Comments sustainablesteve has made

  • Suggestions

    Pick five major problems that need addressing, such as: recycling, energy use, transportation, water, food. Then for each category give the public (say) 10 tips to make a small but immediate impact. For example switching to CFLs, more efficient appliances (with links to said models), etc. These are generally easy and cheap (even if one CFL at a time).

    The public is not entirely lazy but when you're working two jobs, trying to raise a family, pay your taxes, having the time and resources to locate and research energy efficient appliances is difficult. And in many cases the people who's behavior you need to change the most (working to middle class) may not have the money to afford to buy an appliance that pays off over a long time.

    So here's where you can make a difference:

    Many people do not have time to make decisions. Create a web site that for each appliance type lists say three models that are the most energy-efficient in their class. Perhaps they are in three price brackets - basic to expensive. Let people who want to buy one do so with one-click (a la Amazon). Cash in on people's 'laziness'. Buying online with scheduled delivery is easier than trekking around multiple stores to find what you want. Have any mail in rebates on the website for easy access.

    Enlist local volunteers who will install the ordered appliance in many cases (multi family/low income housing) for a low fee (that funds their time/website) and collect the old appliance for a mercy killing. Have manufacturers buy back old appliances?

    Create trade-in programs where lower-income families can trade in old, inefficient appliances for more energy-efficient ones. Garner support from manufacturers (don't they have old models to get rid of?), government agencies, grant money, utilities.

    OPALCO my local utility gives you $50 back after purchasing an $800+ energy-efficient water heater. That's not going to persuade anyone, it's just jam to those who are going to ditch the old appliance anyway. When I had a home in San Diego the electric utility gave me $200 off a new front loading washer and the water utility gave me a $250 rebate. The washer ended up costing me only $200 - less than a conventional one with no rebates.

    Lastly sign up local volunteers to lobby their elected officials on the five categories. We've presented a global warming ordinance to our local county that's winding its way through revisions. It specifies that the county will make a declaration about global climate change then implement many small but cumulatively effective measures: purchasing hybrid vehicles where possible, or vehicles that get at least 35 MPG or better, mandating that all county operations use only CFLs/LEDs where possible, adopting LEED for all new county buildings, measuring the carbon footprint of  the county operations and committing to a 10% reduction per annum.

    You could help by drafting templates for these' lobbying' activities and providing software tools to assist.

    Sustainably,

    SteveOn 7 easy steps to reduce your carbon emissions posted 2 years ago 13 Responses

  • Disappointing?

    David, since you're a staff writer for Grist I'd have hoped for a more considered response to Karsten than your sarcastic reply.

    Karsten made some valid points, and didn't suggest using the TV show to tell people how lazy and spoiled they are. While many of the seven suggestions are worthwhile they are chipping away at the problem and we do need to change our mindset.

    The challenge isn't that Karsten didn't agree that what you are doing is worthwhile - the challenge is how do we change the mindset of people who build McMansions - lit with CFLs even - and drive full size Toyota Tundras and are too lazy or greedy/spoiled to want to make the big changes.

    If everyone in the USA changed to driving a Toyota Prius we'll still run out of oil, just a little later than expected. How do we reopen the debate about public transport? Transit-Oriented Development? Building smaller houses? etc, etc.

    While we are doing that there's still need to do all the little things, but on their own they are just prolonging the day of reckoning.

    SteveOn 7 easy steps to reduce your carbon emissions posted 2 years ago 13 Responses

  • The Wrong Target? Aiming at a different target

    I just don't know where to start! I'm not against big-box stores because they are, or are not, a new phenomen.  I'm also not against them because they offer low prices everyday... I'm against them because of how they offer such low prices and the devastating consequences they have on our environment, and on people the world over.

    WalMart didn't get where it did by just finding sources of cheaper goods. It got to the dominant position by building large, poorly-insulated, over-lit, over-heated, shoddy boxes on cheap agricultural land. And then surrounds them with acres of Pollution Generating Impervious Surfaces (PGIS) also known as parking. The polluted run-off from this then runs into our stormwater/sewer systems.

    It got there by employing illegal immigrants at below minimum wage to do the cleaning. By abusing child labor laws. By paying minimum wage and denying health care to many of its workers, and offloading much of that burden to state healthcare plans. By importing vast numbers of cheap goods made in countries with no labor laws, health laws, or environmental protections. Yes their workers are making money - usually pennies a day - but at what cost to their health and environment?

    While you're one-stop shopping at WalMart - and others - you may save a modest amount of gas in not having to drive to other stores but consider where that store is - often built on agricultural land (prime land where I live) on the fringes of town, usually miles from public transport and sidewalks. How about if Home Depot actually implemented Low Impact Development guidelines on their car parks? Collected the rainwater from their roofs and used it to water their plants in their nurseries? Installed solar panels to offset some of their energy consumption? Built their structures on a human scale? Did some restorative landscaping? Cared about anything other than the next stockholders meeting? Yes in aggregate Home Depot sells the most FSC-certiified lumber but that's only because they have so many stores, most of which however do not stock FSC lumber on a regular basis. They're also selling it as a result of competition from local lumberyards (especially here in the Puget Sound area).

    Dan boasts that WalMart has responded to public pressure by announcing recent environmental initiatives and offering health care. If the green plans do go ahead - and aren't just green washing - then it's a start. I'm more pessimistic about the health care - while the monthly cost is reasonable, the $1000 deductible is a major cost to someone earning just $16,000 per year. (Whereas Costco - against the wishes of financial advisors everywhere offers decent healthcare to all employees - and much better salaries too.)

    Dan does make a valid point in that most shopping clubs do not offer grocery bags and cut down on packaging. This is good but let's not forget that this is to save them money, not the environment.

    My biggest beef is with that oft repeated myth of economics - is that the cost savings we enjoy mean that we have more money to spend - and Dan suggests that we spend it on our favorite green cause. A recently released study has confirmed what many of us have feared - companies like WalMart not only drive down the salaries of their own serfs (aka associates) but local prevailing wages too. (Witness the Calif. grocery store strike.) Of course if you are in upper-middle to upper-class this may not affect you, but then you may not shop at WalMart anyway. But if we did shop there, and saved up the dollars that we save, could we offset the damage these stores cause? I really don't think so - best we might do is salvage a little bit of our conscience.On Could chain stores actually be good for the environment? posted 4 years ago 19 Responses