Conservative estimates rank computer usage right up there with the airline industry for its harmful effect on the atmosphere, making it responsible for up to 2% of the total problem. To put your mind at ease, that doesn’t mean your household PC is all that nasty. That figure includes all the industrial server farms, government supercomputers, and college networks. Unfortunately, there are a lot more of them than you might think. Even your average grocery store has a server room somewhere in it to run the “back office” (accounts receivable and inventory control) and “front office” (cash registers and checkout system) components of its operation.

So how much damage does your average PC do? Running one 8 hours per day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year will use 400 kilowatt hours or 180,800 grams of carbon dioxide (452 grams – just shy of a pound – per hour X 2,000 hours). That sounds like a lot but when you consider that a home PC accounts for less than ten percent of the average home’s energy bill (according to MR. Electricty AKA Michael Bluejay of Michaelbluejay.com) it’s not that big of a number in the overall picture. Your water heater, furnace, and refrigerator are much bigger carbon offenders.

But as my mother always used to say “every little bit helps.” So here are some ways to go greener and keep your high-speed digital lifestyle to which you’ve become accustomed.

1.  Use the power management tools your PC manufacturer gave you!
   All modern PCs come with the ability to regulate their own power use. You can easily set your computer to enter a reduced consumption mode (sometimes called sleep or hibernation) and even power itself down completely if it remains idle for a certain length of time.
2. Unplug your machine.
   Even when it’s off, your PC uses about a Watt per hour. This is what’s known as phantom draw. The only way to cancel this out is to unplug the machine entirely.
3. Plan your day with the planet in mind.
   When you think about it, there’s really no reason to leave your PC on all the time while you’re in the other room, outside, or otherwise engaged. Also, consider doing everything you need to do once as starting up and shutting down your PC repeatedly consumes more energy than just letting it idle.
4. Avoid the next best thing.
   PCs seem to age quicker than Dorian Gray. If you buy one that’s top of the line in December and it’s outdated by July. However, resist the temptation to buy a whole new system. Manufacturing a PC is an extremely carbon intensive task. Not only that, PCs contain all sorts of toxic waste, heavy metals, and other harmful materials that we don’t need more of in landfills. When you need to upgrade, consider upgrading piecemeal, it will save you money and the environment a headache.
5. Shop smartly!
   A large number of PC manufacturers have begun to build earth friendly (or at least friendlier) computers in response to the consumer desire for products that are better for our planet. One of the first was Dell. Believe it or not, they have a whole line of Eco-Friendly computer Accessories, some of which are made with up to 70% recycled materials, contain fewer heavy metals and some, like this PC, whose cases are made out of sustainable bamboo!

Lastly, when it comes time to get rid of your old computer, think green. Does your computer still work? Could a local non-profit or school organization use your computer (or parts from your computer)? Do you have a charity-based resale shop in your area such as a Goodwill Industries retail store? Do you have anyone in your family (a young child or an older adult just learning the ropes of the computing world) that could use your old PC? Why not give your PC a second life?

One important note: when giving/selling any PC it’s best to thoroughly destroy all personal data on that computer. “Deleting” it isn’t enough. There are free software programs available that will completely overwrite any data on your hard drive, rendering your machine a blank slate, and safeguarding any potentially harmful information you wouldn’t want anyone to have. See Killdisk.com for one such example.

When your PC is broken and finally “useless” don’t just throw it away. Ecycle your old machine. Many manufacturers offer free recycling services for machines purchased through them. Your local recycling center may also have electronics recycling services available. Recently, Staples has announced that it will recycle unwanted electronics (though not TVs) for free at any of their retail outlets across the country. See Gcycle.org for more recycling options for all of your technological gadgetry!

Be smart about your used electronics, they’re not just trash.

Related articles

• Managing E-Waste: Battery and Computer Recycling (everydayhealth.com)
• Computing Your Karma: Recycling Your PC (chicagoist.com)
• Take It To The Computer Recycling Center (thinkoutsidethebin.com)

What are you supposed to do with that packaging besides send it to some unsuspecting sucker that you ship something to?  Not that reusing is a bad option, but wouldn’t it be better to not have it at all?  Yes.  Remember the order: reduce, reuse, recycle.  When possible, reduce or remove the consumption altogether.

This new cardboard packaging conforms to virtually any shape to reduce or eliminate the filler inside.  As Inhabitat reports, this could really save on shipping because of all the saved space.  That being said, consideration should be made for the efficiency of storing square shapes and the potential for zero wasted space (if you don’t count the wasted space inside the box).  However, if a square package is needed, the material can be folded into square or rectangle shapes.

The packing is comprised of triangle perforations which allows it to flex to various shapes without compromising strength.  In fact, triangles are stronger than squares and rectangles so without definitive strength studies, it could be predicted this packaging is even stronger than a cardboard box.

The packaging system, designed by Patrick Sung, is called UPACS or Universal Packaging System.  No, it has nothing to do with the existing shipping company UPS.  I love this green innovation because it takes an existing consumption standard and turns it on its head.  Plus it’s an easy way to change waste without changing behavior.

Source

It’s that time of year.  The temperature is dropping and I woke up to snow flying through the air.  Although Halloween isn’t typically thought of as a winter prep day, I am taking some steps to tighten up my home right before carving some pumpkins.

These tips are from various sources and will help almost any homeowner save on utility bills and carbon emissions this winter.

1. Get a draft dodger for doors
2. Change the furnace filter
3. Remove that window AC unit
4. Switch your ceiling fans to run in reverse (pulling hot air up and sending down the walls to create a warmth cocoon.
5. Turn down the water heater a couple degrees
6. Install the storm doors and windows
7. Get your furnace and water heater serviced for maximum efficiency
8. Install an inexpensive programmable thermostat
9. Caulk or seal drafty windows and doors.  Hold a match (carefully) near door and window frames to discover drafts
10. Check weather stripping for compressed, inflexible old stuff and replace if needed
11. Check your attic and basement for missing insulation
12. Add another level of insulation to prime heat loss areas such as the attic floor
13. Insulate your hot water pipes
14. Insulate forced air vents
15. Make sure all heating ducts are sealed tightly (don’t want valuable hot air escaping into an unused portion of the house
16. Fill that freezer with summer veggies.  A full freezer operates more efficiently than an empty one
17. Upgrade your appliances including furnace and hot water heater
18. Go tankless (water heater)
19. Switch from gas to clean electric and purchase wind energy for your home
20. Replace those old drafty windows
21. Go radiant (radiant heat typically uses less energy than forced air)

Source

At Hippie Magazine, we like to report on the coolest green innovations, not just green news.  Have you ever received a package in the mail or brought home something from the store and been shocked to find a a box full of styrofoam?  It’s not easy to dispose of and can take up an entire garbage bag.  Not to mention, you know it is just going to sit in a landfill for decades if not centuries.

Very few companies opt to offer biodegradable packing material such as that made from cornstarch (they decompose in water) or recycled crinkle paper.  So we’re left with horrible chemicals that last forever.  A completely unnecessary evil.

Someone has come up with an excellent alternative to styrofoam that promises to be inexpensive.  If production costs drop below the closest (environmentally harmful) alternative, that’s how change happens.

The magic formula is clay, water, casein powder (a protein powder), and a trace amount of a glycerol compound.  Throw it all in a blender and voila!  What you have is an environmentally friendly packing material made from raw materials accessible in all parts of the country.

Here’s a bonus: unless you’re shipping to the sun, the packaging will hold up as well.  It remains intact up until 392 degrees Fahrenheit.

The material starts in liquid form and then gets molded into any shape.  This means it can be used in tons of different applications from aerospace to transportation to electronics.  The discovery has spawned a new company called Aeroclay, Inc.  Buy your stock now folks!

Source

Preserve makes personal hygiene products, such as toothbrushes and razors, and some table and kitchen ware, out of recycled yogurt cups and other grade 5 plastics. In addition to just designing with recycled material, they make it easier to recycle their products when you’re done using them. The Preserve toothbrush is packaged in a slim pouch with a business reply label and prepaid postage. You can mail in your old toothbrush when you’re done using it and the plastic handle will be recycled into other Preserve products (nylon bristles are always new). You can even sign up on their website for a toothbrush subscription and schedule for Preserve to send you a new brush on a regular schedule.

At $2.99 you can only feel good about turning a typically disposable personal product into a cycle of reuse. Not to mention a chance to reinstate the interesting producer-customer back and forth relationship that many companies have given up in favor of expansion and disposability.

Nevertheless, it raises important issues with pet ownership. We often go out of our way to buy fresh, organic foods for our selves and our families, but feed our pets the typical dog chow, produced in potentially questionable ways and loaded with fats and sugars. Pet waste is often a source of pollution in parks, woodlands, and waterways, and aggressive dogs and cats can greatly deplete local wildlife. And in the United States pet obesity is on the rise, so much that veterinary professionals have come together to for the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. Not only are dogs consuming energy,  they’re often over-consuming.

This is not to say that we should all give up pet owning, but rather that it should be just another aspect of life where we become aware of our consumption. Some sources suggest having smaller pets such as fish, rodents, or cats or offsetting your pet’s impact by engaging in other energy saving practices (eating vegetarian, biking instead of driving, etc). Carefully monitoring your pets’ caloric intake to make sure they aren’t being overfed, picking up after them, and keeping them leashed in outdoor areas are other good ideas for reducing impact.

Think of those thin plastic bags in American grocery stores.  People shove virtually everything into a bag, bring them to the checkout, then put them in more bags.  Long since a target for environmentalists, the incidental packaging of consumables is a large source of landfill waste.

You have no-doubt seen the reusable grocery bags first utilized by healthfood stores decades ago.  Unpackaged took the next step, and required you to bring your own containers.  Whether a reusable bag, jar, tupperware, whatever.  You must come prepared.

Of course, Unpackaged takes their efforts all the way to the finish line by sourcing organic and local foods.

This is the exact choice many global businesses need to make.  I challenge businesses to make the scary decision and move into the future.  A future where there is no more waste than can be sustained by our world.  The impetus for change is in the hands of the consumer.  Challenge the next business leader you see to take a bold, risky and forward-thinking step into the future.

Image credit: Web Ecoist

Ingredients:

1 Geo Metro

1 Electric forklift

1 Electric motor

a dash of spare parts

a smidge of random batteries

Bake for a few weekends of hard work, and voila!  The result is a medium speed, medium range, cheap-as-heck electric commuter car.  This one was built by 2 DIY’ers in Toronto to get them from point A to point B for little cash, no pollution, no noise.

It’s called: The Forkenswift!

Read more at their website.

By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger
(reposted with permission)

Some people live off the grid, eat local food, and have an energy footprint so minuscule that even the canniest hunter couldn’t track them down. But the rest of us buy from supermarkets, get our energy from at least in part from traditional sources like coal, and occasionally forget to turn off the lights when we leave the house. For those of us who are still living with one foot in the old energy world, here are a few helpful hints about what you should buy and what the consequences of shifting to “clean energy” sources like natural gas and nuclear energy are.

Green consumption

Mother Jones’ Julia Whitty points out a useful tool for correcting any misconceptions about how green a company actually is. It’s an assessment that graphs public perception of a company’s environmentalism against its practices. Besides making sure you’ve got the right idea about Starbucks or Nike, Whitty writes, “You can also get a pretty good sense of how sectors perform in relation to other sectors: food and beverage, bad overall; technology, better overall.”

One of the biggest energy expenditures that many of us indulge in is airplane travel. Just one flight can enlarge your carbon footprint dramatically. Although flying may never be truly green, Beth Buczynski reports at Care2 that one airline is moving in the right direction. British Airways is planning the first “sustainable jet fuel” plant.

The plant will make a biofuel, which generally has plenty of drawbacks, but this one sounds pretty good. The company says it will source its raw materials from local waste management facilities and produce relatively harmless waste products.

Hot air from natural gas companies

But the hazards of many “clean energy” sources make going off the grid sound better and better. More and more information is coming out about the environmental hazards that accompany the mining of natural gas, one of Washington’s new energy fascinations. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report on natural gas late last week, and Kate Sheppard reports at Mother Jones that Halliburton, a major player in this industry, admitted to using 807,000 gallons of diesel-based chemicals in the extraction process, which involves pumping large amounts of water deep into the ground.

“Even though the natural gas industry is exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, it’s still required to limit the amount of diesel used in fracturing, under a December 2003 agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency,” Sheppard writes. “Halliburton and BJ Services appear to have violated the agreement, according to yesterday’s disclosure.”

That doesn’t inspire confidence in these companies’ assurances that their techniques will not contaminate water sources.

Another meltdown

Nuclear power sounds better than ever to the government, investors, and even some environmentalists. If you need a rundown of the issues involved in nuclear energy production, Grist’s Umbra Fisk has answers to questions like “is nuclear really better than coal?”

One of the strongest objections to nuclear power, however, is the financial risk of investing in nuclear infrastructure. “Nuclear power offers all the fiscal risks of a “too big to fail” bank, with the added risk of being too dangerous to fail as well,” writes Sam McPheeters for The American Prospect.

“And although current nuclear defenders love to crow about the free market…the industry operates with an exponential financial handicap over all other energy technologies, gas and coal included,” McPheeters explains. “Factor in overruns, plant cancellations, and chronic mismanagement, and the only genuine advantage nuclear holds over renewable energy sources is that its infrastructure currently exists.”

Maybe it’s time to invest in solar panels after all.

—————-

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

Taking any number of these steps will help you transform your home into a thriving, environmentally friendly habitat.

1. Buy Local
2. Buy Organic
3. Buy free range/cage-free
4. Avoid packaging
5. Do your research on products
6. Insulate or additionally insulate your home
7. Drive less
8. Make your own cleaning products
9. Wash clothes in cold water
10. Get a dishwasher
11. Convert to CFL bulbs from incandescent
12. Avoid greenwashing
13. Recycle
14. Eat less meat
15. Eat no meat
16. Reuse instead of buying new
17. Use Craigslist
18. Sell that extra car
19. Ride your bike
20. Take a staycation
21. Turn your computer off
22. Cancel your newspaper delivery and read it online
23. Offset your carbon footprint
24. Rake your leaves, don’t blow them
25. Get a reel mower (and ditch the gas one)
26. Start composting
27. Repurpose old things
28. Shop at garage sales, not stores
29. Turn down the heat
30. Turn down (up) the air conditioner
31. Eliminate phantom energy waste
32. Use power strips and turn them off at night
33. Shut doors to unused rooms
34. Stop printing things you don’t absolutely need
35. Use coupons
36. Make a donation to an environmental program
37. Convert your 2 stroke engines to 4 stroke
38. Mow your lawn less
39. Start a flower garden
40. Grow your own food
41. Paint instead of renovate
42. Use low VOC paint
43. Buy energy star appliances (only when you absolutely need a new appliance)
44. Don’t buy a hybrid (huh??)
45. Telecommute
46. Buy organic dog food
47. Ditch the paper cups for coffee and bring a mug to work
48. Dry your clothes on a rack
49. Dry your clothes on a clothesline
50. Seal up your home to stop heating (and cooling) the outdoors
51. Turn your AC completely off (we need heat to survive, we don’t need cold)
52. Wrap your water heater in one of those silver blanket things
53. Install a timer on your water heater so you only have hot water when you typically need it or…
54. Install a tankless (on demand) water heater
55. Convert to electric hot water and/or heat and…
56. Install solar panels or…
57. Install a wind turbine or…
58. Buy clean energy from your utility provider
59. Get netflix (instead of driving to Blockbuster) or…
60. Even better: download your movies
61. Cancel your junk mail and extra catalogs and magazines (the mail system is incredibly inefficient)
62. Give gift certificates for birthdays and holidays instead of shipping presents
63. Give to an environmental charity instead of buying “things”
64. Only run that dishwasher when full
65. Use electricity during off-peak demand times whenever possible (avoid mornings and evenings)
66. Clear off the top of your fridge (both inside and out)
67. Fill up your freezer (it’s more efficient when full)
68. Clean your fridge’s rear-end (the coils should be clear of dust and pet hair)
69. Take the bus
70. Start or utilize a ride-sharing program
71. Work four 10 hour days instead of five 8 hour days (cuts your commute waste)
72. Stop buying bottled water – bring a water bottle of tap water
73. Buy a filter if you can’t stand the taste
74. Turn off the TV and…
75. get some exercise
76. Turn off those extra lights or…
77. Install some light timers
78. Turn off those holiday lights at night
79. Turn off those fans
80. Turn down up the refrigerator temperature
81. Host your website with a green web host
82. Print with an eco-font
83. Reuse an older cell phone or…
84. Buy a used one or…
85. Stick with the one you’ve got
86. Read by candlelight (instead of electric light)
87. Light a fire (in a fireplace or something)
88. Keep plastics out of the microwave or…
89. Ditch plastics altogether and switch to glass containers
90. Bring leftovers, don’t buy your lunch every day
91. Recycle your metal, even old electrical wire and computers (did you know you could do that??)
92. Don’t burn yard waste (let it rot… seriously)
93. Eat less (a lot of a human’s carbon footprint comes from growing, processing, preparing, cooking and *cough* disposing of food waste)
94. Don’t even think about using paper plates
95. Drink green wine
96. Don’t host a progressive party (it’s wasteful to drive lots of people from place to place)
97. Send an e-vite
98. Serve and buy seasonal food (can YOUR region grow strawberries in January?!?)
99. Join a CSA Farm (community sustained agriculture)
100. Read this blog!
101. Keep your car instead of upgrading
102. Shovel snow instead of plowing or snowblowing
103. Turn the TV OFF (we already said this once but it’s double-important)

Do you have an idea for making a green home?  Post it here as a comment.

This article is CROWD SOURCED! What does that mean?  Our goal is to grow this list, and for each item to have a link to a helpful resource.  For example, if you have a resource for #91, recycling your metal, post it here as a comment and we’ll try to create a link for you.

Sources/Additional Resources:

• The Green Guide
• Planet Green
• Treehugger
• Daily Eco Tips

Image credit: souzablog.com