pointing out the obvious

In a previous post discussing carbon neutral, Peter raised a valid question about the replacement of old technology with new technology, knowing that new technology will have a lesser net effect on the environment (and your wallet).

To describe this through an example:  A new, environmentally efficient, low water consuming laundry machine requires a huge amount of raw materials to build and ship to your home prior to saving you water and energy.  However, using the old washer uses twice as much water, and twice as much power.  So, the question is, when does it make sense to replace an older appliance with a newer one.

In other words, when does….

cost of running the technology + cost of removing old technology
EQUAL
cost of running new technology + cost of producing new technology
????

Where cost is the environmental cost.

Of course, this is next to impossible to determine.  Why?  Probably because the economy wants you to continue purchasing - it keeps them in business.  The same way 3 years from now, a new and improved laundry machine will be introduced, which everyone MUST have.  Thus the cycle continues.

Of course, I’m quite guilty of this myself, but I’m trying hard to consider this when making unnecessary purchases - like cameras.

Everyone has heard of no impact, zero footprint and carbon neutral - but do you have any idea what that means?  It doesn’t mean buying recycled paper, or products in recycled packaging, or hybrid automobiles.

It means making due with what you have, not purchasing something new if at all possible.  Purchasing something ‘new’ means raw materials, pollution, and sometimes throwing something perfectly useful into a landfill.

This is a difficult concept to swallow for most.  Why?  Because most do not see the impact of their lifestyle on the environment - myself included.  The secondary problem is the economy - it’s based on consumption, which means not purchasing is not contributing.

So… what do you do?

Interesting dilemma - consuming helps the big machine (economy) go round and round.  However, consuming is what makes our lifestyles unsustainable.  Have you ever really thought about where that coffee really came from, and where the disposable cup goes once you’re done?

Most of us don’t think about our daily purchases, and what impact that might have on both the economy and the environment.  If you want to support the economy, you might focus your spending on locally sourced goods - most of us don’t.  If you want to reduce your impact on the environment, you would curb the unessential spending - which sounds crazy.

So, we’re stuck buying foreign made ‘green’ products that end up in a landfill.

I realize that I have become a bit of a ‘public transit’ pusher. Everywhere I go, I want to take transit over taxis, or driving. While the TTC has it’s own set of problems, I believe it to be the better way. Maybe not the nicest way, but the better way all things considered.

So much so, that I might invest in a TTC Metropass at full price (I used to get a discount) to make it that much easier.

.

Just recently, my better half and I converted our front (and back) lawn from grass to naturalized gardens. We dug out the grass (and are composting it), turned the soil with manure, invested in some native plants and some cedar mulch so that it doesn’t all blow away. It’s a little early to see the real results, but it is starting to look and smell amazing.

The neighbors are a little confused. They think the naturalized lawn across the street looks like ‘a forest’, which is probably the biggest compliment you can get in the naturalized world. Most are used to the manicured lawn, a few exotic plants and constant watering.

My neighbor did suggest that “if it were up to him, he would cut down the 25 year old maple tree in my front yard because it makes a mess in the fall”. Stunned, I instantly thought of my lawyer and made sure she was on speed dial.

Then I read about how the city mowed over Deborah Dale’s naturalized garden. It’s depressing, but I completely understand how it happened. My neighborhood is balanced between the old-school manicured lawn crowd, and the naturalized garden crowd.

My neighbor spends most of his time in the backyard shooting birds and squirrels with his hose. I guess my 3 birdfeeders aren’t helping.

Awesome.

Simple changes can make a big difference. Example? Viewing a black screen on a computer uses less energy than a white screen, by a few watts. Given the number of hits google gets every day, if they changed their search page background from white to black, it would apparently save 750mWh per year - enough to power 1000 fridges for a year. Interesting.

It just goes to show you that even the most ridiculous changes can have a dramatic effect.

Check it out - www.blackle.com .

While driving up Hwy 10 through Shelburne last weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in the middle of a wind farm. If you have ever driven through or past a wind farm, you understand that it can be an awe inspiring experience. This setup was the Melancthon Wind Plant by Canadian Hydro, which boasted 45 turbines and was completed in March 2006. It’s nice to actually see a plant at work in Ontario.

I’ve had the opportunity to drive through the wind plants in California, they are an experience to say the least. If you ever get a chance, you have to see them in person to understand. There must have been thousands of turbines setup on the mountains, all turning in the wind - somewhat hypnotizing. It was akin to my Newfoundland experience - when the ferry pulled in to Port aux Basques NF from Sydney NS and you first saw the terrain, you felt as if you had landed on another planet. Unbelievable.

Before anyone comments on the fact that I’ve done a few roadtrips, remember that driving is more responsible than flying. I also have a fairly economical car with a 1.8L engine, that gets 600km per tank in the city without hypermiling. I posted some 700+km tanks during my roadtrip before even knowing what hypermiling was. If I did the same trips now, I’m sure I would post 800km tanks.

I have successfully rented, driven and returned a ZipCar twice, from two different locations and here’s what I thought…

The reservation process is pretty slick online - easy, intuitive, quick. I managed to rent with about 30 minutes notice without a problem, then rented a few days in advance without a problem. Awesome.

Searching for cars was a little buggy - if you select or unselect ’show me cars that are unavailable’ it doesn’t behave the way you would think. Someone needs to look at that, it’s not consistent. In my case, I wanted to find out when a truck was available, so not being able to see all trucks in the area that were booked or not booked was a little frustrating. But I figured out a way to make it work.

The cars are great. I rented a pickup on both occasions, so I expected it to be a little messy. However, the truck was relatively clean, a few scratches here and there, but it’s meant for moving things, so I was not surprised.

Upon returning a truck on Saturday morning to the Church and Wood St location, I found myself without my ZipCard. I likely lost it at the hardware store loading lumber and cement into the back. So this presented an interesting situation - I wasn’t able to lock the truck to complete my reservation at the lot.

Luckily, it was booked immediately after my drop-off time, so the other ZipCar member was there, ready to drive it away. I asked for the ZipCar number, and promptly called to remedy the situation. However, in order to get through the automated system and speak to a living person, I needed my ZipCard number. But I lost it, so I didn’t have it. I tried the normal ‘0′, or ‘*’ to get a living person, but it kept me away. It was very frustrating.

Eventually, I got the member waiting for the truck to call for me. Thankfully, she spoke to a ZipCar rep and cleared up the situation. But, if she had not been there, I would have been screwed.

Ultimately, the experience was a positive one. Having a truck available is EXTREMELY handy. AutoShare only seems to offer vans, which would have worked, but hauling bags of cement or lumber would have made a mess. With the pickup, I just swept the back out after my reservation and it was ready to return.

I’m hoping I find my ZipCard some day.  I’d like to rent again, it was a positive experience.  If I don’t find it, I’ll have to suck it up and pay $15 to have one reissued.

Incandescent bulbs are on their way out - in Canada and Australia anyways. Fluorescent are the new cool way to make a difference. HomeDepot, Rona, Canadian Tire, Home Hardware and others now have so many bulbs to select from that you could lose an hour trying to find a ’standard’ bulb.

I like fluorescent bulbs, don’t notice any flicker or difference in colour. However, the mercury thing has always bothered me a little. I know it’s better than incandescent, but now everyone has a little piece of mercury in their homes. What is the likelihood of those people recycling the mercury? For those who aren’t aware, you drop them off at one of the local drop-off depots, or environment day.

Why aren’t LED lights more popular? Why didn’t they catch on? They seem to exist for cars, flashlights, outdoor lights, and other applications - but not household bulbs? I suppose they haven’t tackled the directional light problems yet, but you figure someone would be working on that.

Until ‘depot, crappy tire, rona, home hardware start carrying LEDs to the masses, we can watch and hope that EcoLEDs make some quick progress and become more affordable. Apparently they last about 20 years, have no toxic components and use less power.

I’ve got my fingers crossed.

It’s been on my mind lately.

The arguments for consuming local food make a certain amount of sense - if it’s local, it didn’t require as much burnt fuel to get to my local grocery store. You can define your own ‘local’ boundary, but I’ve been trying to stick with ‘Ontario’ over the last little while to see how it might affect my diet. It seems as though it wouldn’t affect me much. I generally don’t eat as many fresh vegetables in the winter because they are expensive (i.e. imported from South America) anyways.

So, local/regional food makes sense. Can we apply it to all consumables? Should I use the same rules for beer and wine?
Beer, wine and other short lifespan items make sense. They are consumed quickly, so all the pollution generated during shipping is for 1 hour of use. It would make sense to acquire these items locally, because there is no lifespan or number of uses to spread the pollution out over (think depreciation).

There are many local and international breweries producing beer in the area that I can think of off the top of my head - Mill St, Amsterdam, Steamwhistle, Molson…

We are also spoiled with wineries in the niagara region.  For some reason, the VQA or LCBO don’t carry many of the higher end wines.  However, you can visit the wineries and pickup a case - (i hear) it’s a beautiful area out there.  I’m guilty of not visiting.
For items with longer lifespans, like a table, or clothing (for some), the pollution from shipping can be spread out over the lifespan of the item. So if the table lasts 15 years, or the shirt lasts 5, the pollution can be spread out a bit. While it still makes sense to reduce pollution as much as possible, if you use something for a longer period of time (i.e. less new things you buy) we have less purchases, thus less pollution, less waste, etc.

I’m still going to think about this, but I might shift my wine and beer selections too.