the transit system itself is also taking an active role in being green.

Batteries

Everyone uses batteries in some way pretty much every day of our lives. Batteries are used for the TV remote, the CD player, maybe a Nintendo DS, or a wrist watch. Your laptop, car, the flashlight, and that dancing hamster you have on your shelf also use batteries. I've always been told that batteries are bad for the environment, so i thought I'd look further into issue..

According to Environement, Health and Saftey Online, the average person buys ten batteries per year, and throws out eight. Three billion batteries are sold every year in the United States. Most of these batteries wind up in a dump, where the toxic chemicals inside them can pose a danger to the environment. The battery metals like mercury, lead, and nickle can wind up in the soil, they can find their way to underground water supplies, and they can burn of in trash fires and enter our air. In any of these cases, the battery contents become harmful to plants and people alike. The EHSO says batteries contribnuted to 88% of all mercury found in a solid waste dump site. So if everyong stopped using batteries, mercury levels would plummet, but more realistically, if everyone switched to reusable batteries or simply reduced the number of batteries they consume each year, battery pollution would decline sharply.

So how to you dispose of batteries? Well the government and retailers have yet to provide an answer for the disposal of regular batteries like the ones in your TV remote. The Environmental Protection Agency says those batteries are safe for landfills, despite their contents and known potential hazards, so keeping them out of the environment is in our own hands. However recycling of rechargeable batteries is possible, and many corporations are a part of the efforts. Cell phone retailers like Alltel, electronics stores like Radio Shack, and even giants like Wal-Mart and Target often have batteries recycling programs, so call a local store near you when disposing of rechargable batteries, watch batteries, or your cell phone battery. These recycyling efforts allow the major battery producers to recycle battery contents and also dispose of battery contents in safe and non-hazardous ways. Even though that battery may seem small and recycling one battery may not make much of a noticable impact, if everyone recycled just a battery or two a year, there would be a huge impact in pollution levels at dumps and things like underground water supplies would be safer from toxification.

For more info also check out the Rechargable Battery Recycling Commission website at rbrc.org.