April 19 2007
It's easy to be green
15 things you can do to help save the planet
You can barely pick up a tree-killing newspaper or switch on an energy-wasting TV without seeing warnings of global warming—and the floods, droughts and water shortages it could cause if left unabated.
Environmental awareness is in—and everywhere. In Chicago, Mayor Daley kicked off Earth Month on Wednesday. Green Festival, a national eco-conscious expo, will take over McCormick Place this weekend, coinciding with Earth Day on Sunday.
A UN report this year that declared a 90 percent certainty that human activity has caused the rise in global temperatures—mostly because the carbon dioxide we emit through energy use is a chief greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. The publicity surrounding our role in global warming has given the case for green living a boost.
But can greening your lifestyle, which reduces greenhouse gases by a few thousand pounds, make a difference when the U.S. emitted more than 7 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2004, according to the latest EPA figures available?
As 23-year-old Lakeiya Maxwell of Forest Park put it while attending a global warming rally last weekend in Daley Plaza: "I could make the problem a little bit worse, or I could make it a little bit better. If enough people try to make it a little better, then maybe that's something."
Here are 15 ways to do your part.
1. Change your light bulbs
If every Chicago resident replaced one light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of more than 20,000 cars, according to the city's Department of Environment. If every home in the country did the same, it would be like ditching 800,000 cars and would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year, according to Energy Star, a joint program between the EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy. CFLs, which use 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer, cost a few bucks more than regular bulbs but save you $30 in energy costs over each bulb's lifetime, according to Energy Star.
Chicago's Department of Environment is giving out 500,000 free CFLs at aldermanic offices and other locations throughout the city. Call 311 to find out where.
2. Pay your bills online
For every 38,000 bills paid online, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved, according to NACHA—The Electronic Payments Association, a non-profit. Using direct payment also saves a person about $150 annually in stamp and check costs and late fees, NACHA estimates.
Have your employer pay you through direct deposit to further cut back your paper trail.
3. Drive responsibly
Every gallon of gas burned emits 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, so make the most of your tank. Driving aggressively (including braking and accelerating suddenly) wastes gas, and every 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional 20 cents per gallon, according to fueleconomy.gov. Keeping your tires properly inflated reduces fuel use by 3 percent to 4 percent, according to Ford Motor Company's Eco-driving tips. Also, filling your gas tank during cooler times of the day gets the most bang for your buck and prevents fumes from heating up and creating ozone, the EPA advises.
4. Nix the junk mail
The Postal Service delivers 17.8 tons of bulk mail each year, 44 percent of which goes unopened, according to the EPA. Just 22 percent of bulk mail is recycled. To stop the flow, visit the Direct Marketing Association, the largest supplier of mailing lists for commercial advertising, at dmaconsumers.org and get put on the "do not mail" list. It costs $1, but it'll remove your name from the lists for five years.
Also visit optoutprescreen.com, an official Consumer Credit Reporting Industry site, to opt out of receiving credit card and insurance offers. It's free.
5. Maintain your home
Cleaning a dirty air filter, wrapping your hot water heater in an insulation blanket, properly insulating your walls and windows, and caulking and weatherstripping can save a total of 5,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, according to climatecrisis.net, the Web site for "An Inconvenient Truth." Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to withhold another 2,000 pounds of CO2. Buying appliances with the EnergyStar certification and installing a programmable thermostat helps too. You get your reward in lower gas and electric bills.
6. Rethink your laundry
Washing your clothes in cold or warm water instead of hot saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, according to climatecrisis.net. Drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.
You also can make your dry cleaning greener. The Greener Cleaner, which has five locations in the Chicago area (greenercleaner.net), uses a wet cleaning technology on dry-clean-only clothing that it says safely and effectively cleans clothes without traditional chemicals that pollute air and water.
7. Pay for your carbon emissions
You can offset the carbon "footprint" of your car, home and air travel by funding renewable energy projects.
Old Town resident Jenna Rose, 25, made it a New Year's resolution to pay for the carbon she produces in air travel. Through terrapass.com, she calculates how much carbon dioxide she is personally responsible for as a result of her flights, and how much it would cost to offset those emissions through renewable energy. So far she's paid a total of $37 for two domestic trips and one international flight, which will go to buy carbon credits that fund clean energy projects like wind energy farms.
"I'm not willing to give up air travel completely, so this is an interesting way to deal with this issue," said Rose, president and managing editor of afreshsqueeze.com, which advises Chicagoans on green living. "It's a great way to show the government how important a thing it is to the public." In addition to TerraPass, you can try carbonfund.org and gocarbonzero.org.
You also can buy "green tags" directly from companies with renewable energy projects as a way of supporting those projects. Visit green-e.org for a list.
8. Unplug electronics
Cell phone chargers, TVs, DVD players, stereos, microwaves and any other electronics with transformers continue to draw power—even when they're off or not charging anything—as long as they're plugged in. In the U.S., such "phantom electricity" emits about 12 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere a year, according to Conservation International.
9. Recycle
Every other month, roommates Kristina Hahn and Melissa Hertz drive their recycleable trash from their Ukrainian Village apartment to the Chicago Center for Green Technology, one of the city's 15 official recycling drop-off centers.
When they have electronics, like cell phones or batteries, to get rid of, they take them to the Household Chemicals and Computer Recycling Facility at 1150 N. Branch St., where people also are encouraged to dispose of items such as cleaning products. (You also can discard batteries, which are responsible for mercury deposits, at any Walgreens or Chicago Public Library.)
"I know it's a very small thing, but I feel like at least I'm not filling up landfills in my neighborhood," said Hahn, 30.
Visit chicagorecycling.org to find out where and how to recycle. The city's Blue Bag recycling program also is still available for single-family homes and buildings with under four units, and a pilot program to transfer the city to a Blue Cart system will be in effect in seven wards by the end of the summer.
10. Get a water bottle
Americans buy 28 billion single-serving plastic water bottles every year, and 80 percent of those end up in landfills, according to the Container Recycling Institute. Meeting the nation's demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels [Correction: 15 million barrels] of oil annually, enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year, the Earth Policy Institute estimates.
Cut back on the plastic buildup with a reusable water bottle you fill with tap water.
11. Green your baby
It doesn't have to be a choice between plastic diapers that pile up in landfills and cloth diapers that require frequent laundering.
With a product called gDiapers, you snap a flushable insert into the water-resistant liner of cloth "little g" pants, which look like colorful diapers. The company says the only thing that gets soiled is the insert, which you remove and flush down the toilet. A starter kit, which includes two "g pants" and 10 flushables, costs $24.99. Visit gdiapers.com.
12. Ditch your car
Avoiding 10 miles of driving every week would eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year, according to climatecrisis.net. The majority of car trips people make are under 2 miles, so it should be easy to swap driving for a bike or public transit, said Rob Sadowsky, executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, who rides his bike from his Logan Square home to work downtown year-round.
If driving is unavoidable, trading your gas guzzler for a hybrid or more gas-efficient car helps. Aim for a car that gets at least 30 mpg. Or go without your own wheels and use car-sharing services I-Go and Zipcar.
13. Plant trees
Trees help reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that 100 billion metric tons of carbon over the next 50 years could be sequestered through forest preservation, tree planting and improved agricultural management.
You can support tree planting this weekend by helping to mulch some of the thousands of trees that the Grant Park Conservancy and the Chicago Park District have planted in Grant Park over the past few years. Volunteers are meeting at 9 a.m. Saturday at 337 E. Randolph St. in Grant Park. Planting native trees on a smaller scale also helps. Landscaping that shades a home can cut air conditioning use by 50 percent, according to the American Public Power Association.
14. Shop local
Food travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles to get from the farm to your plate, according to D.C.-based research organization Worldwatch Institute, so buying food grown and produced locally saves lots of fuel. Shop at one of Chicago's 25 farmers markets, most of which open in May and June. The city's Office of Special Events has a list.
You also can localize your eating through Community Supported Agriculture, wherein you buy a subscription to a local farm and get a weekly or monthly bounty of produce you pick up at a central location. Visit localharvest.org.
15. Paper or plastic?
Neither! Take a cloth bag with you to the grocery store. Chicago-based reusablebags.com sells them.
There's much debate over paper vs. plastic shopping bags. Plastic requires less energy to produce and uses less space in landfills than paper, while paper is biodegradable and comes from a renewable resource. Bill Schleizer, an associate at the Delta Institute, a Chicago non-profit that develops ideas for sustainable communities, says paper is the lesser evil.
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