Welcome to the Energy Conservation Blog
This blog is dedicated to sharing ideas about energy conservation, energy renewables, and saving money while doing the right thing for the environment. I am not of the radical left variety of environmentalist but I am primarily interested in living efficiently and minimizing waste. I try to look at the world like I teach my 7yr old daughter to look at a campground. We want to leave it the same way we found it.
I plan to post different ideas and methods that will save you money by reducing your utility bills while minimizing your carbon footprint at the same time. That’s what our company mission is and that is what I believe.
I’ve always been a passive environmentalist doing the easy things: recycling almost everything, shying away from fast food (creates huge amount of garbage every meal besides tasting like crap), and shying away from things like paper plates and disposable utensils. However, now I’ve started a business in the field, I’ve been trying hard to take it to the next level. Here are a couple of simple things that I’ve implemented with various degrees of success in recent months:
I live in Atlanta and our water is safe but it just tastes like crap. The chlorine is really strong so it’s just hard to drink. I have purchased a couple different filtration systems with various degrees of success. I considered buying a water dispenser but it’s just yet another monthly cost. Then my girlfriend Kim started boiling water and putting it in the fridge. HARK! Now we just boil a couple big pots of water every couple days and fill all of our containers. Very easy solution that doesn’t cost a nickel. Well done Kim.
Along those same lines, when we go to a job to do an energy audit or solar water heater install, my co-workers and I take a canteen of cold water in a cooler. There’s no sense paying a buck a bottle for filtered water. It’s expensive and it’s packaged in a petroleum product – a plastic bottle. Save your money and buy a couple canteens. I purchased one at the Army Navy store on Peachtree Street for $2.50.
An important way to decrease our negative impact to the environment is to buy locally grown food. I have been shopping at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market for years and always felt like I was buying local because it’s a “farmer’s market”. However, a friend of mine who lives out in the country pointed out to me that the Dekalb Farmer’s Market has fruits and vegetables from all over the world and it’s not truly a local farmer’s market. This hurt my feelings but I found that he was right. The fruits and veggies say where they’re from right on the sign – Peru, Columbia, California, you name it. That means the product was shipped, driven, or flown a helluva long way to get to my plate.
I don’t know what I was thinking when I was buying corn on the cob in December but my eyes are now open. Now I’m trying to buy locally grown food and I haven’t had any corn on the cob since last summer (except at Eats on Ponce) and man, I miss it bad.
Needless to say, like most of us, I am learning better ways to live more efficiently every day. I really want your input and your ideas on inexpensive ways to live a more sustainable lifestyle. I’m open-minded and value your input. Share your knowledge liberally.
