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Notes from the Soaperie
 Happy New Year to everyone and welcome to 2008! With the start of a new
year comes the inevitable creation of resolutions that
we invariably end up breaking. We've
made a few resolutions here at
All Things Jill that
we hope will make a positive
impact on the world around us and reduce our environmental footprint.
First we are continuing to improve our recycling
efforts. We have contracted a local firm that recycles
a large amount of our waste, including all of our plastics,
metals, paper and styrofoam. We now produce less than
one garbage bag of waste per week, once all is said &
done.
Second we are going to continue to find ways to reduce
our electrical usage. Many of the new electronics that
we all use (TVs, computers, etc.) continue to draw power even when we think
that they are off. This passive power draw can be as
much
as 25 watts per appliance! A simple rule of
thumb: if you can turn
something "on" with a remote then it's NOT off and
continues to draw power. We unplug the majority of our
home and manufacturing electronics every night.
Third we are looking at replacing one of our cars with
something more environmentally friendly. Under
consideration is a diesel or hybrid vehicle. A
diesel because they are more fuel efficient than gas and can be converted to
biodiesel when the technology becomes available, and a hybrid because they are becoming
affordable and most of our driving is in the city. For
now we are shutting
our cars off at stop lights instead of idling waiting
for lights. Believe it or not this is cheaper than
idling your car for more than 10 seconds and it reduces
wear on your engine.
Lastly we are in the process of finding and subscribing to a
alternate
power vendor. The are a variety of sources and
plans available but basically they ensure that the power that you
use from the grid is replaced with the same amount from
an alternative power source.
Take a look at your own home and business. Small
things can make a huge difference if you can keep at
them. Pick one thing to start and reduce the size
of your environmental footprint on your home and Go Green!
Namaste,
Jill |
