Tesla Model 3 Electric Car

I have been eagerly anticipating the release of Tesla's "mass-market" sedan, the Model 3.  It is slated to start around $35,000 and most are expected to sell in the $40,000-$50,000 range including upgrades.  That compares very favorably to the approximately $100,000 range that the current Tesla models sell for.  Electric cars are definitely the future, given that fossil fuels are a limited, nonrenewable resource.

The car is very attractive, sleek and impressive, like the rest of the Tesla line.  The performance is definitely going to be lower than the current Model S, but it is expected that the battery should last 200 miles per charge, which is awesome.  Speed and performance will likely be good as well.  If you haven't already put in your pre-order, then you probably won't be getting one of these until 2018, unless you buy off the gray market!

Use Natural Lighting and "Air Conditioning"

This is part of my series: 20 Ways to Go Green that Make a Difference. This series discusses practical ways we can go green in our lives, that will have a measurable effect on the environment.  This is an alternative to the many lists that offer 100+ suggestions, many of which are not easily applied to our lives or the impact is minimal. 

The summer is coming, and that means long days and hot weather.  For many people this means high bills from central air conditioning.  This is one of the most wasteful and unnecessary creature comforts that human society has.  While it is comfortable and pleasant, there are plenty of ways that we can mitigate the environmental waste and damage caused by these creature comforts.

Since summer is coming, the days are going to be much longer.  This means that we will not need to waste as much electricity on lighting, since days are going to last longer.  It is important to harness as much natural light in both office and residential settings.  Large, well placed windows will allow us to bath in the radiance of the sun, and avoid wasting electricity for artificial lighting.  This is fairly straight-forward, but the design of many buildings does not effectively take advantage of the free solar lighting offered.  To make this change, demand windows and natural lighting.  Also, if you have it available to you, make sure to take advantage of it, and consciously turn off lights if they can be avoided.  Furthermore, get out and enjoy the sun, especially for those of us who live in the northern part of the country, take advantage of long summer days and get outside in the evenings rather than watching TV indoors.  Have a bar-be-que, play sports, or just lounge outside with a book.  Free lighting everywhere!  I also try to take advantage of this in the winter, by going to bed earlier, so I do not need to waste electricity at night.  Candles are great, especially before bed!

As far as natural "air conditioning" this is a bit more difficult.  Obviously, everyone loves the cool comfort provided by central air and fans, but do we really need it?  No, humans are well adapted to warmth, and we sweat out all of our excess heat.  Instead of using a fan or the air conditioner, open up the windows!   This goes for both the car and the house.  No need to waste gasoline by using your air conditioner, just slow down and roll down those windows and drink in the breeze.  Although there is a chance that pests may get in your house, its not much of a bother, just get a screen!  If it gets unbearably hot, try to use low levels of air conditioning, rather than cranking it up to the highest setting.  Most of the time, you just need a little bit of conditioning rather than the frigid cold in the middle of July!

Volunteer

 This is part of my series: 20 Ways to Go Green that Make a Difference. This series discusses practical ways we can go green in our lives, that will have a measurable effect on the environment.  This is an alternative to the many lists that offer 100+ suggestions, many of which are not easily applied to our lives or the impact is minimal. 

One of the most green things that you can do is to volunteer.  Many of the things you can volunteer to do, such as clean up the local parks or just the city where you live will make a meaningful impact.  Or you can choose to help others.  During the time that you are volunteering, you will not be using electricity to watch video games or driving to the mall to buy goods made halfway around the world.  Even if the activity you are doing is green neutral, you will still be making a huge difference in someone's life.

There are so many different ways to volunteer.  Every year on Thanksgiving my family volunteers at a local homeless shelter.  We get together to serve the homeless a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  Instead of sitting at home, with the heat on, television on the football games and all of the accompanying environmental damage, we are out in our community, interacting with the downtrodden.  It feels absolutely great to give up a couple of hours of your time for a good cause.

There are many other activities that you could volunteer in if you would rather be outside, volunteer with the local parks department.  I am sure they would be willing to have a helping hand clean up one of the local parks.  This helps to keep our green places fully natural and avoids disturbing the local ecosystem as much as possible.  In addition, you get a chance to be outside, enjoying making a beautiful place more beautiful.

Even if you are simply volunteering your money, by donating, make sure to donate to a good cause.  There are many causes that help the sick, hungry, and downtrodden.  Also money can be donated to keeping the outdoors clean.  Volunteering your riches can help to facilitate others to take up the cause, even if you do not have the time to do it yourself.

The most important point is that this does good in a world filled with cruel people.  This series is all about making a difference, and there is no better way to make a difference than to volunteer to help others or the planet.  Even if the volunteering you are doing has no environmental effect, it is likely that you are at least not doing anything negative, environmentally speaking!

Go Green: Beer Growlers

As anyone who reads my other blog, A Terrific Life, knows that I love beer.  Specifically, good, local craft beer.  The beer brewing process uses an unfortunately large amount of resources, specifically water, grains, and electricity.  The beer must then be stored while it ferments, and then packaged and shipped to the consumer.  Then the cans or bottles are often discarded or thrown in the trash, rather than recycled.

Growlers present a great alternative that will hopefully limit the environmental impact of the packaging and distributing activities involved in beer.  Growlers are large jugs, often 32 or 64 ounces, that can be filled directly from the tanks or kegs and sold directly to customers.  This cuts out the distributor, since consumers can buy the beer directly from the brewery.  Also, there will not be electricity wasted on packaging, storing, and shipping the cans or bottles that are traditionally used in the beer market.  In addition, the nature of a growler means that you will be getting fresher beer, often from a local brewery.  This is important, because beer tastes better the fresher it is, and there is not as much energy wasted in storage between the time produced and ultimately consumed.  Finally, supporting local businesses is something we always encourage.

Another point that I like about growlers is the higher bottle deposit. This is something that I have advocated in the past and stand by firmly.  Many people who do not recycle, would, if it was in their own selfish best interest to do so.  This can be accomplished by raising recycling deposit limits.  People will have to shell out extra money for the container when purchasing, and then be refunded upon return.  Growlers are large containers, and I am sure expensive to buy, so they charge $1.50-$5 bottle deposits.  Of course, once you pay it once, you can re-use the growler or bring it back and exchange it at the brewery for a new one. 

Selling growlers makes good business and environmental sense, as the middle-man distributors are cut out, and there is less waste as a result of packaging beer into 6-36 packs of bottles and cans, and the recquisite packaging for individual retail and wholesale cases.  Of course growlers can not serve every single consumers needs, but using them more, as well as increasing bottle deposits on smaller vessels will help to lower the environmental impact of one of my favorite beverages.

Drink Craft Beer!

Green NCAA March Madness

The play-in games, or Round 1, as the NCAA is trying to push, are upon us.  The NCAA March Madness tournament is one of the biggest sporting events of the year, after the Super Bowl.  It may seem like an odd time to think about the environment or going green, but I consider it a reminder and a prompt for us to reconsider and evaluate how we think about our impact on the world.  Also, it s a time where many often host parties or gatherings, which can result in a large amount of unintended and ultimately unnecessary waste.

Let me preface by saying that I am a huge fan of the game of basketball, and although I prefer the NBA, and my beloved Boston Celtics, I still am a fan of the college game as well.  The desperation that is brought out by a single elimination tournament cannot be matched in professional sports other than in championship situations.  Let's take a look at some of the points I thought were important regarding the green aspect of March Madness.

First of all, there is the electricity consumed while people make up their brackets, watch games on the television or computer, and even stream them through their mobile devices.  Granted, this would probably occur normally anyways, but I think it is always important to be conscious of when we are using energy.  There are often parties or gatherings to get together to watch games.  This is one of the positive aspects of a group event like this, a single television can be shared by many, not to mention the great times had by sharing the experience of an underdog taking out a heavy favorite.

Where there are parties gathered to watch sports, there is likely to be food and alcohol, whether at a house or restaurant.  The host of the party may ask guests to bring specific items, such as appetizers, drinks, or an entree.  This will help to limit the amount of excess waste that is produced.  My recommendation to improve on this is to have the host provide all the food for the event, and charge a small fee.  This will allow the green-conscious party to provide just enough food for the amount of people expected, and in addition, there will not be the waste by-products from all the packaging material that guests would inevitably bring if left to their own devices.  As always, a focus on local foods is a positive idea.

If you are going to drink beers, consider drinking locally brewed craft beer, in a can or growler if you can find it!

There is going to be a ton of garbage and mess after the party, make sure to take care and dispose of it all properly.  Recycle as needed.  You can have the guests all do their part before they leave, especially as they are all aware that your party is a green one.  Before, during or after the games consider getting outside and actually playing basketball.  It is a great, fun way to excercise with no effect on the environment!

Enjoy the tournament and go Michigan State Spartans!!!

Hartford, CT Power Outage

The recent power outage in the Hartford, CT/New England area was a hard and unexpected look into what our society would be like without the abundance of energy we use on a daily basis.  Almost all facets of life were affected, from work, entertainment, and education to our more basic needs such as food, warmth, transportation, and hygiene.  all of these things require natural resources, and our society has been optimized to run on affordable resources.

Several situations made me think how important it is to develop strategies and prepare for when resources become more scarce.  Immense lines at the gas station and lack of quality foods on the few grocery stores that were open are two such examples.  Taking steps to limit their use now will help give us more time to solve these issues.  Finding robust sources of renewable energy should be a key goal of corporations and governments.

 

People were completely shocked and in many instances crippled by the lack of power and the flaws of the distribution system which I believe wastes resources and keeps minimal stock on hand, so essentials are gobbled up rapidly.  I am aware that people have become used to modern conveniences and I am not suggesting that we take a step back in technology, because thats not practical.  

I am simply saying that we take advantage of this as we have been prompted pretty harshly.

PS: I hope all readers are well and no one suffered extensive damage to body or property!

Conserve Water in Everyday Situations

 This is part of my series: 20 Ways to Go Green that Make a Difference. This series discusses practical ways we can go green in our lives, that will have a measurable effect on the environment.  This is an alternative to the many lists that offer 100+ suggestions, many of which are not easily applied to our lives or the impact is minimal.

Conservation of resources is one of the tenets of going green.  Society has made possible many luxuries that are quite affordable, but can have far-reaching costs for the environment and our future.  Running water is taken for granted by many, as it is nearly universal and affordable.  However, wasting this water is not green and should be avoided, no matter what.  Some of the earlier tips including running full loads will save both electricity and water.

 One simple way that I try to employ and think will be incredibly easy to implement in your lives is taking shorter and less frequent showers.  I am not advocating any stop bathing completely and become a dirty hippy, but certainly there are ways to shorten your showers so you can save valuable water.  Showers use gallons and gallons of water, and at minimum 25% of the water used is probably wasted.  There are water conserving shower-heads available as well, for those who want to take the next step.

Another pet peeve of mine is when people leave the water running while brushing their teeth.  This is completely unnecessary and pure laziness.  Simply turn of the water while you are brushing, and turn it on and off to rinse off.  This also applies to washing dishes by hand, turn off the stream while you are scrubbing!

I truly believe that water will and should become much more expensive in the next years.  Whether this is from a "green tax" imposed by governments, which would go to providing for other green pursuits, or if it is due to dwindling resources.  Like the bottle deposit, there should be a high cost for wasting water, which will cause people to reconsider their water usage.  Punishment, especially financial, works a lot better than rewards.  The people who decide to continue wasting should suffer a much larger penalty and some of those dollars diverted to other ways of going green.

Do not Run Partial Loads in Dishwasher/Laundry

  This is part of my series: 20 Ways to Go Green that Make a Difference. This series discusses practical ways we can go green in our lives, that will have a measurable effect on the environment.  This is an alternative to the many lists that offer 100+ suggestions, many of which are not easily applied to our lives or the impact is minimal.

Of course it is probably more green to wash your clothes and dishes by hand, but with modern green technology, the difference is fairly minimal. Also, this series is seeking to provide practical ways to go green that will actually have results. In the words of some economist, "the low hanging fruit."

This tip follows the same thought process as driving less. Strive to get the maximum utility out of the energy we use. In the case of driving you don't take a trip for each errand, instead wait until you have a number of stops to make and hit them all at once. In this case, when you have dirty dishes or laundry wait until you have a full load to run the washing machine.

These machines are designed to run with full loads, and are more efficient this way. Waiting for a full load will conserve water, electricity and cleaning soap in one fell swoop.

Don't wear your clothes just a single time. Often they aren't dirty yet, and can be worn a couple more times. The less often you wash a piece of clothing, the longer it lasts. Also there is more $ in your pocket from spending less on energy and using cleaning soap slower.

For dishes, wash off sticky sauces by hand before putting in the dishwasher, so you don't have to wash again after the cycle. Also feel free to wash by hand if you have time, but make sure to shut the water off while scrubbing.

A final step is to not overuse soap. It is bad for the machine and will cause it to break down earlier. Also you will conserve more soap. Consider eco-friendly soap options if your budget can afford it.

Turn Off the Lights

 This is part of my series: 20 Ways to Go Green that Make a Difference. This series discusses practical ways we can go green in our lives, that will have a measurable effect on the environment.  This is an alternative to the many lists that offer 100+ suggestions, many of which are not easily applied to our lives or the impact is minimal.

We have already touched upon conserving gas when driving and we all know that we should reuse and repurpose old clothes and furniture.  Another aspect of our life that we can improve our green footprint is electricity consumption.  The easiest and most effective is to shut off the lights!

When you are done in the room, shut the lights off.  Leaving them on wastes electricity and causes more pollution by needing to produce more.  You do not need the lights on downstairs if you are upstairs, so shut them off.  This applies to other electronics, such as TVs, video games, computers, and even microwaves, just shut them off once you are finished using them.  Some people advocate unplugging them completely to save a tiny bit more energy, but not here on this list.  I am trying to offer and promote tips that are practical to implement but will actually provide results.

Another tip is to use energy conserving light bulbs and appliances, which I totally support.  Although, I believe you should use the items you already have before buying new ones.  Even for green products, there is a cost to producing each of these units, so finish using the items you have, and when it's time to replace them, consider the environmentally friendly options.

A final trick that I learned from my father is to automate the shutting off procedure for appliances.  Lights outside, inside, heating, and fans can all be set on timers instead of switches.  If you are handy, which is definitely green, then go ahead and still these timers yourself!  At my parents house we had the bathroom/shower fan set to a maximum of 20 minutes, then it would shut off automatically.  If you are taking longer than 20 minutes in the shower, that is not green!