Look for a comfortable balance

One of the most important and yet underemphasized parts of sustainability is the idea of balance. Finding a solution that satisfies basic human needs without seriously or permanently compromising environmental homeostasis. In most cases, people believe "going green" automatically implies that we must resort to being berry-eating hippies who live in lean-tos and reuse everything we buy. Such is not the case in reality. We should be reasonable in our approach to incorporate organic materials and carbon neutral systems. There some things that just can't be "greenified". Here is an SNL digital short to exaggerate my point.

Solidarity in Numbers

Here is a note about Winner Announcements from Nicole Howard:

"Greetings Eco-Challenge Participants

The numbers are in and it is UNBELIEVABLE what a difference your actions made in the month of October. We had a water meter on a townhouse that didn’t participate and they used 5,140 gallons in October. The average of your three houses was 2,946! Regarding electricity, the average for the non-participating townhouses was 1,540 kwh. The average of your townhouses was 562 kwh. The average for your three homes specifically last year was 1,241 kwh."

Those statsistics are impressive. We should be very proud of our hard work.

As Captain of Townhouse D, I would be happy to be the representative at the next sustainability committee meeting. It is on November 20th at 12:00pm in Breakout Room B of the Ravenhill Dining Hall. If any of you would like to join me, I think we could show solidarity in great numbers! Bring along your teammates, girlfriends, whomever for support and to show how that PhilaU students support and are ready for this kind of change.

Closure ...

I called Nicole Howard, the head coordinator of EcoChallenge 2008, to see what comes next. I had to leave a message. But she got back to me promptly with a lot of great information. Anne Bauer has tabulated the results from our recycling and waste creation. We are now just waiting on the results of our electricity, water and heat from Physical Plant. So please be patient. We will eventually be notified about a closing ceremony during which we will receive our due reward!

We got this!

Collect, Clean and Reuse

The homemade alternating current electric generator was built and successfully put out 1/2v of power. Although this is a mild success, it isn't quite what I was hoping would be the output after the project was complete. I have learned a lot about the intensity and concentrated amount of effort that goes into creating electricity and maintaining its flow over time. Inspired by my mild success, I was inspired by the last few days of rain to look further into the capabilities of our water collection device. As of yet, our single recycling bin has been the basis for our grey water collection, and by expanding the capability of this collection system we could potentially minimize our dish washing and toilet water consumption. The rain water that comes directly off of our roof isn't fit for washing dishes, but if we were able to direct that water into some kind of filtration system it could potentially begin to be used for a broader range of activities. And that is just what I am proposing to do. Educated by a few Internet sites and fueled by the left over money for the eco challenge, I set out to devise a way to undertake such a challenge. The way I propose to solve this design issue is with a quick sand filter aided by layers of burlap and aggregate. Three five gallon buckets will function as my rainwater collection (top bucket), filtration (middle bucket) and filtered water collection (third bucket). These will be stacked up one on top of the other and with any luck, we'll have more, cleaner water so that our townhouse can continue to limit our water consumption.

A Fresh Supply

I went home for the beginning of this weekend and returned to campus to find our water bucket completely full! This is great because the water that we had previously collected was becoming very old and we were worried about bacteria becoming an issue. Ours worries were nullified when last nights constant downpour filled our bucket with rainwater.

Today marks the homestretch for Eco Challenge 2008 and I'm excited to not only make a great finish to this competition, but to use this as a springboard for our continued efforts to conserve and reduce.

Last call ...

Ok guys, I know that, for the most part, we all agree that we will continue to challenge ourselves after this competition, but I challenge you to think of any other items that might help us to be more sustainable in the next 5 days. I am sitting on a sweet little nest egg. I would like to buy atleast one more thing before I have to give it back. You let me know what you would use. Maybe we should replace the fluorescent bulbs with better higher quality ones, potentially withmotion sensors. thoughts?

Great Work

Coming down to the last week or so of this challenge I am very pleased with myself as well as the rest of our townhouse because we have really found a successful way to save electricity and water and make less of a footprint on the environment. I feel as though we have found great ways to be able to keep up with great work even way after this challenge is over. It feels good when you know you are making a difference and I feel as though that everyone in the townhouse feels the same. I thought it was going to be a lot harder towards the end of the competition because we just would not care as much anymore. I hope our commitment goes way further than the month hopefully it will last a lifetime.

I had forgotten to mention another fabulous piece of furniture that adorns our living room when I posted about our shelving. Our TV stand is also a reused cardboard box that serves well to get the tube off of the ground. Its very functional as it is also the same box that the TV was packaged in when it was purchased, thereby limiting more things to load down the car with later.

Sustainable Shelving

After giving our room a cleaning, there were a few boxes left over laying around our living room. Rather than adding them to our recycling weight I thought it might be a good idea to use them in a more constructive way. Four boxes now stand in our living room as shelving to help us organize our design materials and other things that were cluttering the floor. They are stacked one on top of the other and pinched between the floor and the ceiling so that they are rigid enough to withstand being loaded. These shelves work great and they were a great alternative to purchasing shelving from the store. Constructive conservation!!

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle

1.Donate and recycle old computers, monitors, printers, CD’s, floppy disks, cassettes, and other computer accessories. Today, only about 20% of these items are actually being recycled. Most end up in landfills, and the plastics in them can last up to 450 years (Mitchell, 2007). As long as these items are rotting away in the landfills, they are polluting and contaminating the environment. There are numerous facilities that accept donated computers and accessories. A few sites to help you locate these facilities include: techsoup.org, sharetechnology.org, nrc-recycle.org, and Earth911.org.

2.Use canvas shopping bags instead of paper or plastic. According to Worldwatch Institute, “…factories around the world manufactured 4 to 5 trillion plastic bags per year. Although many of these bags are recyclable, each year Americans return only 0.6 percent of the 100 billion plastic bags they use and toss the rest” (Mitchell 2007). And even though paper bags are recycled more than plastic, about 10 – 15%, they inflict enormous environmental impacts. In 1999, 14 million trees were cut to make 10 billion paper bags used by Americans (Mitchell 2007). Canvas bags are more durable, they hold more, and are better for our environment.

3.Take your used batteries to an appropriate toxic waste disposal--"Americans use an average of about eight batteries a year per person" . This toxic waste adds up and goes in our landfills, which eventually go into our food chain.

Increase Your Health and that of the environment

1.Add live plants inside your house. They are natural air filters that remove carbon monoxide from indoor air. Plus, they add to the aesthetics of your home! The best plants to buy are peace lilies, bamboo palms, and gerbera daisies (Yahoo! Green 2007).

2.When cooking use Xtrema's Nano-Glaze cookware. It is lined with a thin ceramic glaze that prevents stick without releasing toxic chemicals in the air. It also retains heat longer so less energy is being used (The Green Guide, 2008). The initial price ranges from $39.99-$149.99 depending on what you purchase.

3.When getting costume supplies for Halloween, opt out of purchasing the makeup kits at the party store. It may say “non-toxic,” but that does not mean they are completely safe. Alexandra Zissu, writer for National Geographic, states, “Many contain hormone-disrupting paraben preservatives and phthalates (used in synthetic fragrances)” (2008). Instead, buy natural adult cosmetics with plant-based ingredients. Using all natural makeup is also a great alternative to wearing a vinyl mask – the least environmentally friendly plastic. Also, try creating costumes from clothes and object you already have in the house – this will save money and you can reuse these items later.

Invest in Saving

1.Use a humidifier.DOE states that, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity's moisture that increases the heat index, making 68 degrees feel like 76." (E Magazine,2005)http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1594/is_/ai_n13251153 This will decrease your need for heating, but also relieve cold and flu symptoms, prevent itchy skin and cracked lips, and reduction of nosebleeds if the user is prone to them. The ideal temperature to keep the humidity level is 30-40%. Too much will make the house feel muggy. A good indication that there's too much is if the windows show moisture. A good place to put the humidifier is in a hallway, so everyone reaps the benefits.(Essortment, 2002) http://www.essortment.com/lifestyle/humidifierbenef_shai.htm

2.Put blinds or draperies on the windows in order to slow down the loss of heat from the house through the glass window. Then, in the winter, keep the blinds open to gain warmth from the sun and close them at night to enclose the heat. (NW Natural, 2008)

3.Purchase an Energy Star television. The Energy Star television meets the efficiency guidelines of the US EPA and the department of energy; as well as, saving energy even when it is turned off. There are about 275 million televisions in use today in the United States. This uses over 50 billion kWh, which is enough electricity to power New York for an entire year (EPA Energy Star 2008). The cost for an Energy Star television is the same as any television. If you get an LCD screen, it will be pricier. The only draw back is that you will have to go out of your way to find the Energy Star televisions. If you would like to see which kind of television is an Energy Star, visit http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=TV and scroll down to the bottom where it says “Find ENERGY STAR Qualified Televisions.” By using Energy Star televisions, a person will save 30% more energy.

4.Laptops use about 10% or less of the electricity used by a regular desktop. When buying a laptop, buy one that are comprised of 3.3-volt components (LCD, memory and processor). These systems use 40-50% less energy than 5.0-volt systems and they have lighter batteries. (Earth Easy, 2008)

5.Switch your power surge strips with energy saving “Smart” ones. For instance use smart strip. These strips save energy by sensing electronics that are not being used and turning the power supply off (Dunn 2005). The initial cost is about $20-$40, depending on what model you get.

Energy Efficiency for FREE!

1.Wash clothes in warm or cold water: washing clothes in hot water can produce about 500 lbs more carbon dioxide than washing clothes in warm water for an electric washer heater or 150 lbs for a gas heater. It is cost free and a very simple change. (EcoMall 2008)

2.Fill your dishwasher and let them air dry: not using the air dry cycle will save 20% of your dishwasher's total electricity use. (EcoMall 2008)

3.Refrigerators eat up the most electricity in the household. Maximize efficiency by cleaning the coils regularly along with defrosting it regulary (LIVCLEAN). This saves energy and thus GHG’s. There is no initial cost or potential drawbacks to the situation. If you make this habit you will save 26.3 Kg/month of electricity. (LIVCLEAN)

4.Dimming your lights by 25% will save you approximately 20% on your electric bill as well as make your bulbs last up to four years longer. (http://www.ehow.com/how_2118319_carbon-emissions-all-saving-money.html)

5.Make sure to clean the lint trap in the dryer a clogged lint trap can make the dryer use up to 30% more energy and also catch on fire. It is best to clean it after every use, this will keep your dryer running at optimal performance.

6.Close vents and doors to rooms that are not used frequently to eliminate unnecessary heating of rooms. The DOE calculates that "closing the vents to just one spare bedroom in a five-room house, you can instantly cut your heating bills by as much as 20 percent." (E Magazine, 2005).

7.In the winter, close the damper of your fireplace if you don't have a fire burning- "An open fireplace damper can let 8 percent of heat from your furnace escape through the chimney!" (California Energy Commission 2006)

Got the LEDs!! Progress!

Good news fellas. After applying a little pressure, I made sure the LED distributors got the package to me today. And now I will put them in the third highest "resuce bin" in the living room.

There should be 10 keychains total (2 per resident). Please feel free to take them, label them and use them for the rest of the semester.

Now that we have the LEDs out of the way, I would like to see about creating a better system of recycling/reusing the toilet paper rolls and Irish Spring Boxes. Post any thoughts you might have about this. I will certainly follow anything up.

Less Laziness = More Sustainable

Again its been a bit, Midterms keeping everyone busy. Mid-crits kept us up late and tests kept us studying instead of sleeping. Our goal from the start has been to lessen the footprint we make on the environment. What I have been doing to lessen recycling is to reuse plastic bottles and fill them with water and add gatorade mix instead of buying more gatorade bottles. Today we cleaned the room up a little as a little mid-semester cleaning. The great thing about that was that most of what we thought was "trash" was really just paper, cardboard, chipboard, and rigid blue insulation (styrofoam). All of which can be recycled. So what in years past were just thrown away out of laziness was now all recycled.

Sustainable from the start ... no end in sight for our townhouse.

I thank Jon and Zach for taking issue with the recycling/trash weigh-ins. I think this would be a good time to find our center on this and all other issues about the EcoChallenge by defining Sustainability as it relates to our efforts during this EcoChallenge. I have written a sort of mission statement below. Please feel free to read, edit or respond to the following statement:

"The residents of Townhouse D are committed to a Sustainable lifestyle. It is a systemic concept that has us consider the relationships between the social, institutional and environmental aspects of our existence. We constantly assess the way we live against one litmus test. We expect our basic human needs to be met while preserving the local ecocsystem, in order to maintain the same quality of life for future residents."

If you want to learn more about Living Green I have attached an article that I found really interesting. It gives statistics of what cities and countries are the pathfinders of this renewed commitment to sustainability.

PLEASE NOTE: The United States doesn't rank in the Top 5 of any survey!

A Function of Consumption

Thanks to a healthy rain about a week ago, our rain water bucket still has plenty of water in it to wash out our recycling without using water from the tap. We have been significantly reducing the volume of trash our townhome creates. The weight of our trash is now more a function of the material, and is not an accurate reflection of the amount of things we throw away.

Before this week we weren't as concerned with conserving. One of the things that has been talked about extensively in our townhouse is the ways we can begin to consume less. By doing this, not only has our trash weighed less but, reduced in volume overall. In the greater sense, our footprint has become smaller. To be using and collecting recyclables to offset the trash to recycling ratio would be losing sight of the goal of this competition, which is to begin to reduce our overall impact on the environment. We have been using a PUR Water filter pitcher more than we had before the competition in an effort to reduce our dependence on bottled water and bottled drinks. We have also taken to reusing our trash and recyclables as furniture or assigning them a respective function such as turning some cardboard boxes into trash and recycling bins. In this way our townhouse has begun to capture the essence of sustainability much more concretely than I thought we would have two weeks ago.

Community Building through TV

Well guys this weekend was a tough one.  With midterms and mid-crits coming up tons of work needed to get done.  We were pretty much in our room all weekend working.  I utilized the library as much as possible to less the amount of electricity I was using, but this does not always work, due to the hours of operation and my work schedule.  Also the A&D center I have been using a lot more as well to complete work but models are easier to build in my room where there is more space to work and spread out.  Using the A&D center more cuts down on electricity wasted in our room, especially since they are open almost 24/7 (except for weekends of course).  It also allows me to interact with other students and really further my designs.  I can bounce ideas off of them and get good feedback about my work.  But a big thing this weekend was all the amazing sporting events on the television.  I have lived in IP for the three previous years to this one, and the way IP is set up it is much more household community oriented.  Living in the townhouses, everyone is in their own room doing their own thing, watching their own tv and so on.  The sense of household community is lost.  Well we got that back this weekend and every since this started.  When we have a television on it is the one in the living room only.  This weekend we bonded around this television watching many amazing sporting events.  This got us, as a townhouse community, closer together.  We watched television and did homework sitting down there together.  So even though we used up more electricity then we maybe would have liked, it definitely was not wasted.  It actually had a stronger power then just lighting up a screen, it brought 5 individuals together as one community in our townhouse.

So its been a few days since I have been on.....things haven't really changed much. We finally have some clear trash bags for our recycling.  We have been really good with the energy usage.  I am proud of everyone including myself on how well we have become aware of these issues.  It is really funny that I now see myself walking past other townhouses and saying how much everyone is wasting electricity with all the lights on and no one in their rooms.  Also we caught a full container of rain water in the back of our house a few days ago when it rained.  That is great cause we have a few bottles we need to rinse out before putting them in the recycle.  Also the use of new lights we purchased are great energy savers especially for using the bathroom at night

This light provides way more then enough light so that you can see where you are walking and see the toilet clearly while doing your business.  This investment of around 12$ for two of these allows us to use this battery powered light that last around 15,000 hours, instead of wasting electricity when turning on the light/fan combination every time you walk into the bathroom.  Its been a success so far.

Phils game about to start.....I'll be back later.

One Week Down

After one week of the EcoChallenge not only am I beginning to learn simple ways to conserve electricity and water it has become quite clear how easy it is to be wasteful of these things. How am I being wasteful? Prior to this I have been one to take long showers, pushing 10 to 15 minutes, but really the goal is to get clean, and that can easily been done in about 5 minutes. Those gallons of water that aren't being used will really add up over a month, and just think of the total if and when I make this a regular practice. A second little change that will sum to quite a bit of savings is simply turning of f my computer when I am not using it and ensuring the lights are off when I am out of the house. I have also found myself spending more time in the library when I need to get some work done, the lights are already on and I have computer access. The other thing we have a focus on in this challenge is trash and recycling, and there is really no excuse not to recycle recyclables. The container for most recyclables is right next to the dumpster, its simply a matter of putting it in a different container. Also as my roommates have posted earlier, things not recycled here on campus can be recycled close by. It will pay off in the long run to take those few extra minutes to find a location to recycle if it ensures we will have a clean environment for the next generations to grow up in.
You've probably heard all these suggestions before, but if your like me you may not have considered them all that seriously. In a day like this however where its becoming more essential to live sustainably all it takes is a little effort to become more conscious of your habits, and make little changes. I have certainly not changed my lifestyle drastically, and already I know I am conserving a lot of water and electricity in my day to day routine.
Stay tuned for more ideas on how we can convert the campus community together to a more sustainable one from my roommates and myself.