Earth Hour

Have you ever heard of Earth Hour? Tomorrow will mark the third anniversary.

On the official Earth Hour website, it says

On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people around the world will come together to call for action on climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. The movement symbolizes that by working together, each of us can make a positive impact in this fight, protecting our future and that of future generations. Learn more about how Earth Hour began, what we’ve accomplished, and what is in store for 2010.

It's a very simple collaborative project being done around the world and I will take part as well. I've spoken before about wanting to take "Elective Blackouts" and I'm going to use Earth Hour as my first official one.

31 US cities have signed on at this time to participate and New York is one of them.

While the event only last an hour, I'm assuming what I have planned will take a little longer. First, I will be unplugging everything in the house, except the fridge and stove. I will turn everything off; my laptop, my cell phones, my ipod. I will light candles. I have so many, you have no idea. And I will be doing a few creative things. I plan on finishing up the current book I'm reading, "Food Inc." Have you seen the movie or read the book? I plan on writing my book review for So Long a Letter and starting book four of the African Dispora Challenge that I am currently a part of. BrownGirl Speaks is a very cool woman and if you have a moment to spare you should roam around her website. I have a number of journal entries that I need to write and create in my collage art journals. I also want to take this time to purge many out dates files and projects in the various boxes in my home.

I'm not sure if I'm going to take pictures of the whole process because I really just want to be completely unplugged.

This reminds me of two weekends ago when New York had that horrible storm. I was with Mr. Officer at the time and while we were home relaxing, Mother Nature threw a big temper tantrum. The entire fence in his backyard came crashing down. A number of trees were knocked over and leaning dangerously over the house. An electrical wire snapped and was live and sparking just waiting to start a fire and then he lost power.

And when I say he lost power, it was if the earth stopped spinning on its axis and a MAJOR jerking motion happened as the earth came to screeching halt. If you've read before about Mr. Officer and I, you will know our practices are very different. Therefore, the power shutting off in his house could actually be felt. At any moment there are multiple tvs on, multiple radios on, a number of phones beeping and chiming, a billion lights are on and EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS plugged in. You just have no idea. (Perhaps I should see if he can rise to the challenge and turn his lights off for an hour)

I burst out laughing. It was the first time in four years there had been stillness and quiet and darkness in his house. And I loved it. I think he was almost short of a panic attack. Just what would he do without his music. "You know," I said, "If the power went off in my apartment, I might not even notice for a week or so." He remained silent. "It's just that I so rarely have things on and I probably wouldn't know something was wrong until the food started to smell." He refused to say anything. I took it as my cue to be quiet as well.

When he did visit my apartment for the first time he immediately said, "Its too dark in here. Turn the lights on. It's too quiet, where is the music, the tv. Oh this isn't going to work. I'm bringing in a flatscreen tv and its going right here." I just rolled my eyes.


Are you planning on participating in Earth Hour? Will you be a part of an Earth Hour event? I'm looking for one in New York. Know of any?

"My Elective Blackout"

I came across this article in Real Simple a long while ago and I LOVED it. My goal is go on a couple elective blackouts this year as long as my schedule allows. If I'm working on a show, that's not possible but if I can, I want to have a weekend of candles.

Click each picture for a larger view. It is worth reading the article.

 

What do you think about the article?

Electrical Overload

Photo Credit

I recently moved to New York for a job relocation and while I'm still getting situated, I'm staying in corporate housing. I am grateful for the benefit of corporate housing. It ties me over until I find a home. It's close to work and pretty much at the center of everything. The apartment comes fully stocked since most of my belonging are in storage and so I am able to survive until I find my future home in Brooklyn.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived was all the things plugged into the walls.

 

This is a partial view of the kitchen. It's pretty nice. Lots of room and counter space. But let's count what's plugged in.

1. The fridge

2. The stove.

3. The microwave

4. The dishwasher

5. The toaster

6. The can opener

7. The coffeemaker

SEVEN THINGS! Just in the kitchen. Remember my old lovely apartment?

 

 At any given moment throughout my ENTIRE apartment only THREE things remained plugged in. The fridge, the stove and my internet router. Even the lamp featured in the photo was only plugged in when in used. Which was rare because you see how much light i get in my apartment!

So seven things for just the kitchen. Well, I immediately put the can opener, toaster and coffee machine in the cabinet. I haven't used any of those things since I moved in.

Now what you can see in this picture...

8. Floor lamp

9. Table lamp

10. Ipod/Radio player

What you can't see...

11. Flat screen television

12. DVD player

13. Cable box

14. Router

15. Desk lamp

16. Telephone

17. Heater/Air conditioner

Oh, I forgot to mention

18. Telephone in kitchen

19. Telephone in kitchen (yes there are two. One that connects me to the doorman)

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

Now on to the bedroom.

20. One nightstand lamp

21. Another night stand lam

22. Heater/Air Conditioner

What you can't see.....

23. Another television. (A television in the bedroom. AAAAAHHHH!)

24. Cable box.

25. Yet ANOTHER telephone

And while its not plugged in there is a hair dryer in the bathroom.

25 things plugged in at all times! Are you serious! I can't even imagine what the electricity bill is! This isn't even counting the other things that you plug in every now and then. My phone chargers. My laptop charger and such! WTF!

I was excited to have received a $15 electricity bill in my old apt and now...holy crap. Luckily I don't have to see the electricity bill.

I've unplugged as many things as I can and have even considered moving the television in the bedroom into the closet but since its not my place I'm a little hesitant to make changes like that.

I find that its challenging to live a sustainable life when you don't have control. Like when I go home to visit my family, I eat what's presented to me. I'm not going to impose my lifestyle on them and change how they shop. And since this isn't my own apt, its just challenging. But I do what I can.

For the first few weeks I had a great deal of trouble sleeping. Part of me believes is due to this electrical overload. I can't wait to have my own apt again where the only things that are plugged in will be my fridge, stove and router.

How many things do you have plugged in?

Practical Steps towards lowering your utility bill.

A friend wanted to know the practical steps towards reducing my energy usage and decreasing the amount I pay on my energy bill.

I believe when I moved into my apartment back in May, my first two bills were about $20 to $22 dollars. That was with living my normal lifestyle without taking extra measures towards being more eco conscious.

Here is what I do and I know its not conducive for everyone. (Remember I live alone which means I live in a controlled environment in a small city apartment)

• Live alone. While some say its cheaper to live with roommates, I have found its cheaper to live alone. Or at least, if you live with roommates, live with someone who is conscientious about their energy consumption and amount they spend on utilities. My former roommates were more than ok with spending $100+ on the electricity bill. I was NOT ok with that. By living alone or living with people who are like minded you know that the lights are being turned off. You know that energy isn't being wasted. If you have children, you can teach them to be conscious of the energy they consume. I actually came across a toy called the Power Hog that children are to plug into the wall. And when its fully charge, there is something to indicate to the kid that they can unplug the piggy. And when the piggy runs out of charge, the child has to feed it a coin to turn it back on thus teaching the child that energy isn't free. Anyone know what I'm talking about. Even without these crafty little strategically marketed "green" toys, you can teach your children to turn the lights off when they leave a room, to not leave the water running, and such.

 

Photo Credit

• Get outside. During the summer I spent little time at home. I work a full time job and I stayed active in either theater shows, beach volleyball teams, traveling, bike rides and such. By spending time outdoors, I was spending less time at home with lights on, watching tv and wasting energy. So add a thing or two to your schedule. Instead of watching tv with your children, take them to the park. Its free! Cable and Electricity are not.

• Unplug appliances from the wall or use surge protectors. The ONLY thing plugged into my walls on a consistent every day basis is my Fridge and Stove...which I don't really count. And my router for my wireless internet because if I unplugged that, it would take forever for it to reboot. I unplug my lamps from the wall. I unplug my phone chargers from the wall. My microwave stays off and unplugged unless I need to use it. So does my blender, printer, external hard drive and other chargers.

• Use less artificial light. This may be harder for some people rather than others. This lady that I work with always makes fun of me and says I like living in a cave. For every light that she turns on at work, I want to turn another off. I am quoted as saying that "fluorescent lights suck my soul away." I only like using enough light that's necessary. As little light as possible. Whenever I skype with Mr. Officer he complains about not being about to see me. While he has 20 lamps on, I think I have one on. "I know what I'm going to buy you," he says, "A desk lamp!" Its funny but its also true of me. I don't really like turning lights on. Turn on the lights only when you need too. Use candles. Use natural lighting. I have lots of windows in my apartment. Therefore I can use the sunshine for many things. In the mornings I just wash my face and brush my teeth. Since I'm not styling my hair or applying makeup, I don't really need the light on. When I shower, I shower with the light off. It feels better that way. Right this very moment, how many lights are on in your place?

• Own less stuff or own multi-functional devices. I don't have a flat iron. hot curler. blow dryer. dvd player. tv. wii. radio. alarm clock. toaster. food processer. Because I have less stuff. That's less stuff to use. My laptop serves as a laptop and a radio and a tv and a dvd player. Since I wear my hair natural and use simple styles like twist to make other styles, I don't need a blow dryer, flat iron, curler or anything else. (I don't even own a brush or comb!) My blender doubles as a food processor. My boiler toast my food just fine.
  

• Open the windows and Drink Water.  Because my air runs on electricity, I specifically did things differently as oppose to turning the air on. I kept my windows open for most of the summer. Since our summer this year was more like spring, there weren't too many HOT HOT days. If I were hot even with the window open, I'd SOMETIMES turn my ceiling fan on. But MOST times I'd drink water or lemonade. I'd eat popsicles and gelato.

So that's what I did. And by doing so I took an already cheap bill of $22 down to $15. But keep in mind, I live alone in a small apartment and I don't own as much stuff as the average person and I have an natural aversion to artificial light in the first place.

What to do when you live with roommates who don't care about energy consumption and the money they spend on utilities?

• Move Out or Find a Subleasee. (You can't change people. You can impact and influence them. But only to a certain point. And some people give no priority to the environment or the weight of their energy usage. Let those people be and move on and move out.)

What to do when you live with a spouse and family?

• Since its your family, you have greater influence on what people do in the house. And while a spouse may not be too keen on your new granola ways, I'm pretty sure they are keen on saving money. Why spend a saturday in the house with everybody watching their tv's in their own room or listening to their ipods or talking on their cell phones when you can go to the beach as a family? Or go on a picnic? Or play a game? 

What were ways you lowered your utility bill? I'm looking to bring my bill from $15 to $13. Any advice on what else I can do? (I could watch even less tv on Hulu.com than I currently watch. Then my computer wouldn't drain as much and I wouldn't need to charge it. Instead I could spend more time journaling and reading books. I could also spend intentional weekends going "off the grid" with an elective blackout. )

Energy - No Impact Project

 

Photo Credit 

According to the EPA the average CO2 emissions per person per year are about 20,000. When I used their carbon calculator to figure out my yearly usage, I came in at about 7,000. (I'm not the average household. I'm single, like in a small city apartment, and am home on average of eight hours per day.) My survey results are below.

Individual Emissions - Household Emissions Calculator | Climate Change - Greenhouse Gas Emissions | U.S. EPA

Today's challenge asked us to take a quick audit of or energy usage at home. I went around the apartment making note.

KITCHEN

Fridge - stays plugged in at all times
Stove -I don't even know what the back of my stove looks like but I'm assuming its plugged in.

Microwave - stays plugged in at all times. (I could unplug this. I rarely use it. For a long time I didn't even use one. There are creative ways to heat everything up on a stove and its probably healthier for you anyway.)

Blender - never plugged in. Only when used.
Coffee Maker - never plugged in. (The price tag is still on it. Anyone want a free coffee maker. I'll gladly ship it to you. Its brand spanking new! Why give it away? Because we have over 10 coffee machines at work..the real ones. Like the ones starbucks have or something. I can make any drink on Starbucks menu at my job!)

LIVING ROOM/DINING ROOM/OFFICE

Printer - stays unplugged unless it is in use
Table lamp - stays unplugged unless it is in use

Floor lamp - usually stays unplugged unless it is in use. (Last two weeks, I've been lazy)

Laptop Power Adapter - stays unplugged unless it is in use.
Speaker Power Adapter - stays unplugged unless it is in use.
Blackberry Power Adapter - stays plugged in.

BATHROOM

iPhone Power Adapter - stays plugged in.

BEDROOM

Air Conditioner power cord - stays plugged in.


The items in green are easy fixes. I can just unplug them. I think its a great idea to keep things unplugged until you actually use them. And as you can see, I don't have many electronics. Not sure what to do about the fridge and stove. While Colin's suggestions in the how to guide to combat fridge usage are creative, I don't really care for them.


THINGS TO NOTE

• I do not own a television intentionally. (I use my laptop to watch any and everything I want. Multi-Functional devices are great. Less clutter. Less things. More green)
• In my bathroom...there is no blow dryer, curler, flat iron. (Please, I don't even own a comb or brush. I wear my hair naturally...which aides in my living a more sustainable life. But I do style my hair in many creative ways)
• I am one of those that only like specific lighting and not just general lighting. I like as little lighting as possible. I like natural light. I like candles. And I pretty much keep my lights off. During the mornings I wash my face and brush my teeth with the lights off. Usually there is enough natural light seeping through. Besides I don't wear makeup, so I don't need extra light for all of that fluff fluff
• I have yet to turn my heat on this fall. My bed has many blankets and pillows. When I'm cold I put a sweater on or socks on. I drink tea or hot cocoa. 
• Since I'm rarely home...I average about 8 hours a day and I keep most things unplugged and even when I'm there, its such low usage..my electric bill and gas bill are pretty low. My People Gas bill and ComEd Electric bill have been around $20 a month. I've lived in my apartment since May. I think that's pretty good. (When I lived with roommates this was not the case. Sometimes our electric bill was over $130. Freaking Crazy! It was a constant battle between how high or low the air or heat should be. There were TV's, Wii's, laptops,...things were always on all the time. And now, I pay $20 each for both those bills. Crazy)
  
• I have other things that plug in but they are stored away until I need them...such as my camera power cord, external harddrive power cord and etc. For those with a billion cords, I recommend Smart Power Strips. I think they are creative and extremely innovative. Also, the prices are pretty reasonable...especially for the savings you will rack up.

Photo Credit

So look, I'm just going to toot my own horn and say that I do pretty good with my energy consumption. There are a few areas of improvement. I could be more intentional and unplug those last few things that I keep in. But what I want to try are a couple things....

In the guide, Collin suggest using your laptop/computer for only work based reasons...perhaps for a day or weekend. And then...turning it off and living. Instead of facebooking everyone, call a friend. No, don't call. Go visit them. Go outside. Write in a journal. Read a book. Turn your computer off. I'm going to try this. Keep my laptop off for an entire day. Although I once went two years without a laptop..while stage managing. So I know its manageable.

While I can't do it during a production, I also want to go back to turning my phones off for designated times. I used to keep my phones off on Sundays. So much more peaceful that way. I want to find more moments to do this. It gives you the freedom to be a bit more present.

On that note, I once read an article in a magazine where a woman when off the grid for an entire weekend. I mean she didn't turn lights on, no cell phones, no tv...no nothing. (She did use her stove though. One creative stove use was to boil a stained shirt in hot water to remove it!) The article was two pages long, I have it filled away and will scanned it in. I've held on to that article for many years now and it was so beautifully written.

Perhaps I'll take an entire weekend and go off the grid. Maybe I'll try doing it once a month.

Having listed my granola tendencies in regards to energy usage, do you see other areas where I can improve? I am all ears!!!

The Granola that I Am

A few of my most recent granola tendencies.... (i'm scared if I keep going down this path, you might actually catch me hugging a tree)

COFFEE AND TRASH

Today, since I'm being more cognizant of of trash, as I have been the past couple of days, I give second thought to most things that I grab. As I mentioned before I've been putting honey in my tea so that I don't have to open and discard little sugar packets. Today when making my coffee, I almost grabbed the little containers of half and half creamer. But that would mean two small containers of waste to throw away. So instead, I grabbed the skim milk and used that as my creamer. I've never done that before. And you know what, I liked it! My coffee was smoother and my stomach handled it much better. I suppose I should stop drinking coffee altogether but that won't happen until pigs fly. So in fairness I drink fair trade coffee that is distrubted locally. Intelligentsia.

PAPER

I have been using my phones more to take down notes instead of post its and even scrap paper. I am also printing so much less that its ridiculous. Do they give awards for that? Because I deserve top honors. If only you could see how much I used to print a day. Maybe 50 pages or so a day sometimes. And in the last week I've printed one page because for accounting reasons I had too. But when I spoke to my boss about it, he said I'd no longer have to do that starting January 1st. Yea! I didn't have my phone on me at one point today, so instead of grabbing a post it...I did something probably worse...I wrote on my hand instead. Ink poisoning or Killing Trees? I've been using Evernote. I was able to put in on my mac laptop at home, my iPhone, and my PC at work. Unfortunately it doesn't work with my blackberry pearl. However, if you have another kind of blackberry, I think you are all good. In a meeting I used it to take a picture of a graph someone drew. I used it to take notes for another meeting. At my pc, I used it to snap a picture of a website that i want to go back too. (Now if I must use paper however, at my job we use 100% post consumer recycled paper and recycled post its and scrap paper...fyi)

COMPUTERS AND ELECTRICITY

In my 15 months of working at my job, before this last week, I've turned my computer off only ONCE. My computer has been turned on for more than a year non stop. Yes, tree huggers everywhere...say a prayer for me. Its the culture of my job. No one turns there computer off. We just log off at night, if that. One person said be programmed his computer to automatically turn on and off. I can do that on my macbook pro but not on my pc. Anyone know of a way to do that on a pc? Well, it doesn't even matter. Because since last Thursday, I have been turning my computer off at night.

CELL PHONES AND ELECTRICITY

My lovely friend Sam mentioned that she no longer keeps electronics in her bedroom and has found she sleeps better for it. In the book Creating Sacred Space with Feng Shui, Karen Kingston speaks about this. I highly recommend the book! Anyways, Sam told me about this last Sunday when we got together to make Apple Pie with Gouda Crust and Stuffed Tomatoes. So on Sunday I moved my phones into the bathroom. (I been hitting snooze too much anyway) So now my alarm goes off and I have to go to the bathroom to turn it off. Which then since I'm up, I brush my teeth and began my day. Along with doing this, I stopped charging my phone all night. While I'm consistent with letting my battery run down on my laptop before I charge it, I don't do that with my phones. They stay plugged in from the time I get home until I leave the next day. Since Sunday, I have just left them uncharged. When I wake up in the morning, there is still enough juice in it to begin my day with. Nice!

UPCYCLING

An associate at work received an invitation to some event...that doesn't really matter. What matters it that it came in the most beautiful envelope I had ever seen in my life.

As she was telling me about the event, I kept starring at the envelope. She started to throw it in the trash. "WAIT!" I said a little too loud, "Are you going to throw that away? I could cut off your name and use it for arts and crafts. As well as a reference for the perfect colored dress that I want. Can I have it?." She smiled at me and then passed it along. Trust me, the picture doesn't do it justice.

I'll take a picture of whatever I use the brown envelope for. Most than likely it will be in one of my art journals.

What are you latest granola tendencies? Any suggestions on further steps I can take?

By the way, I'll be featuring my first interview with Sam and her roommate Laura on sustainability and their city dwelling granola tendencies. Stay tuned.