How Green Are CPers?

[mykalberta]

>15K Km/Year on Car
Walk to work 5 days/week
Only drive on weekdays when required to by work (bus home and drive from there)
Drive compact car.
Own condo

MYK

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by Lanny_MacDonald

For Arizona, we're pretty green. We have a "low e" house and are moving into an even more efficient dwelling as soon as construction is finished. There are things that we would like to improve upon (recycling, automobiles, etc.) but Arizona does not have any programs that allow for many of these things. We do what we can, but its hard to be a tree hugger when all your trees look like this.

Saguaros are cooler than tree's. Where was that picture taken?

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I'm green based on convienience.... if it's easy for me to do i'll do it.

- As such I pay for a private curbside recycling service. I recycle things like plastics and cans now that I didn't before.
- I ride my bike / walk 5 km round trip in total to work. Huge gas savings here. Chalk one up for living inner city. I drive no more than 10,000 km a year, and most of that is for vacation.
- Dual flush toilet.
- CFL's everywhere possible.
- New high efficiency furnace...too bad the place is 26 yrs old and in dire need of more insulation... code in the 80's sucked....Furnance on programmable thermostat.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Interesting thread.

I can't live in the inner city....I have kids and I don't want them growing up around the crack houses and heroin addicts I see every day that I work there. Selfish I guess.

I drive a LOT. Why? Because my family lives far away and I feel the need to see them once in a while. Driving is cheaper than flying when you are talking about taking 4 people 1200+ miles from a city with a mid-size airport to one of the smallest international airports in the world. Selfish I guess.

Speaking of driving, I have a SUV. It's a small one though and gets pretty darn good mileage. A lot better than the V-8 F-150 I replaced with it. When you have a family a tiny car isn't really practical, especially with teenagers. Selfish I guess, but that's the way it is for me. I could've bought a hybrid version of the SUV I got (you can probably guess the model now) but I didn't feel that spending an extra $12000 US to get it was very smart.

I harp on my kids about leaving lights and stuff on when they are not in use. They just don't get it, so it's either beat them into submission or turn them off myself. I choose the latter...and that is not selfish AT ALL. We use windows instead of the AC as much as possible, but when it's 95 and 95 out, it just doesn't work. I put my family through 5 years of living in this hell hole with nothing more than a window unit. I'm not going to make them suffer through that again. We don't use it as much as most people around here do though.

I use CFL's everywhere.

I belong to an organization that actually DOES something about the environment instead of just complaining about it like so many others.

http://www.rmef.org/

I do find that people who have gone green (and it's great for them) tend to be elitists and have no concept of a life that differs from their own in any way. For example, I was once chastised for driving to work by someone on this site (no idea who...long time ago). He couldn't comprehend that I live 10 miles from work...and that it wasn't really a nice place to live to move close enough to walk/ride. People need to be understanding of others situations before judging them. This attitude was shown so well in the South Park episode about the hybrids and where Kyle and his family moved to San Francisco to be with 'like minded' people. Great episode and so true.

No one loves nature more than me, of that you can be sure.

[FireFly]

Apartment living in this city sucks when it comes to being able to recycle. I have no options for a recycling box and I don't drive so it's hard for me to get my recycling to a depot. I do however try to do what I can... All my light bulbs are low energy (though for some reason my electricity bill doesn't reflect that,) and I do recycle my drink containers. My toilet is low flow and my shower is not. I actually waste a lot of water showering, and that's maybe something I should work on... I walk and take transit so I'm good there, and one thing I've tried to do to help keep my trash down is flushing tissue. maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't, but IMO, it'll degrate faster if it's wet... I wish there was more I could do, but it's hard when I live in a building I don't own... I'm not going to change their windows for them!

[Flame On]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

-Greenmax
-Drive a car that pulls about 9.5L/100km, but drive way too much. About 22,000km/year... so probably average out there.
-Live in a small place so power and gas consumption are very low
-As bulbs burn out I'm moving to CFL
-Recycle some things, don't have the storage to do it all though

I'm a bit like Hulk although I've yet to do the whole greenmax thing.
Probably will move to that.

[Dion]

I'm a green guy myself.

Hired a local recycling company to come pick up my stuff. I take my milk jugs down to the recycle bins by the rec centre.

I drive a 2005 Ford Escape which is a small SUV. Did compare with mid sized sedans and found the gas milage to be just as good with my SUV. I also live in a small town so I have don't have to drive great distances to get anything, that is unless I make a trip to Calgary.

If in Calgary and I need to make a trip downtown I use the LRT.

I also put out 1 bag of garbage evey two weeks.

House has energy efficiant windows.

Toliets and showers are not low flow. Tend to take long showers - something I should work on.

I also put out 1 bag of garbage every 2 weeks.

[J pold]

I will say I am not nearly green enough.

It’s a real shame there isn’t a lot of excuses, if I had more assets I would invest in being more “green” but being in the position I am in I just don’t have the income to make the appropriate changes

[4X4]

Hmmm... I recycle all my cans and I take the cardboard boxes to teh green box at RONA. I drive them there in a 4.3l V6 4x4.

If its any consolation, my truck is green...


I try to minimize my footprint though. No littering and often cleaning up after others (especially in the woods)

[Sylvanfan]

I recycle most stuff that I can, compost, newspaper, cardboard, tin cans, milk jugs, aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles. I also use environmentally friendly soaps that are from all biodegrable stuff. We've stopped cleaning with traditional chemicals in a lot of cases and have gone to diluted vinegar solutions and microfibre cloths. We have low flow toilets and shower heads, and have switched to CFL's everywhere that we can in the house.

We do have a SUV, but between my wife and I we drive less than 25,000km per year and we did buy what I thought was the most efficient vehichle for the power/needs that we had. There is more that I can do, and I'm possilby building my next house. I'll look to install a high efficiency furnace, low e windows, and a hot water on demand system. Also I'll make sure all my appliances are EnerG star.

[moon]

My wife likes us to recycle so when she is around I recycle newspaper, plastics, cardboard and metal cans. Whne she isn't I will often just throw it out if it seems like a pain to take to the bins. But I probably end up recycling at least 75% of stuff.

I own an SUV and drive a lot. Trips up to Calgary and back at least once a month if not more. We own a fuel efficient second vehicle but don't really drive it much. We got it for monetary reasons not for environmental.

My wife is big on recycling so I guess that is my big contribution to the environment, otherwise I don't think about making choices based on it at all.

[Ford Prefect]

It sounds like most people are doing a little bit, which I think is a huge improvement from about 15 years ago. I was somewhat more involved with environmental issues in the early 1990s, and at that time hardly anyone was recycling, composting, using energy efficient appliances, etc. Things seem to have come a long way. I've always felt that if everyone did a little bit, we could achieve a great deal of improvement, and I'm optimistic that this might be starting to happen. It needs to be easier to be green, and make more dollar sense as well, which is where our elected officials have a role to play, whether at the municipal, provincial or federal level. People need rewards/inducements to adopt green practices. It would be nice if more would take the initiative on their own, but that's not realistic, so we need to start telling our politicians to develop more programs that foster green consumerism.

[icarus]

The more pressing question is: How Green Were The Nazis?

http://www.amazon.com/How-Green-Were.../dp/0821416464

The things people find to write books about.

[Scrambler]

I'm fairly green, I:

Bike or take the SkyTrain to work
recycle paper and cardboard
take my grocery bags back to the store when 6I buy groceries
turn down bags when possible at checkstands
don't leave the tap running when I brushing teeth or shaving
never take a shower longer than 5 mins
never start a load of dishes unless the machine is full
never do a load of laundry until the hamper is full
always do laudry using cold wash
Recycle bottles/cans/etc.

All fairly minor things but I guess it all ads up

[habernac]

My wife and I sold our second car over a year ago. I ride my bike to work or take the bus. Clocked in over 4000km last year cycling in. Keeps me in ok shape as well. The only time I drive to work is if I need the tires rotated, I drop it off and bike the rest of the way in. We recycle everything down to the smallest scrap of paper. We get Recycle Blue to pick up the hard plastic stuff. Our house is in need of some work to make it more energy efficient, the basement especially. We're getting a composter this year as we now actually have a yard.

I still drive too much as I play hockey a few times a week and play in an eight ball league as well. I am going to try shopping with the bike and a bike trailer this year and see how that goes.

It surprises me how nonchalant most people are. It's easy to sort this stuff, get a few bins and spend an extra 15 minutes a week. Why throw the away when you can either get a few bucks for it (beer/pop cans and bottles) or ensure that it at least gets a shot at getting re-used? I don't want my kid growing up in a landfill.

[Shazam]

I recycle with Residential Recycling.
Almost all lights in the house are CFL or Halogen.
I've been reinsulating the basement with XPS, Roxul and spray foam.
Low flow water everything, as required by code in new houses.
Cellular blinds where I can.
On a water meter.
Usual trash output per week is 1 55L bag.
80/20 power supply in my desktop machine.
Front load washer/dryer.
Foil taped/siliconed the furnace and all reachable ducts.
I used to turn the heat down in the house to 62F via programmable thermostat when me and my wife both worked away from home.
Storm door on north facing entrance.
Both cars > 30 mpg.
I mostly work from home now, so very little gas usage. Maybe $100 gas/month tops now.
Planted nine trees and numerous other bushes and perennials. Minimized lawn area.

Using CFL/Halogen bulbs knocked about $10/month off my electricity bill.
Reinsulating the house seemed to have reduced my gas bill a bit, but I'll have to get a few more bills to know for sure.
Front load washer knocked $20/month off my water bill (!)
Sealing air leaks on furnace and ducts seemed to have made a big difference in terms of heating up the house quicker.
I'm getting killed on electricity right now because of all the baby clothes we're drying, but I recently removed the flexible ducting with rigid on the dryer, and that seemed to have cut the drying cycle by 20-30 minutes.

Probably the thing I feel worst about is using the massive pollutant that is my gas lawn mower.

[disco_inferno]

i drive a big dodge ram with a confederate flag on the front license plate (the general lee), im going to be a mining engineer, and i love doing huge burnouts, i leave my lights and stereo sometimes, and my windows open pretty much all winter.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by disco_inferno

i drive a big dodge ram with a confederate flag on the front license plate (the general lee), im going to be a mining engineer, and i love doing huge burnouts, i leave my lights and stereo sometimes, and my windows open pretty much all winter.

The General Lee's flag was painted on the roof. Putting a novelty license plate on is for posers.

[Resolute 14]

Not very green, to be honest, especially since I think Kyoto is a waste of paper. - ironically, that would make it the waste of a resource.

I do try to recycle some, and have been pestering my company to add a cardboard recycling container. I also make it a point to pick up at least one piece of trash and garbage it whenever I am out for a walk.

Otherwise I just let the bums who rifle through dumpsters have my empty pop bottles.

[FlamesAddiction]

I think I'm pretty green.

1. I recycle everything I can. Heck, I used load up my backpacks and catch the bus to the depot when I didn't have the curbside service.
2. I re-use plastic wrap, baggies, and foil.
3. I'm a paying member of the Green Party.
3. I'm an Enviromental Consultant and am involved in numerous remediation projects.
4. I have been involved in volunteer stream restoration and plant recovery projects, and am a member of a volunteer stewardship group.