August 6, 2008
06:23 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment
Raise your hand if public transportation is not available along your commute.
Maybe you live really far from your office or maybe you live AND
work in the suburbs... not so shocking. Or maybe public transportation
is available and the thought of taking the bus to work makes you
cringe. It is of growing awareness that some people's standards argue
that comfortable sterile air-conditioned car rides are the only way to
get to and from work. Since this IS the United States of America and
people CAN make their own decisions about the way they WANT to get to
work and back home again... there is luckily a comfortable alternative
to transportation out there. It's nothing new.
It's called car-pooling. It's what you used to do back when you
needed a DD to get to the bar and back, for cub scout field trips,
family camping voyages, vacations, etc. That, of course, was when
driving to your vacation five states away was less expensive than
flying. Anyway, today, this service is being organized on a much larger
scale. Check out these sites that offer searches for carpools along
your route. You can also start your own pool so others can join in
later. Not only will you be reducing your carbon footprint, you will be
saving mucho dinero (a lot of money, for the non-Spanish speakers) on
gas. And who knows, you might make a friend or two as well.
eRideShare
carpool connect
iCarpool
Divide the Ride
Carpool Hub
Ride Search
Find more useful tips at www.thinkdwell.com/blog/
3
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
August 2, 2008
06:42 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Research suggests that observing the speed limit not only keeps
roads safe: it's helping you save on gas! The US Government's website www.fueleconomy.gov
states that fuel efficiency decreases rapidly after 60 mph. For every 5
mph over 60 you drive, it's like paying an additional $0.30 for
gasoline. For all those commuters bombing down the highway at 80 mph,
that's like paying $4.45 instead of $4.15. At 90 mph, you're not only
breaking the law, you're breaking your bank at a whopping $4.75 per
gallon. SUVs going 90... I don't even want to get into it.
Moral of the story is, lay off the gas pedal and learn to coast when
you can. When your RPMs are up, your fuel usage is up. Watch that
little magic meter wand! It's there for a reason. And one other thing,
when you press the break, you lose momentum and waste fuel, so learn to
slow down naturally over a longer distance.
Good luck and drive conservatively!
Find more useful tips at www.thinkdwell.com/blog/
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
July 26, 2008
11:38 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
If you are renovating your home and are replacing things like
cabinets, fixtures, windows, appliances, or pretty much anything that
still works... please look into recycling these valuable items. All
your donations are tax-deductible and will help someone
else looking to renovate on a tight budget who wants to choose a more
sustainable route as well. Learn more about how you can donate your
items at www.greengoat.org. On the flip side of things, maybe you might want to check out GreenGoat's website to see if they have items you can use in your renovation.
Stay Green and enjoy this beautiful summer day!
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
July 15, 2008
10:23 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
I am going to openly admit, I had a great time playing this fish tank match-the-blocks-to-fill-the-tank game.
The tips for water conservation that go along with each block image are
really interesting and helpful. For example, before I played Tip Tank,
I didn't know that you could save 600 gallons of water by making sure
your laundry loads are full each time you put a load through the
washer. 600 gallons! Introduce your kids (or yourself...) and learn all
about water conservation efforts you can implement at home.
STAY GREEN OR GO GREEN!
~SUZY
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
July 15, 2008
10:22 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
If you are thinking of knocking down a wall to join two spaces or
make a room seem more open, good news: it's not hard. The major thing
you need to know before taking a rotating saw or huge rubber mallet to
it is if it is load-bearing wall or not. A load-bearing wall is one
that holds up a significant amount of weight of a structure, sending
the force down to the foundation beneath it. This type of wall can not
be simply 'punched out' as a non-load-bearing wall can. Something needs
to replace it, such as a beam spanning across the new opening you
intend to make. By using some simple calculations, a designer can
specify the size beam your builder will use. Contact me at
info@thinkdwell.com with a brief description of your project for more
specific help.
Knocking down walls can be beneficial in older homes, especially
those built in the 1950s through 1970s. Most homes built during this
time had rooms with dimensions we find too restrictive for the way we
live today. More often than not, these homes also have some very
unhealthy layers of materials underneath all those layers of Benjamin
Moore paint jobs you've done. The majority of wall materials carry
disturbing amounts of asbestos and formaldehyde, well known
carcinogens. Once demolition starts, these chemicals fly through the
air in dust particles, and are very harmful to inhale. Make sure your
family is not affected by staying out of the house when the banging
starts and that the builder cleans up well, and you clean up extra
well. Proper ventilation is necessary and those white face masks that
filter some particulates are a must.
STAY GREEN OR GO GREEN!
~SUZY
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
July 15, 2008
09:40 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Having been a Bostonian for the past six years, and a native
Massachusetts resident for life, I cannot help but notice the increase
of people wearing green in the past few weeks. One group of teenagers
went careening through an intersection waving their hats and shouting,
“Go Celtics!” to the people waiting to cross the street and beeping
their horn. People standing nearby cheered and pumped their fists in
the air. Beyond the Celtics winning the NBA Championship, there is
another green wave hitting the streets. We are all aware that the way we live effects how green we are. What Americans are only now beginning to seriously contemplate is that where we live effects how green we are.
In Los Angeles, where I’m sure green shirts
and hats are banned for at least another few months, a green monsoon is
ready to break through the skies. Maybe I should say, ‘Especially in
LA’, where people are no stranger to the frequent brown-outs or
occasional black-outs as an effect of over-consumption of energy. The
dependency upon cars is also astounding in this city. The freeways
stretch from the suburbs into the center of the city, meeting in a
messy knot of overlapping off-ramps. The reason for the need for
automobiles is simple: LA was built with the idea that you could drive
in and out of the city and park at each building. Each building is
surrounded by parking lots. The density of the city is greatly affected
by the fact that each single building has a huge buffer for parking
around it. Because buildings are so far apart, it is not feasible to
walk or bike around. Walking across fields of asphalt in 90 + degree
weather is like trying to exercise in a sauna. The population of
LA has occupied an area many times larger than it should, and as a
result, is working overtime to cure symptoms like 3 hour commutes to
work… each way.
One way we can choose to greatly reduce our
carbon footprint is to assess our daily commuting patterns and amount
of land we consume. Studies have shown that people living in the city
drive less than people who live in the suburbs. What’s even more
interesting is that the more near the center of the city one lives, the
less they drive. When I am visiting my parents, we drive to grocery
store, the video rental store, restaurants, to get coffee, etc. It is
not feasible to walk to any of those locations because it would take
over an hour (and over 2 in some cases) to walk there and back. When I
am at home, I walk to all of those locations with an occasional car
trip to a superstore. The truth is that people who live far from the
center of a city take an average of four times more car trips than
those that live in the city. Their carbon footprint is also up to five
times greater.
If you live in the… you produce use an average of this many BTUs/yr…
Suburbs 200-250
Suburbs with green living standards 150
Urban area 100
Urban area with green living standards 50
BTUs are British Thermal Units is a unit of
energy used in the power, steam generation, and heating and air
conditioning industries.
These differences are mostly due to the
typical dwelling type of suburban and urban dwellers: the single-family
detached home of the suburbs vs. the apartment. While single-families
have to fend for themselves when it comes to heating and cooling, some
of that effort is shared in a large apartment building, where hot air
from the first floor can rise to help heat the above stories. The
square footage of homes in the city are smaller per person, too,
allowing the amount of energy used to heat and cool the space a person
occupies to be substantially less than in the suburbs.
Not all hope is lost. In the past decade, land
consumption has gone down 50%. Even still, the amount of land per
person in the suburbs is far greater than in the city. One city
person’s lifestyle effects only a small fraction of the land a suburban
person effects.
All the while, American’s health and diet
issues become of greater importance. The urban community sees far more
activities like biking and walking to get to and from their daily
destinations. As our recreational and mandatory activities become far
more sedentary (watching television, working at a computer) we should
reassess the situations we put ourselves in. If it is easier to walk to
the grocery than drive and fight for parking on the street, we are more
likely to choose to walk. If it is impossible to walk or just as easy
to drive, we are more likely to choose to drive, based on our processes
of finding the path of least resistance. But city living is not only
about being forced to walk places. It is becoming more and more each
day about enjoying the stroll through a nicely lit, café lined street
in the evening, meeting people, community events and gatherings. Once
cities were a great place to live… then they weren’t (industrial
revolution)… but they are once again returning to the ways of the past:
a strong sense of community with street-life culture that promotes a
sustainable way of life.
The type of model LA followed when undergoing
rapid development did not consider the walkability of the city. Heck,
LA had only 3530 people in 1850 and in 158 years grew to a population
of 1 million! I'm not sure growth like that could have been
anticipated. Today, only 11% of LA commuters use public transit, in
comparison to 53% in NYC. When buildings become strictly for one use
(such as office, commercial, residential) they put a stress on the
surrounding area to travel to get to it. By incorporating multi-use
buildings, people can live, work and play in the same area. Our world
that has become one that embraces traveling for work, vacations,
weekend trips, family visits or even a night out on the town is
becoming one that actually discourages the need to go the distance for
such things. Cities need to review their structure and plan for better
transportation options and revitalization/densification of certain
areas in need of a cultural, social, and economic boost. The same
methods can and should be applied to towns, even small ones. Are you
involved in your town committies that review these options? If you can
think of one part of town that has the potential to do more, maybe
bringing street life back with multi-use facilities and safely lit
sidewalks could do more than you hoped: revitalizing burnt-out
economies and cutting neighborhood carbon footprints.
STAY GREEN OR GO GREEN!
~SUZY
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
July 15, 2008
09:39 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
These guys are super cool. No doubt. I've watched several of their
blogumentary videos so far, and not only are they funny, they are very
informative about different environment-related issues and happenings
on their one year trek around the US. This is their description of the
project:
"YERT is an eco-blogumentary exploring America's unique approach to
sustainability. With camera in hand and tongue in cheek, we bring
inspiring stories of the nation's best (and weirdest) environmental
progress. Visit www.yert.com to watch our videos."
This is some great, green, educating entertainment.
STAY GREEN OR GO GREEN!
~SUZY
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
July 15, 2008
09:29 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
There was no greater time I felt as connected to the ocean than
while I lived in Hawai'i. Every year, Jack Johnson, a native of O'ahu,
puts on a concert to benefit the Kokua Foundation, which he founded to
help support educate children in Hawai'i's school system about
sustainability. Message in the Waves
is a video by BBC Hawaii. Check it out for information on how all the
trash we throw away winds up harming our oceans and all the animals
that live there. There are a number of shocking facts you will find out
about plastic shopping bags and other items that may have you thinking
twice about those reusable canvas bags your local grocery now sells.
Yes, you have to pay for them. But they aren't going to kill turtles
and seals while you are using them to bring groceries home week after
week.
If you don't want to buy them, an alternative is just bringing bags
you currently own. I know I must have four canvas bags laying in the
back of my closet that go unused. If you do, dust them off. You'll feel
better about checking out at the grocer next time. An afterthought:
it's always good to get your kids involved in as many meaningful
projects as you can. What if you asked them to devise a replacement for plastic bags? Maybe they find the old canvas bags and decorate them in 'save the earth' spirit.
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
July 15, 2008
09:15 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
One of my friends has been involved in my business from day one of ThinkDwell.
He has been thinking more green and making choices to live more
sustainably ever since. He just let me know that he is thinking about
buying a Toyota Prius because it gets around 48/45 mpg.
:) That makes me a happy camper.
He always jokes that I am turning him into a tree hugger. I kind of
think of him (and I think he thinks of himself) as a 'manly' man. One
who would be embarassed to be known as a 'tree hugger'. The kind that
would be feel more justified driving a gas-guzzling Hummer or something
with a big engine. Apparently, his new car choice touches on a new
topic. Monetary incentives help us go green. A Prius will save him
around $1,000/year on fuel. Now that is making moves in the right
direction. And I can claim victory for turning him into a 'tree
hugger'. Haha.
While shopping a local book store the other day, he picked up a
great book for me that I wanted to share with everyone. It's called Go Green, Live Rich, by David Bach with Hillary Rosner, and Amazon has used copies available for under $6.
It exemplifies many ways you can live more green and save lots of
money by doing so. It even gives rough dollar amount savings. For
example; you save about $215 per year by choosing an alternate mode of
transportation once a week for your commute. Factor in the rising price
of gas and you're up to $300 by next year... I'm just guessing, but I
don't think I'm too far off. If everyone in the US switched to public
transit once a week, we'd be reducing US carbon emissions by 149
million tons! If one driver in your house switched to public
transportation full time, you'd be reducing your household's carbon
footprint by roughly 30%! Here's one for the books: 40% of all car
trips taken in the US are less than two miles. How easy would it be to
bike that? And it doubles as exercise.
Check out THIS
page, and don't forget to visit the two consecutive pages to get the
full effect of how money issues can help us decide to go green.
STAY GREEN OR GO GREEN!
~SUZY
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
July 15, 2008
09:14 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Check it out!
These Splaff Flopps are on sale for $26, and they are made entirely from recycled material. Check out the rest of their stuff on splaff.com
The Green Loop is cool for products that are green, but they are really pricey.
OVER AND OUT!
~SUZY
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
