Frugally Green » Doing the Right Thing

Greening Up Your Home this Fall

Tyler — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 13:00:50 +0000

Though we typically think of reds, oranges and lovely golds when it comes to fall colors, when September rolls around, the color we can’t forget is green. While winter and summer typically get all the excitement for “green season prep,” that’s not to say that fall and spring don’t have ample opportunity to grasp a hold of and run with. So, this fall as we prepare to return to routine, break out the warm cardigans and enjoy the rich smells of baking apples, consider these easy tips for greening up your home this fall.

Transform Fresh to Lasting

If you haven’t tried your hand at canning yet, it’s one of the very best ways to green up your home this fall. You’ll be able to take advantage of the flood of fresh produce that is available to us during the fall months and preserve it to get you through the winter months when the only other way to get it would be to purchase something shipped from across the globe.

Craving raspberries in December? Then you will love your homemade canned raspberry jelly. Peaches? Canned! Drying is another great option. Apples are one of my favorites to eat dried, and since they are abundant in fall, this is the prime time to stock up and stockpile dried stashes. Nothing beats your own fruits and veggies in the middle of winter that you didn’t have to sacrifice your green principles for.

Switch Out Those Light Bulbs

With the start of fall comes the beginning of shorter and shorter days and you’ll naturally be using your lights for more hours each day. Switching to energy efficient light bulbs might seem like a small thing, but if you haven’t done it yet already, this can go a long way to saving energy. CFL (fluorescent) bulbs can even be up to 80% more efficient than the typical bulb.

Pesky to Perfect

You know those leaves that pile up so quickly in the front yard, the back yard, the side yard…. They seem pesky and annoying and often get a bad rap for taking up too much time and killing the grass underneath. But, with a green mindset, those pesky leaves can become the perfect spring fertilizer.

Skip raking the leaves and ditching them in garbage bags on the side of the street and contributing to more energy use and consuming more landfill space. Instead, shred them up and add to your composting bin. Come spring, you’ll have a lovely, rich organic fertilizer.

And remember! Rake, don’t go out with a leaf-blower. One gas-powered leaf blower running for an hour is equivalent in emissions to driving 350 miles. Other great green leaf uses? Frame a few for fall décor or turn them into a potpourri. Just crush, store in mesh bags and spread them throughout your house for the ultimate smell of fall all season long!

Add Some Green Inside, Literally!

Fall is the perfect time to move your “garden” from outside to inside. Plant an herb garden for your windowsill. You’ll get to keep that summer feeling going all year long with fresh mint in your tea, newly picked rosemary for those portabella burgers and perhaps even spinach.

Start Prepping Insulation

As soon as those daily temps start dropping, it’s absolutely appropriate to start “winterizing” your home. There’s no need to wait for the first snowfall (in fact, that’s a really bad idea); plenty of us live in locales where fall most certainly calls for early effort to save precious heat.

Get prepped with draft blockers for the doors and for behind your light switches. Insulate the hot water heater. Consider caulking or double-checking the caulk all around sneaky spaces like windows, pipes, wires, etc. You might want to look into getting a programmable thermostat that will automatically turn down and off at the appropriate times, relieving your less-than-perfect memory of the responsibility. Change out all of your furnace filters. As they become dirty, the airflow gets restricted, meaning more energy needed to push through.

And of course, you can get your own “insulation” invest in some good warm, heavy sweaters so you can keep that thermostat set low! Stock up on propane, de-ice and any winter products you might need, now, before price increases to meet demand.

Freelancer Jocelyn Anne writes about greening up the home on a regular basis. Her favorite fall methods include canning lots and lots of apple pie filling and thoroughly playing in the leaves before composting. At the moment she’s promoting the efficient, energy saving G70 garage heater for the winter season.

Downsizing: Where economy and ecology meet the good life

Tyler — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:00:53 +0000

Environmental crisis is one of the major problems which the whole world is facing today. Progress of mankind depends upon scarce or limited natural resources. It’s important for human civilization to grow economically, but not at the cost of natural resources. It is a debatable topic.

There are numerous examples around the world which show the dilemma between economic growth and a need to conserve our ecosystem. One particular example is the drilling project proposed by a German company RWG in the North Sea. The Wattenmeer is an area of great biological diversity, a regional stop over for millions of migratory birds and a potential spot for being a UNESCO world heritage site. Environmentalists have conducted huge protests over this project which could destroy a biological treasure. There have been similar protests against the Nord Stream pipeline project being proposed to be constructed between Russia and Western Europe, which could affect the ecology of the Baltic Sea. The governments and economists have argued that the oil is a vital part of the economy in the world today, and it cannot be compromised. So where do we draw the line between economy and ecology, which unfortunately tend to be on opposite sides.

There’s an overwhelming belief that the two cannot be tackled together and that there’s a need to give a sort of priority to ecological matters. However, experts feel that such thinking is a big mistake. The economy and environment are related to each other. In fact economy can be assumed to be a subsidiary of environment as environment has all the resources upon which the economy depends. Thus the two are inseparable.

Economic development without conserving the ecology can have serious implications. There’s a possibility of conflict for natural resources. Water conflict is one such example where the construction of dams has created serious argument between the upstream and downstream countries. Clean and safe drinking water is a big concern in the developing countries. Rapid industrialization and urbanization with inadequate drainage and sewerage can affect the availability of drinking water in rivers and groundwater. The people affected are often the poor and the marginalized sections of the society. Thus, treating earth as a huge storehouse with unlimited potential for human consumption can have serious consequences for us.

The governments and private companies require incentives to act on issues relating to environmental concerns. The more immediate issues regarding profit for private companies and economic and political issues for the government tend to dominate the agenda. Thus an effective action in the direction of ecological conservation is less likely to be taken by them. There lies the role of small scale actions and generations of awareness in the community.

The concept of carbon credits has been introduced in order to tackle the problem of emission of greenhouse gases. In this system each nation is stipulated with a definite amount of gases which it can emit. If it exceeds the limit it has to pay charges for its excessive emissions. The money raised is then used to help the lower emission countries.

Thus we need a mandate to develop a Charter of Rights in relation to the environment in the United Nations. It is in our interest as human beings to preserve the environment not only for economic growth but also for the survival of our future generations.

Amanda Kidd is a blogger whose favorite portals to write on are lifestyle and finance. She recently read an article about the world’s most expensive cars.

How a Home Buyer Can Lower Their Carbon Footprint

Tyler — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:25:02 +0000

A lot of people are starting to realize the effect that their actions are having on the environment. Many of these individuals are making the decision to change their lives and start adopting behaviors that are a whole lot more environmentally friendly. If you would like to join this club and start doing more things to enhance the environment then you have come to the right place. Here are a few ways that a home buyer can lower their carbon footprint. Keep in mind that you can apply these steps to every stage of your property journey; be it when you are buying your first home, upgrading to a larger home, refinancing your existing home loan or even getting your next investment property.

Unplug your appliances

You probably are not aware of the fact that all of your electronics and appliances are using up power even when you are not using them. These items may use less power in standby mode but they are still running up your utility bill and harming the environment. You can help to save the environment around you by unplugging these items when not in use. Disconnect your laptop cord, cell phone charger, electric shavers, televisions, DVD players, and gaming systems to conserve energy.

Make your home energy efficient

You can start by making sure that your home is properly insulated so that it keeps cool air in during the summer months and keeps heat in during the winter. This will save your furnace from running all of the time. Switch to reusable filters as well so you no longer have to keep disposing of old filters every few months. Change all of your light bulbs over to compact fluorescent light bulbs. These bulbs are known for being energy efficient and have the EnergyStar seal of approval.

Start recycling

Everyone should recycle in this day and age because it is easy to do and the right thing for the earth. You can recycle bottles, paper cups, paper bags, paper plates, and aluminum foil. Set up two bins in your kitchen. One container will be for all of the items that you have which are recyclable and one for the items that are not. Most neighborhoods even have trucks that will come around once a week and dispose of these items for you.

Plant a garden

Planting a garden at home will keep you from having to drive to the store to purchase your vegetables and produce. Many of the items that you buy at the grocery store have to travel a great distance to get to you. Buying less vegetables and produce from the store will reduce the amount of gases that the transportation trucks emit delivering food to your local grocer.

All of the above steps are easy to incorporate into your everyday life and will make you feel better because you will know that you are doing your part to reduce carbon pollution.

Thinking Green When Sending Gifts

Tyler — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:00:39 +0000

Today’s article is a guest post from Jade. Whatcha’ got to say, Jade?

***

Everybody loves to get stuff, and giving gifts can be even more fun than receiving them. Whether it’s Christmas, birthdays, or care packages, we may find ourselves having to send gifts through the mail rather than hand delivering them. If you’re a green minded person, the gifts you send and the way you send them can reflect that personal philosophy. Here’s how:

The Gift Itself

You don’t have to be a tree-hugger to want to send greener gifts. And the gift doesn’t have to be a bag of trail mix that makes the recipient roll their eyes either. In fact, green gifts can be cool, unique and even extremely useful.

Have a tree named after someone in the Rainforest – Any anti-deforestation advocate will appreciate having a tree purchased in their name. And even people who aren’t passionate about saving the Rainforest will enjoy the idea that the conifer bearing their name will grow and thrive long after they are gone.

Send Vegetables– Flowers in a vase are nice, but vegetables that can be planted in a garden are a present that will last much longer. Sending vegetables instead of flowers also encourages local growing and self-sustenance. You won’t need long distance movers for a small plant, but try to avoid sending anything in full bloom.

A Wind-up Universal Remote – Even with recycling programs in place, millions of batteries still wind up in land fills every year. With this remote, you can cut batteries out of the television control equation altogether. Simply by winding it, you’ll be able to generate all of the power necessary to run it without ever having to resort to batteries.

A Solar Powered Charger – When a charger is left plugged in, it continues to use electricity even when it’s not charging a device. If you know a forgetful un-plugger, these gadgets will allow them to eliminate charger cords for good. They are also great gifts for frequent campers who often don’t have access to outlets and don’t want to drain car batteries.

Organic Cotton – The cotton growth and production process is astoundingly chemically intensive and dependent on pesticides. That’s why buying organic cotton is a great way to help reduce the demand on such an environmentally destructive industry. Many people say that organic cotton is softer and more comfortable which may be a result of the lack of chemicals used in manufacturing. That makes organic cotton garments, towels, napkins or sheets awesome gifts for anyone on any occasion.

Green cosmetics – Most women use some form of cosmetics in their day to day lives, whether it’s full on face paint or just Chap Stick. The problem with common cosmetics is the myriad of sketchy chemicals used to make them. But the gift of greener make-up is something that most females will appreciate. Mineral foundation, natural lip balms, or other organic and petroleum free products are all great gifts that are good for the planet.

Water Efficiency Products – We waste a lot of water in this country without even thinking about it. From showers and toilet flushing to watering our gardens, we tend to be sadly cavalier with H20. Fortunately, there are bathroom based gifts like the Perfect Flush that can minimize the use of excess toilet water. There are also many styles of low-flow shower heads to optimize shower water usage. For an outdoorsy person, you can send a rain barrel to collect rain water. The accumulated water can then be used in place of sprinklers in a garden. These kinds of equipment upgrades aren’t always high on everyone’s to-do list, so they make the perfect green gift idea.

Packing and Shipping

Don’t stop at going green with just the theme of the gift; the way you send it matters too. When you’re packing a gift, think about alternatives to typical packing materials. If you can, always avoid any form of Styrofoam packing peanuts and even bubble wrap. Re-use old newspapers or think about including a form of textile in the gift like a towel or t-shirt that you can use to protect more breakable items. If you’re wrapping the present in gift paper or sending a greeting card, look for recycled or tree-free versions of theses items. Wrapping paper made of flax or hemp is just as attractive and much more eco-friendly.

When you’re shipping the gift, the mode you choose can be another statement of a social conscience. Whether you’re using FedEx, UPS or USPS, there are ways to make your shipment more carbon neutral. Using route optimization technologies, these institutions are trying to reduce their carbon footprint. By making fewer stops, using the most efficient routes and eliminating empty cargo containers, these shipping companies are all doing their part to help make the delivery industry kinder to the environment. If you want to go the extra mile, and spend a few extra dollars, you have the option of purchasing GreenShipping carbon offsets to truly eliminate the carbon footprint of your shipment.

If you are a green-minded individual, there are ways to evangelize without being preachy and annoying. The gifts you send others can be representatives of the many awesome green products on the market. Some of them are just cool, while others can really improve people’s lives. And when you choose a greener way to send your gift the message is two-fold. This subtle strategy is a smart way to help spread the green message while bringing a smile to the face of someone you love.

Jade writes for uShip, a site helping people find long distance movers and other shipping help. Jade has been working in print and online marketing for many years and has become very active in blogging.

The Benefits of Using Your Own Compost

Tyler — Mon, 23 May 2011 13:00:53 +0000

With a compost heap in your backyard, you can avoid sending a lot of your rubbish to landfill, and can instead give it a second life as food for your garden. To your compost heap, you can add:

Kitchen waste like vegetable peelings.
Dried leaves.
Grass clippings.
Weeds.
Hedge clippings.
Animal manure.
Small amounts of newspaper.
Saw dust and wood shavings.

It only takes a small and consistent effort to create and maintain a compost heap in your backyard, and when you consider that garden trimmings and food waste account for 23% of the waste created in the US, these are all things which will break down naturally in your compost heap, but are instead being taken to landfills and creating tonnes of toxic methane gas.

Methane is the greenhouse gas which traps heat in the atmosphere 20 times more effectively than carbon dioxide. Methane also remains in the atmosphere for between nine and 15 years ones emitted.

Other benefits of composting at home include:

Prevention is better than cure. While the EPA and many other private environmental companies are working on ways to turn methane gas into renewable energy, it is always more effective to stop the root of the problem, rather than just treating the symptoms.
Fertile garden soil. When you actively compost your garden and kitchen waste, the decomposition process is sped up, and a dark fertile garden soil is created which your plants will love, and will save you money on potting mix at the garden centre.
Natural fertiliser. The soil which is produced from a compost heap is a natural fertiliser, so you can avoid paying for chemical fertilisers, and avoid bringing chemicals into your home and yard.
Education. With an aim to prevent more damage to the environment, it is important to teach your children the importance of managing their waste, and seizing every opportunity to do good for the planet and a simple composting system in your garden can do just that.

This was a guest post by Alban, who has seen his vegetable garden grow healthy since he has started to make and use his own compost. When he’s not gardening, Alban writes about finance.

Not Clowning Around: The Ronald McDonald Solar House

Tyler — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:47:10 +0000

This is a guest post by Gary H., who has a paralegal certification and enjoys taking online classes about science and politics.

While the name Ronald McDonald will forever be associated with the fast-food chain’s mascot, Ronald McDonald House, a charity that provides housing for families whose children are in hospitals at 298 locations in 30 countries, continues to do good and in rather impressive, unexpected ways. Consider, for example, the solar electric system installed at the Ronald McDonald House in Reno, Nevada.

The solar panel system allows for Ronald McDonald House to redirect its financial expenditures considerably. Rather than spend its money on electricity, it can now spend more on its surrounding community and on families. The solar power system produces 52,692 kilowatt hours of energy per year; this is energy production equivalent to 101,610 pounds of carbon dioxide being released, which itself is equivalent to 112,596 miles driven in a car. In short, the savings are substantial.

Advanced Green Builders, also based out of Reno, created the solar panel layout and installed the panels. The installation consists of 144 Suntech STP210 photovoltaic modules. The panels have a peak output of 210 watts each and are made out of polycrystalline and tempered glass, offering a high conversion rate and a design intended to make the most out of even low-light situations, making the panels potentially suitable for areas that receive small quantities of sunlight in the autumn and winter months. Each panel is rated to perform for 25 years and consists of a single crystal made from polycrystalline silicon substrate, helping to ensure its long life and improve its conversion rate over other solar panels.

Solar Universe, a solar energy installer group based out of Reno, helped to provide Ronald McDonald House with the panels and the services necessary in order to make them provide power. This helps the Ronald McDonald House organization spend its money instead on programs such as mobile outreach healthcare for children and renewable scholarships, which it offers 50 of, valued at $1000 each, to high school seniors. The organization is entirely donation-funded and thus requires support from its community in order to achieve its goals, and getting largely off of the power grid is certainly one way to help make this happen.

Similar systems were installed earlier this year at Ronald McDonald Houses in California, and the costs of installation weren’t cheap. Solar panels for the House in San Diego would have, according to its administrators, cost $500,00 after rebates, making such installations prohibitive for a non-profit.

In Defense of Air Travel

Tyler — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:14:52 +0000

I don’t do a lot of traveling.

In fact, looking back on 2009, I only made it out of Oregon a few times to nearby Washington.

I’m not well traveled. I’ve been to Europe for a couple months, Canada a few times, and I’ve spent exactly 6 hours in Mexico.

Airlines are one of the most popular punching bags of the green movement and not without reason. Flying is expensive, it pollutes like crazy and, for the vast majority of people, it’s used as nothing but transportation to a vacation destination where tourism is slowly degrading what was once a beautiful and natural habitat.

Yet, I harbor no ill-will for the airline industry.

Call me crazy, but I just see too much potential in the benefits of world travel to campaign against it.

Despite its drawbacks, there are two enormous benefits to world travel that I just don’t think should be ignored.

The Human Connection

Never before in history has an average Joe like you or me had such ready access to, quite literally, the entire world.

From Germany to Fiji, from Bolivia to Mongolia, in many cases we can put ourselves directly in the middle of a brand new culture in less than a day for less than $1000.

Throughout time, imperialistic and isolationist governments alike have used our lack of knowledge about different cultures as a rallying point to commit some of the most heinous crimes imaginable.

With one fell swoop, the commercial airliner has allowed us to evaluate the claims of our governments for ourselves.

The more we travel, the more we connect with new places, cultures, and people. The more we connect, the more we realize that we’re really all the same.

Even though we look, speak, and act differently, we all share a common goal for a peaceful and prosperous world. We’re many strands of one people. And that gives us power that we’ve never had before.

Try as they might, governments and regimes can no longer pit nation against nation simply by spreading misinformation. Not without a fight.

This is invaluable.

The Spread of Influence

The second major benefit of affordable airline travel is its ability to give voice to the everyday man/woman that wants to make a difference.

Of course, this is becoming more and more viable across the internet (Frugally Green has been read in over 103 countries), but face to face communication is still king. This is proven by the fact that many prominent bloggers write for free, yet earn thousands of dollars to speak face to face with an audience.

Many environmentalists and world changers alike are now able to spread their word around the entire world for a mere fraction of the price that they’d have paid only 50 years ago and in a fraction of the time as well.

Even a well intentioned tourist, perhaps even yourself, can now make a difference in the world with an ease never before afforded to you.

While the polluting effects of a transcontinental jet are something to be measured and weighed carefully in any travel scenario, I do not support the wholesale condemnation of them as a blight on the environment or a telling sign of civilization’s downfall.

To the same effect, I do not think for even a second that they are our savior and path to an enlightened and peaceful existence.

These are false dichotomies created by fundamentalists that attempt to portray only their version of the truth, much like a pharmaceutical commercial that promises to remedy your every last ailment followed by a list of 20 serious side effects spoken at 100 miles a second.

An airplane is a tool used to move people from one place to another. Ultimately, it is your and my responsibility alike to ensure that we’re using them to change the world for the better.

What do you think? Are airplanes useful tools for connecting people and ideas that can change the world? Why or why not?

~~~~~

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Connect with me on Twitter: @tylertervooren

Image of airplane by Irargerich

If You Never Quit, You Can Never Fail

Tyler — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:40:56 +0000

What does it take to succeed?

Many argue that it takes a sharp mind, a strong work ethic and the right opportunities.

These are just a few of the aspects commonly quoted as the fundamental ingredients of success.

To an extent, they’re all right. When you look back on the life of someone who’s demonstrated success over and over again, these are the things you see.

What often gets overlooked, though, are the many missteps that invariably occur on any path to greatness. These missteps are what most of us regular folks know as failures.

Every time I set a new goal for myself, every time I take on a new environmental challenge, I encounter numerous failures.

What kind of road blocks have you encountered when you’re trying to change something about yourself?

Failure, you see, is a funny thing because there are two ways to interpret it, and which way you choose will completely determine your future success.

Failure as an end

For many, as soon as something doesn’t go according to plan, it’s a clear sign that the plan won’t work and they ought to just give up.

Let’s say you decided that you wanted to use less water. To make a go of it, you’re going to take shorter showers, turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth, and only run the dishwasher when it’s full.

After a couple weeks, you notice that you just can’t drag yourself out of the shower, you still always forget to turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth, and you need to run the dishwasher half full because there’s a dirty cheese grater you need for dinner.

There must have been a fatal flaw in the plan that couldn’t be fixed. May as well give up and look for something else to do.

Sometimes that’s true, but most of the time, it isn’t. With this type of mindset, it’s virtually impossible to achieve anything even remotely difficult.

When you’re trying to do something new, you’re constantly fighting your mind to just do it the same old way. It’s an internal struggle that can be very difficult to win.

Failure as a means to an end

When you change how you look at failure and redefine it as a setback and opportunity for learning instead of an insurmountable roadblock, so much more becomes achievable.

You’re making a difficult change. You don’t have to beat your mind the first time and you don’t have to beat it every time afterword. You just have to beat it once, and then beat it again. And then keep beating it little by little until you’re winning most of the time.

There is no such thing as perfection.

There is no such thing as smooth ride.

There is no free lunch.

Each time you feel like you’ve failed, you get a very unique opportunity to figure out why you failed and adjust accordingly.

As Seth Godin says, fail and fail fast.

Every major change is the result of many tiny failures. If you do it right, each is unique, but they all serve the same purpose – to teach you how to not screw up again.

This means dreaming from a bird’s eye view: “I am going to use 50% less water than I do now by this time next year.”

It means planning at ground level: “I’m going to take shorter showers, turn off the faucet every chance I get, only run the dishwasher when it’s full, start collecting rain water, etc.”

And most importantly, it means analyzing through a microscope: “Why was my shower so long and how can I make it shorter next time? Why did I forget to turn off the faucet and what’s a new trick I can use to remember?”

You rally yourself around a big goal, but you fight in the trenches. You keep figuring out what doesn’t work until you figure out what does.

Final Thoughts

A war is won by failing to win 49% of its battles. An entrepreneur gets rich by failing 99% of her business deals before finding one that sticks.

If you want to change your habits, you have to be willing to fail over, and over, and over again. And then you have to be willing to fly to the moon when you find your one success.

I wrote this post three times before I got it “right.”

Never quit.

~~~~~

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Fail Harder image by thedrun

I Am Responsible for the Corporate World’s Waste, or A Lesson in Micro Economics

Tyler — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:00:19 +0000

On Thursday, bloggers around the world united to write about one single topic: climate change. It was an act of solidarity organized by the folks at blogactionday.org.

Every year, a major social topic is selected and willing participants around the world discuss the issue on their blogs on the same day in an attempt to raise widespread awareness.

Unfortunately, little old me didn’t know such a day existed until it was too late. Even though I write about this, one way or another, every day, lets consider this my belated contribution.

I learned about this year’s blog action day from Chris Guillebeau while perusing my new favorite site, The Art of Nonconformity. There’s always some great discussion over there and one comment in particular caught my attention:

Yet again the focus is on the little guy. Does the little led on my TV really matter when cities the world over are full of high rise offices that leave their lights on 24/7? Manufacturing and business produce the most harmful emissions and yet the emphasis is on the little home dweller?

This really got me thinking. Was he right? Are we picking on the little guys when the the big boys are the ones causing all the problems?

What difference does it make that I turn off all of my lights when the office buildings down the street leave theirs on all night doing 10,000 times more damage than I ever could? Who cares if we buy an electric car when all the electricity it produces comes from a wildly smoking coal plant hundreds of miles away?

Why should I bother?

Here’s why: because you and I are the most powerful change agents that exist on this planet.

You may think that you can’t make a difference and that some guy in a suit sitting in an ivory tower that doesn’t care about you is calling all the shots, but it’s not true.

We own that suit. We own that ivory tower. When we say jump, that guy listens. The only reason he isn’t jumping yet is because we haven’t told him to. Maybe we’ve started, but we haven’t raised our voice yet. You and I hold all of the power. Let’s wield it.

How corporations work

The #1 responsibility of every corporation that exists is to make money for its shareholders.

Sure, they all have noble secondary goals that tout their value to society, but the one, big, underlying goal that every single one of them is a slave to is to make lots of money for the people that invest in them. The beauty in this is that, usually, the very noble secondary goals must be met in order to generate that profit.

They have to provide us with something that we find valuable enough to trade our hard earned money for.

You see, you and I don’t really care about shareholders and all those shinanigans. How much money they make doesn’t bother us so long as we think we’re getting a good deal for something useful. In fact, if we decided to pay attention to all that, we might even be happy that these businesses that are making our lives so much better are making tons of money.

This is where we get to step in and call the shots.

Why you and I are responsible

Like I mentioned above, if a business must attract tons of our money to return great amounts of it to shareholders, it has to impress the heck out of us. To impress the heck out of us, what it offers must deeply connect with what we value the most.

Whatever it is that you and I find the most important in life, a company must provide to us in order to rise to the top.

So the buck stops at you. It stops at me. What do we really care about?

Do we care that Corporation A runs a sweat shop filled with incandescent lights that stay on all day and night? Does it matter to you that Corporation B swallows up tons of resources and spews out waste at an alarming rate? What about Corporation C that produces its own energy with wind and solar power and recycles all its waste back into its production stream? Does any of that actually matter?

What I believe the commenter on Chris’ post points out, inadvertently, is that it does not. We all say we care about and want the best for our environment, but is that really true? Every marketer out there that’s worth his weight in salt knows that what we consumers say we want and what we actually want are oftentimes very contradictory.

McDonalds knows this better than any business out there and they openly admit it. Their customers say they want salads, so McDonalds offers just enough varieties of them to get you to come in and buy a cheeseburger.

If we really, truly, in our heart of hearts, valued Corporation C above, that business model would be the industry norm. But we don’t and it isn’t. What we really care about is money and giving up just enough of it to get something just barely acceptable in return.

We care about this because it strengthens our ability to do it again and again. We’re consumers. Now, don’t get offended. I’m guilty as sin. Luckily, there’s something we can do.

The power we wield

What we seem to fail to realize seemingly over and over again is that the cheapest things in our lives are the ones we buy the most often.

Even though they’re made from recycled materials, sourced from renewable resources, and manufactured with renewable energy, the most sustainable products and businesses out there are still more expensive than their opposing counterparts.

If you and I decide, together, that a shoe made from recycled car tires by union employees is what we really value, then it won’t take that long for such a product to become less expensive than a plastic one made in a sweatshop by 8-year-olds as the economies of scale push the cost of such a product lower as we buy more of it and less of the other.

And that’s just the thing. We have to actually buy these products - not just say we will. Actions speak much louder than words and this all ties back to the concept that spending more upfront can often save us bundles down the road.

Nope, the little things don’t matter

“But I’m just one person. What difference can I make?”

Well, I suppose that depends on how you interpret the question. The little steps you take to improve your awareness and value for the environment will never add up to much. All by yourself you will never make a difference, and that’s OK.

Big changes are bigger than you and me. What you do doesn’t really matter. Who you influence does.

If only one person reads this post (I’m secretly holding out for more than that) and decides its worth their effort to try something new, then I have doubled the effectiveness of my minuscule efforts.

If that person influences someone else they know to change as well, I’m three times as effective. By acting on my values with sincerity, however little they’ll accomplish on their own, I have the opportunity to attract many others that are predisposed to my message. There’s little else I have to do as others will take over the cause for me.

If you do this right, you can be the head of your own multi-level marketing scheme, tell all the CEOs of the world how you want your fair-trade coffee served, and finally buy an organic cotton T-shirt for a reasonable price. And while you’re at it, you can let them know they need to turn off their lights when they go home.

Can ya dig?

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I’ve had some great responses to the survey I posted on Tuesday. Thank you so much to those of you that have participated. If you haven’t yet taken it and would like to, please do so now. I will be closing down responses on Wednesday.

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10 More Green Changes in Less than 10 Minutes for Less than $10

Tyler — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:00:13 +0000

I just can’t stop. I tried, but I can’t. On Wednesday, a reader pointed out that I had missed a few big ticket items in the original post. He was right. I left out some seriously good tips that you should know about. So, assuming that you’re happy to have another list of tactics in your arsenal to improve your eco-footprint, here’s a list of 10 more green changes you can make in less than 10 minutes for less than $10:

Start a compost pile: But for the love of god, read this post first. If you want something fancy, it’s going to cost you more than $10; I sure found out the hard way. But you don’t need something fancy. You just need something that works. A pile works.

Stop using paper towels: Nope, not hard. Nope, not expensive. A giant pile perfectly acceptable washcloth sized towels is pretty darn inexpensive at your local outlet grocery or restaurant supply store. Fill a drawer with them and toss ‘em in the wash with the rest of your laundry. It’s really no big deal.

Plug your electronics into a power strip: If your living room is filled full of electronic do-dads and thing-a-ma-jigs, it’s likely you’ve already bought a power strip to plug them all into. If you haven’t, go get one dang it! Then, make a little note somewhere to remind yourself to switch it off every morning before you leave for work and at night before you go to bed. All those gadgets (TVs especially) are sucking what’s known as a “phantom load” even while they’re turned off.

Use your oven like a furnace: Our house is down right cold in the winter. Give your furnace a rest for a bit and leave the oven door open after you’re done cooking. The heat won’t make it that far, and it’s not going to keep you warm all night, but I swear it feels great while it lasts! And what else were you going to do with it?

Take a reusable bag to the grocery store: San Francisco banned plastic bags not too long ago. When I was in Europe last summer, if you didn’t have your own bag, you had to pay extra to get one from the supermarket. I walk to my grocery store, so I keep a couple bags by the door. If you’re not that close and prefer to drive, just leave a few in your trunk. You’ll always have them when you need them.

Donate to your favorite charity: Honestly, I’m more of a fan of volunteering time, but that usually takes more than 20 minutes, and let’s face it, they need money to keep going, too. No matter how broke you feel, I bet you can find $20 once in awhile to help out a cause bigger than yourself. If you really can’t find $20 to give away all at once, I bet you can find $5 four times over the course of a few weeks or months. Think about it the next time you’re buying a latte or super big gulp.

Don’t wash clean clothes: I’ve read that the average person does 4 loads of laundry a week. What!?! I only do one and seem to get by just fine. If I had more clothes, I could probably manage 1 load every other week. I think most people just have a habit of tossing a piece of clothing in the laundry after the first time they wear it. If you think about it, that’s really unnecessary. I never wear socks or underwear more than once without a wash, but shirts and pants? I have an office job; I don’t exactly perspire much. At the end of the day, my clothes are almost always still clean. My pants get washed about once every two weeks and my shirts about once a week. You can do this. I know you can.

Don’t run an empty dishwasher: Yeah, I’ve done it. There were 5 things in there and I needed 1 of them. Come on, what did you want me to do? Pull it out and quickly hand wash it? You’ve got to be kidding. You really do want me to do that? Seriously? Ok, I guess I’ll think about it next time.

Turn down your thermostat: If you can find a good sweater for less than $20 then you’re all set. I recommend Goodwill. Go in July if you want the best deal. This also happens to be the best time of year to find a selection of cheesy Christmas sweaters, and that’s going to pay off big time at your next cheesy Christmas sweater party.

Unplug your dryer: I wrote a whole little ditty on this not that long ago. I actually save time doing this by not having to wait around for the dryer to stop. What you’ll need: 2 vertical things, 1 horizontal thing, and wet clothes. I’m sure you can figure out the rest!

I should mention, as a reader did on Wednesday, that this list is not comprehensive. I simply have a Tpenchant for round numbers. When you get creative, there is a limitless number of things you can do that fit into this category. The only thing stopping you is your own imagination.

So, please don’t be shy. I know you guys have all kinds of suggestions that could be added to this list and the comments section is, undoubtedly, a fantastic place to compile them.

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