Thread: Happy Earth Day!

I conserve as much as I can every day, so nothing different here. When I took over as president of our condo association in October 2013
I began working to make people more aware of their utility usage. I recommended to the board that we offer an incentive of $50 for each
toilet, dishwasher and washing machine that was upgraded to efficient or Energy Star rated ones. I also sent out a letter to all the owners
letting them know just how much water that leaking toilet actually uses, or how much water is wasted running the water while brushing teeth
or shaving. As a result we cut our water usage by about 15% which equates to about 365,000 gallons over a year.

We also upgraded parking lot and common area lighting to LEDs. Our usage there has dropped dramatically, some months by close to 50%. In
addition, we had recycling service added to our trash pickup.

As for myself, I flush only when necessary, going by the old saying "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down." I know, pretty gross, but
I used to flush every time I went to the bathroom. One day I marked on a Post It note how many times I took a leak and it came out to 12. I run
a lot so I take in a lot of fluids. If I flushed each time I'd use over 5,500 gallons of water a year just flushing the toilet. When showering I also take
what some who were in the military are familiar with; run the water and get under it, turn it off and soap up, then run it again and rinse. About two minutes
of running water compared to the 10 minute average. As an added advantage, we have an electric hot water heater so our electricity usage
has dropped since doing that.

Well, that's enough of my "Tales from the Conservation Side". Happy Earth Day to all.

John

My wife and I bought a house close enough to where we work so that we can walk there. I have been an ardent composter for decades. (Everyone should be required to read the Humanure Handbook!). Lights are LED and usually are turned off. Whenever possible, I carpool to meet-ups with Randy!

Oh, and I shave with a straight razor!

--Google says I'm a wooly mammoth--extinct but hoping to be cloned someday.

18 spectacularly wrong apocalyptic predictions made around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, expect more this year - AEI | Carpe Diem Blog » AEIdeas


Some HILARIOUS predictions from the FIRST Earth Day. Which is not to say that we should be profligate or wasteful. But neither should we give in to hysteria.

I stayed in bed all day and tried not to breathe much. Hoping it'll make up for the other 364 days this year :/

Took the Google Quiz. I'm also a woolly mammoth.

John

everybody wants to be the woolly mammoth,,,,

Google Quiz

You're a Komodo Dragon!
You have an appetite for life–as well as the ability to swallow an entire goat.

Sounds right

Really nothing unusual today, we actually live pretty Green by way of where we live, and how we live...

If it saves money, I am on board

We don't worry about water, we have plenty for free, same with sewage we have a septic system..

We conserve Electricity because it is one of our only utilities and costs are high here ...
We use Wood heat more then Propane.
We very very rarely ever do a Hot water laundry
We use a clothesline when the weather is nice rather then the dryer, but honestly that isn't as easy or as often as I would like we do have weather 8-9 months out of the year.

Yeah same as last year and the 11 before that since we moved to the Northwoods we were environmentally friendly as long as it saves money..