Hello everyone, thought I’d give you an update on my recent efforts to reduce my own carbon footprint. Recall that Let’s Own This! (“LOT” for short) is committed to helping individuals and households reduce their carbon footprint, by helping them make carbon positive decisions and helping them measure progress along the way. The first version of a carbon account web app for consumers is due for distribution around the middle of this year. We hope this will help motivate you and help you prioritize the steps you take to reduce your carbon footprint!
About a month ago I told you how shocked I was to discover the amount of electricity I and my family consume out here on the midwestern plains. It appears the primary reason for this is air conditioning during the long hot summer months. I’ll tell you a few things we’ve done to get better at all of this over the past few years for illustration, and share some general principles I’ve used to motivate change around here.
Replacing Windows
About fifteen years ago we replaced all the windows in our house. In all honesty, our motivation was not to reduce our energy bill, nor was it to save the planet through reduced greenhouse gas emission: Our house was simply uncomfortable. Our primary living space was drafty, and we avoided several parts of the house because they were well out of our desired temperature range. The builder grade windows were simply not doing the job. When the wind blew we felt a draft in the middle of the room.
So we laid out many thousands of dollars to get them replaced. We could not afford to replace them all at the same time, so we spread it out over a few years. They were high quality windows and we made sure they fit snugly. Now most of the rooms in our home are mostly comfortable, most of the time.
The lesson here is that we ended up reducing CO2 emissions for reasons other than saving money and saving the planet: we just wanted a more comfortable place to live. And yet, a happy side-benefit was reducing our carbon footprint. I suspect there are several more things like that in my life, and there probably are in your life as well.
Subscribing to a green energy program
My electric utility sponsors a program that allows customers to subscribe to the energy produced by a solar array. I can direct the utility to cover up to 50% of energy consumed by me to be produced from this array. The scheme is a way to help motivate the utility to invest in more sustainable energy sources more quickly, and for me to pay a little extra for cleaner energy. With the snap of a finger I was able to halve my carbon footprint from electricity. Huzzah!
Or was I? Nothing I expected to happen happened. I didn’t receive a contract in the mail to sign, and when I followed up by phone I learned that the subscription won’t take effect until the autumn. Add to that my natural skepticism that what I can’t see or touch isn’t real. And isn’t it possible my utility is having me on, double and triple selling the energy being generated?
In all honesty I don’t yet really know the answer to all of these questions, but the lesson is that in today’s world, We aren’t yet quite “plug and play” when it comes to many green energy initiatives. Not everything is really a product yet, and there is some uncertainty around many of them. Furthermore, some things that motivate me are not things that motivate others (like my electric utility). As such I have to do a little more digging, make a few more calls, and steadily build comfort with my decisions. I have to do a little more research and follow up than I might need to do on a more established path.
Turning out lights
A small thing, and one the Mrs. tells me she has been doing for years, following me around the house. In the past month I’ve gotten religion and started doing it too.
This is great, not just because we are reducing our electricity consumption, but because I now have some ammunition when the wife scolds me. Turns out she leaves lights on too! The tables have turned. Wouldn’t it be a great to have a product that measures who is turning off the lights, and when? We could totally gamify this.
Still more to do
There is a lot more I can do to reduce my electricity consumption, and I’ll be working on them over the coming weeks and months. I need to systematically switch out bulbs for the most effective technology; I need to develop lifestyle changes that allow me to use (and turn on/off) power strips in my daily life and in more situations; I hope to get an HVAC guy out to help me understand how to optimize the airflow in my house for the way I actually live to reduce strain on (and energy consumption of) my furnace; and, I need to learn about appliances in my home and when/whether it is worth upgrading them to more energy efficient models–or do away with them entirely.
Unfortunately, the LOT carbon calculator is not yet in place to enable easy and automated tracking of this progress for me over time.. I will likely need to work hard to assemble all these measures and observe them in my carbon account. But I am absolutely confident I would be more motivated to make these changes with a quicker and simpler feedback mechanism.
Allright, happy decarbonization!
