Green and Greenbacks

It’s Earth Day!

Hopefully you can find something to do today that is a little step away from your normal routine, but yet gets the collective organic community on this planet a little step closer to a longer existence. Further, hopefully your slightly more green activity today is something you will repeat tomorrow, and the next day, and…

There are many ideas I keep close to my conscious in the name of the environment, but also in the name of economics. Luckily, there are a number of things you can do that benefit both your planet--and your piggy bank. These are “win-win”s to use that hackneyed business phrase. Like what, Scotsman? Well, let’s be a nasty judgemental type for a single blog and step through the day of someone I know to see how many areas crop up that fit this economically minded environmentalist’s ideal.

Let’s call this person Megan...
Megan arises today, and just like every other day she immediately turns on all the lights and television, often two televisions, just in case she’s in either room as she prepares for the day. The lights all on, aren’t a matter of illumination, as 2 of the 6 lights saturate the rooms she’s in with light...it’s a matter of them being there to be used.

Megan enjoys a long shower (can’t fault a person for staying clean), but this is shower number 2 in 12 hours. 20 minute showers both before and after sleep seem a bit redundant, and use quite a lot of water. More on this later. To cap it off, Megan is an obsessively clean person, and spends 5 minutes washing the shower tub down after a shower…with the shower running. So, Megan has now “showered” for 50 minutes each day.

After drying off, Megan throws on some sweats and heads outside to start her car. She’ll be leaving in 15-20 minutes after all, and it’s under 70 degrees F inside her vehicle, so of course she’s got to let it get warmed up. And I must admit, Megan should let her car warm up, for the manner in which she drives – full on gas, or full on brakes requires the car be in top operation to handle her driving “style”. That Megan’s car is in the repair shop often shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Megan then heads for the fridge, looking for breakfast material. She finds a bunch of things that she purchased, but then didn’t make a plan to eat, so they are thrown out. Megan has not just returned from a trip to Mozambique. She simply bought a bunch more food than she could possibly consume in the period between purchase and being inedible.

Megan makes a quick breakfast, and then puts the dishes in the dishwasher. Again, being the obsessively clean person that she is, she notices that the dishwasher is, to her eyes, “full”, and starts the dishwasher to run for a full regular cycle with the energy blasting heated dry option. The dishwasher truly isn’t full of course, and could go days longer until truly having the space within consumed by dirty dishes.

Megan continues to prepare, running the blowdryer up her shirt for 5-10 minutes to warm herself for the day, and then just before heading out, she sets the home thermostat (only one in the house, and not programmable) to be at a nice and toasty 73…in the winter months. This is done so that when she returns from a long day at work, she “doesn’t come home to a cold place”. However, this is Wednesday, and Megan attends a regular gym session Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings after work but before returning home. Therefore, when she does return home after a rigorous workout, the house feels “so hot” to her, and therefore she turns the air conditioning system on for 1.5 hours to cool it down to 68 degrees. Of course, the heat will be turned back on before bedtime so that 73 F (“room temperature” to Megan) can be achieved for sleeping.

Through the evening Megan continues to stay busy, or at least the electric meter thinks so. She’s operating 2 laptops, 2 televisions, and her telephone simultaneously until ending the evening.

But there’s one last thing she must do before bed – Laundry. Of course she dirtied clothes today, both at the office and the gym and they must be washed! So, a load of laundry is started, just as with all days to get those clothes clean again.

Eventually, Megan falls asleep, 100 watt “night light” burning, as well as each outdoor light, “just in case” Actually, the outdoor lights never get turned off, since she needs the light when returning home from a long day, and through the evening for “security”.

Hopefully, you’re not a Megan. However, Megan really does exist..the above wasn’t fiction. Her carbon footprint is larger than Sasquatch's. Therefore, those little steps you can take help. They help both the planet recover from Megan’s excesses, and help distance yourself from Megan, as you become part of Darwin’s survivor group in his theory on survival of the fittest. (Actually, Natrual Selection...read this) Lastly, they help you save money!

Here’s a handy water use website I found in case you want to check your own water pulse. I tried to use for Megan’s context, but the website threw an overload error.

Further, here’s a great list of many things you can do to easily be more green.