Vampire power finale (for now)

Is the PumPing Tap the be-all-end-all solution to home energy drain?

We seem to have an obsession here on combating “vampire power” (or at least writing about it in the past but it looks like we might run out of things to say soon*. *Well… as soon as this gets developed since it’s still only a product in concept. The PumPing Tap is a spring-loaded electrical socket that physically ejects a plug when it’s been left in the socket. MNN writer Matt Hickman summarized it quite...

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This year’s holiday checklist

Buy a live tree, some LED lights, and offsets.

Call me (Mrs.) Scrooge, but the holiday season (that is to say, the commercialization of the holidays) gets me a little bit crankypants because of the way everything is referred to as a “tradition.” Especially when some of these traditions have real environmental impacts. First, you’ve got the tree. For those who are behind the times on the “live vs. fake” tree debate (i.e., what’s better? cutting a tree down ever year vs. tossing a...

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To take or not to take free stuff?

My eco-conscious moral dilemma with accepting free goodies.

I spent the earlier part of last week attending a conference for university sustainability officers. The annual AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) conference attracts over 2,000 people, a mid-sized gathering. Like many other conferences, AASHE has an “Expo” - a place for sponsors to showcase their products. This year, as I came back from it, I experienced a bit of a moral dilemma that I hadn’t been expecting. Let me...

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Don’t scrap your food scraps!

Inventive ways to re-use leftovers, from shoe polish to infused vodkas.

We’ve written posts before about how cooking in large quantities can help you save energy. This time, we’ve decided to look into what to do with leftover food scraps. From infused vodka (see, greening doesn’t have to be a fun killer!) to bath soaks, reuse anything from peels to meat scraps to make economical and environmentally conscience use of any leftovers. Here are some ideas we found from Earth 911: You can polish leather shoes...

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Dear Reader: your input needed on recycling!

My state’s better than your state (in recycling).

We asked for readers to raise topics that they’ve been struggling with, and this week, the focus is on recycling, particularly on improving recycling programs in certain states. Footprint reader Katie wrote: I’m in Pennsylvania and I want to read some discussion about ideas to fire people up about taking the time to recycle — and for companies and hotels and others to provide recycling bins. I’m not for more rules (who is?), but GEEZ,...

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This is the (styro)foam that never ends…

Carcinogen warnings, innovations in Canada, and recycling resources.

I’ve had an aversion to Styrofoam for a long time. Many years ago at a summer camp, I went on a nature conservancy walk in Pennsylvania (about 20 minutes outside of State College) where the main lesson of the day was that trash doesn’t just disappear - it stays around for a very, very long time. On this particular walk, there were “exhibits” of many common items (which might absentmindedly be tossed in the woods)...

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Rewards for your savings?

Earth Aid rewards users for lowering energy consumption, no strings attached.

I recently decided to reassess my monthly budget, and in doing so, I found an awesome online tool that provides “rewards” and other incentives to users to reduce home energy usage. The service works much like mint.com, in that you can connect your online utility bill to your account, and all of your energy usage is securely uploaded into the program. Then, similar to RecycleBank, Earth Aid tracks your performance - in this case, electricity,...

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Once again, why Europe is smarter

New study reveals set-top boxes are the biggest source of consumer electricity drain.

Results from a new Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) study (pdf) on TV cable boxes revealed what we long suspected: Americans are a bunch of lazy couch potatoes. We kid, we kid. The study, funded by the EPA and conducted by the NRDC and Ecos, examined the energy consumption of set-top boxes. The results were “startling” though probably not new to regular TerraPass readers (remember our three-part mini series? here, here, and here). But perhaps...

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Google maps’ new green feature

Compare your footprint while you find your way.

The Google Chrome web store recently released a new browser plug-in that allows users to view the carbon emissions associated with driving routes suggested by Google Maps. If you’re a carbon geek, there’s even an option to enter your particular car’s emission factor instead of using the default values. While the application is still in an early development stage, the creators seem very open to feedback. The plug-in is free, and it’s a great way...

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It’s getting hot in here!

Green tips for summer fun.

Memorial Day Weekend is just a few short days away, and that extra day off is a perfect excuse to visit a sandy beach or camp out under the stars. Enjoy the outdoors, but keep in mind that a few simple changes make it easy to reduce your impact along the way. Get grillin’. Opt for grilling outdoors with propane instead of charcoal briquettes or wood. Although propane is derived from petroleum, it has a...

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Behavior modification. It’s a tricky thing.

Changing auto standards could mean the end to smaller cars.

If you’re sufficiently geeky, the monthly free seminar/webinar series sponsored by the California Air Resources Board covers some fascinating environmental ground. One recent seminar provided an economist’s view of American automobile fuel economy standards, with particular insight into the effects of these standards on driving behavior. I’m drawing a lot from that one here, and give due credit to Soren Anderson, a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley, whose great slides (.pdf) provided me fodder here....

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Fascinating reading

Thorny environmental questions answered by Stanford students.

As a San Francisco-based company, the TerraPass team has more than the usual variety of ties to Stanford University. Through one such connection, we were made aware of an interesting project and resource, cleverly entitled Sound Advice for a Green Earth, or SAGE. For this project, Stanford students taking the upper division/graduate course “Sustaining Action: Research, Analysis and Writing for the Public” are required to research and respond to environmental questions posed by members of...

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When gas wins over electric

Why I bought a gas dryer even though my grid is pretty clean.

Last weekend, I bought a new dryer. The old one was kaput, and though I wish it were otherwise, a clothesline doesn’t suffice for my family’s lifestyle. I started my quest with some virtual shopping. First dilemma: electric or gas? Over the years I’ve always assumed “gas” because generating electricity by burning fuel and then making heat with the electricity is a very inefficient way to create heat. But the California electric grid has lots...

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Why we love trees

The nation celebrates the benefits of trees 139 years after the original Arbor Day.

The first Arbor Day, the tree planters’ holiday, was held in Nebraska in 1872, where a member of the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture proposed that a day be set aside annually for tree planting. It was a huge success — over one million trees were planted in a single day. Shortly after this first observance, other states passed legislation to observe Arbor Day each year. By 1920, more than 45 states and territorial possessions...

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Whoa mama!

Advocating the home energy audit for moms.

This Mother’s Day, I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon of eco-friendly products. By all means, please (as always) consider the environmental impact of your gifts or check out these great gift ideas from Huffington Post, Treehugger, and Grist. But if I have to read another blog post about how flowers are destroying the planet, I’ll just get depressed. Instead, I’m going to make a plug for the most eco-savvy gift of all: the...

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Get your house in order!

Green spring cleaning tips for all households.

You probably already recycle, reduce, reuse, and try to do your part for the planet. With spring almost in full bloom and Earth Day right around the corner, now is the perfect time to welcome the season with some spring cleaning greening. Avoid indoor air pollutants Household cleaning products and interior decorations (e.g., carpets, wallpaper, paints and stains) are the main culprit of indoor air pollution, which can be up to 100 times worse than...

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Park, Circa 2011

A simple solution to the woes of city parking.

Though most days I bike to the TerraPass office in downtown San Francisco, a mostly flat ride of a little under 30 minutes, there are days that I need to go by car. Usually these days involve either dropping off or picking up my kids on one or both ends of my day, in places where public transportation just isn’t an option. There’s nothing like a day spent jogging to parking meters, or paying $20...

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Greener loving just got a whole lot easier

Tips and guidelines for a low-carbon Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than by planning a romantic event that you, your loved one, and the planet can enjoy. Skip the weekend getaway Save money and reduce fuel consumption by planning a “stay-cation.” Visit that museum or new (sustainable) restaurant you’ve been wanting to try, or plan a romantic night in. Turn off the lights Set the mood with your sweetie and save energy by...

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Green your holidays!

Some easy ways to reduce your holiday impact.

The holiday season is the time to visit family and friends, eat our favorite seasonal dishes, and decorate our homes with festive decor. The inevitable downside of the season is of course the slightly larger carbon footprint we all produce as we indulge (er, celebrate). Here are some tips we liked - feel free to share yours! Use LED holiday bulbs. Holiday LED bulbs are a great alternative to regular incandescent holiday lights. Certain brands...

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Check your sprinklers. Please!

Earth Day conservation tip.

I walk my dogs at night, and twice this week we’ve discovered troubling new additions to our neighborhood landscaping. It starts when I hear an unusual sound, an undercurrent loud enough to penetrate my podcast-filled earphones. When I pause, my dogs get curious and hunt it down. It’s a pleasant sound actually, a spilling, gurgling sound. Has someone installed a fountain? I pull out the poop flashlight to investigate. As we get closer, it seems...

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Green driving tips you actually use?

Seeking usable efficient driving tips

For the past several years, we’ve published lots of green driving tips. So have others, and I’ve read many of them. Even so, I openly confess to enthusiastic early adoption of many such tips but fairly poor long-term persistent use. Examples of my failures include slipshod attention to tire pressure, using my car as an auxiliary storage location, replacing my worn, low rolling resistance tires with a set that hug the road a little better,...

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Advanced recycling for environmental ninjas

Find out where to get rid of your old CDs, crayons, packing peanuts, and more

I spent last week visiting some of the landfills TerraPass works with to create carbon offsets. As always, it was great to see these projects and the positive impact they’re having firsthand. But spending so much time around so much trash really drove home how important recycling is for decreasing one’s personal impact on the planet. Paper, plastic, and metal recycling is relatively widespread these days, but what about all the other stuff we throw...

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Vampire staked by gadget

Outlet timers have come a long way in the last few years

As recently reported, I had a rabid vampire at my house: my set-top box and DVR combination. It is designed to be “on” all the time, so it consumes as much energy when I’m not using it as when I am. This lack of a true “sleep” mode is my main beef with the combo device, so I set out to fix it. My quest led me to a trusted energy efficiency gadget, the outlet...

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The climate is changing and I’m getting cold feet

Tips for keeping your home comfortable during the in-between seasons

This time of year, we play a strange game of “chicken” at my house, watching each other to see who will break down and turn on the heat. We have radiant heat, which means a boiler circulates hot water through pipes in the cement foundation, warming it; the warm foundation in turn warms the floors which in turn radiate heat inside the house. I love radiant heat generally, but you can’t turn it on...

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Miracle tech improves fuel efficiency up to 50%

Researchers call it “good driving”

Recession blown a hole in your plans to upgrade to a fancy new plug-in hybrid? Fear not — according to the Wall Street Journal you can boost your current car’s mileage 20, 40, even 50% just by learning a few simple “eco-driving” tricks. We’ve covered the ways in which driver behavior interacts with fuel efficiency on a few prior occasions, but this latest article has some useful new takes on old tricks. For example: “Drive...

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More ways to cut car emissions: reflective glass and paint

California’s “cool car” initiative fights global warming

Most of the effort to reduce greenhouse gases from cars has focused on improved fuel efficiency, low-carbon fuels, and alternative engine types like hybrids and plug-in vehicles. These approaches will be critical to meeting GHG targets established in California’s landmark global warming solutions law, as well as similar goals proposed in federal legislation. California is taking this work a step further with a little known initiative called Cool Cars. The program is studying subtle ways...

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Make more food than you need

Planning for leftovers can save energy in cooking and save money on your lunch.

Next time you’re cooking at home, make double the amount you need. Keep the leftovers in the fridge and then eat them for lunch or reheat in the microwave another evening. How this helps Cooking can be energy intensive, especially if you’re boiling water or using the oven. It doesn’t take much additional energy when you increase the number you’re cooking for, so by cooking more, you’re reducing the amount of energy used per serving....

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Use the microwave

It’s quicker and saves energy too.

When reheating food, or cooking small portions, use the microwave instead of the oven or range. How this helps Because it takes so much less time to cook in the microwave, you use a lot less energy — even if the microwave draws more power. According to Energy Star, cooking small portions or reheating food in the microwave can save up to 80% of the energy used if you reheated in the oven. More information...

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Boil your pasta in less water

Your nonna says six quarts of water. Try two instead.

If you like to cook, you may already be familiar with Harold McGee, tireless kitchen tinkerer, experimenter, and debunker of myths. Recently McGee set out to find whether it’s really necessary to cook a pound of pasta in six quarts of water. This may seem like a minor matter (and it is!), but Americans do boil a billion pounds or so of pasta every year. By McGee’s own math, cutting the heating time for those...

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More than pretty pictures

A National Geographic writer challenges his family to cut carbon emissions by 80%.

It’s not every day that a mainstream magazine with a national circulation of eight million publishes a cover story on how to save energy at home. But that’s what National Geographic (March 2009 issue) delivers in an article about “the fastest, least expensive way to slow climate change.” The magazine’s editor Peter Miller poses a challenge: can he and his wife reduce their household emissions to 30 pounds of CO2 per day, 80% less than...

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Get out of the shower

Is it possible to shower in just three minutes?

The first serious winter storms have finally arrived in California, but it seems unlikely that we’ll get close to making up the water we badly need to get out of the current drought. So it seems a good time to remind everybody of the benefits of short showers. How this helps A shorter shower not only saves water, but also saves on the energy used to heat that water. A typical non-conserving showerhead will spray...

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Avoid the cut flowers

An easy way to cut your footprint this Valentine’s Day

If you can possibly get away with it, avoid buying and giving cut flowers — unless they’re from your own garden. If you can’t get away with it, look for locally grown flowers that are in season. This almost certainly means no roses. How this helps There’s plenty to love about cut flowers, but the story behind the dozen roses is often far from pretty. Heated greenhouses, pesticides and transportation often contribute to the heavy...

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Paint your walls white

Brightening up the room saves on lighting and heat

When it gets difficult to buy a new house, people often decide instead to make improvements around their old one. If you’re thinking of redecorating, pick bright, light colors. How this helps Dark walls and ceilings absorb light, requiring more energy (and possibly fixtures) to light your house. By painting walls white or brighter colors, natural and artificial light will be reflected. Light walls also reflect heat better. More information Home lighting tips from the...

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Locate air leaks

Those drafts could be costing you.

Look around your house for gaps or cracks that could be leaking air, including the attic floor, edges of doors and windows, electrical outlets and switches, and pipe entrances. Light an incense stick and hold it close to window edges and other possible leaks. If the smoke coming from the stick goes horizontal, you’ve found a crack. To test doors and windows, close them on a used piece of paper laying against the frame....

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Recycle your old cellphone

Getting a new cellphone this holiday? You can recycle your old one, and get money to spend at terrapass.com at the same time.

You may not be so excited about your old cellphone anymore, but chances are that somebody else will be. Better still, you might even get paid for it. For example, a Motorola Razr V3 is worth $21. How this helps Recycling your old phone keeps it and its (likely toxic) battery out of the landfill. Your phone also contains precious metals including copper and silver. If these are recycled it lessens the demand for mining...

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Stop peeking

That turkey is cooking just fine.

Don’t open the oven door to peek at what’s cooking inside unless you actually need to check something. Instead, turn on the oven light and check the cooking status through the oven window. How this helps Heard the one about the watched pot? Well there’s a reason for it… opening the oven door lowers the temperature inside, by as much as 25 degrees. This wastes energy and increases cooking time as the oven must heat...

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Use LED holiday lights

Save energy and money with long-lasting LED holiday lights

LED lighting is improving all the time, but it’s not yet advanced enough to be able to replace CFLs as a standard for low-energy lighting around the home. One place you can definitely use LED lights is for decorating your house and/or Christmas tree this holiday. This year we’re selling LED holiday lights in our green store. How this helps The bulbs can last up to 50,000 hours (that’s over five years of continuous lighting...

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Being green while saving green

Five tips to benefit your wallet and the planet in these troubled times.

In the current economic situation, it’s easy to think of being green as a luxury. You might need to postpone that solar panel installation that won’t pay off for years to come. And the non-organic, imported tomatoes at Safeway start looking better and better compared to the more expensive ones at Whole Foods. Fortunately, saving the environment and saving money often go hand and hand. In addition to obvious tips like driving less, turning down...

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Make your own Halloween costume

Halloween needn’t be about scary consumerism.

There are many ways to create your own costume using items found around the house. While you can certainly sew your own (with or without a pattern) from eco-fabrics like bamboo, organic cotton, silk, or hemp, making one from closet-bound items is a great way to recycle, and low-cost, too! Look for supplies in the attic, your junk drawer, seasonal closets, the toolbox, or even kitchen cupboards. How this helps Americans spend a spine-tingling...

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The inside scoop on stopping junk mail

For best results, use multiple services.

In response to our post on junk mail, catalog merchant Colleen Connell (proprietor of GaelSong.com) wrote in with some advice on the best way to reduce unwanted mail. The answer, in a nutshell, is “all of the above.” I own a mail-order catalog company and have direct experience with both the DMA and Catalog Choice (as well as experience talking to people who want to be removed from our mailing list). If you just get...

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Stop the junk mail

Are the holiday catalogs filling your mailbox? Save some trees, water and energy.

Visit the Direct Marketing Association’s DMAchoice.org website. You’ll need to register your name and address. The DMA will then remove your name from catalog lists of its members. It also has a link to help you remove your name and address from credit card and insurance offers. How this helps The amount of unsolicited mail and catalogs Americans receive each year consumes trees (an estimated 100 million!), water, energy, and money. More information Visit dmachoice.org....

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Air-dry your laundry

If it’s too cold outside, you can still hang the clothes inside. It’s cheaper than the dryer.

Drying clothes on a line can take a little longer than throwing clothes into a dryer, but it doesn’t have to be an unpleasant task. In addition to cutting down on energy use, other benefits can include enjoying the outdoors or humidifying the air in your house (when clothes line-dry indoors). How this helps Air-drying some or all of your wet laundry could save you $135 in energy costs every year, prevent tons of carbon...

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Adjust your computer’s power settings to save energy

That screensaver doesn’t save you energy.

If you’re not going to use your computer for more than 20 minutes, turn off just the monitor. If your computer will stand idle for more than 2 hours, turn both it and the monitor off. Ensuring your computer is powered down, either manually with a power strip or by setting your computer’s power management features, saves money and cuts your greenhouse gas emissions. How this helps Powering computers requires a substantial amount of energy....

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Don’t preheat your oven

The ubiquitous recipe advice hails from an earlier age.

When temperatures drop, home cooks break out the roasting pan. But recipes contain a lot of outdated lore, particularly admonishments to preheat your oven. Although pre-heating may be helpful for certain sensitive tasks like baking, your meat and vegetables probably aren’t going to notice the difference. How this helps When you preheat an oven, you’re spending a lot of energy to heat up a small amount of air — which then goes whooshing out when...

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Flush with less water

How to reduce the amount of water used when you flush.

Making a few simple modifications to your toilet is an easy, low-cost way to start reducing water waste and your water bill, too! Here are some simple steps to creating a lower-flow toilet. Put a few inches of gravel or pebbles in the bottom of an empty gallon jug. Fill the rest up with water and cap it. If you prefer slightly more water for flushing, use a smaller jug. Remove the lid of the...

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Instead of air conditioning, use fans

As summer fades, you can ease up on the A/C.

Ceiling fans can be a useful helper or substitute for air conditioning even at the peak of summer. But as the temperatures of August become a memory, now might be a good time to turn off the A/C altogether and instead rely on an open window or ceiling fan. How this helps Your air conditioner is one of the biggest energy guzzlers in the house, and it consumes electricity at the worst time of day....

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Use night lights

LEDs provide all the night-time illumination you need.

This is an easy one. Do you leave any room lights on in your house to help you (or your little ones) navigate at night? Switch them off and use low-energy night lights instead. How this helps Super-efficient night lights, particularly ones that use LEDs, need so little energy that they cost less than a dollar per year to operate. And LEDs virtually never burn out. Related tips Replace your incandescent light bulbs with CFLs....

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Plan for a new water heater before your old one fails

Emergency replacements for your water heater result in missed savings.

Most people don’t think about their water heater until it suddenly dies. Then the priority becomes replacing it as quickly as possible. In the long term, this can be an expensive proposition. Water heaters vary greatly in efficiency, so know in advance which one is right for your home. How this helps Water heaters come in a wide variety of sizes and types. When you buy in a rush, you risk getting the wrong one...

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Fill up your fridge

Having a full fridge can be good for your energy bill.

The fog has cleared around TerraPass towers and we’re feeling the heat. Here’s a way to save energy used by your fridge or freezer during the summer months: keeping your fridge and freezer at least three-quarters full to reduce the amount of energy they use. How this helps Items in your fridge have been already been cooled, so they help to keep the overall temperature down when you open the door. The more of them,...

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Run your big appliances at night

Don’t make your air conditioner battle your washing machine.

Another tip for keeping your house cool in the summer: run your washing machine, dishwasher, and drier at night. These big appliances throw off a lot of heat, and during the day you’re just going to make your air conditioner work overtime to keep the house cool. Another benefit of using your big appliances at night is that you reduce strain on the electrical grid during peak hours. How this helps Using appliances when the...

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Keep your air conditioner free of gunk

A clean machine runs better.

Last week we suggested easing up on the A/C during summer months to conserve energy. But whatever temp you choose, it makes sense to keep your cooling system running as efficiently as possible. Take a few minutes to give it a proper cleaning. You’ll save energy and extend its life. How this helps Air conditioners suck up a lot of dust and gunk, cutting down their cooling ability. Whether you have a window-mounted unit our...

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Set your thermostat to 78 degrees

Keep comfortable, but you don’t need to see your breath indoors.

It’s been too long since we posted some nuts-and-bolts conservation tips. So without further ado… It’s hot out there. But it doesn’t need to be quite so cool inside. Set your thermostat to turn on the air conditioning at a temperature no lower than 78° F (25° C). How this helps It simply doesn’t need to be that cold inside. This is an easy way to save energy and money. Pro: You’ll save up to...

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Cut your carbon and save on auto insurance

Pay-as-you-drive programs reward those who drive gently.

Here’s another example of how the tortoise beats the hare. The insurance industry is starting to offer lower rates for drivers who drive less, apply a light foot on the pedal, and avoid sudden stops. These driving habits save fuel and reduce carbon emissions. They also cut down on accident risks and the resulting insurance claims. Now technology is helping insurance companies identify such conservation-minded drivers and reward them with lower premiums. To get the...

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Cut your travel footprint this summer

And don’t leave your good green habits at home.

The kids are out of school, and that summer vacation that seemed so far away when you booked it back in February suddenly looms. Whether you’re flying, driving, biking, or sailing, we’ve got some advice on how to keep your carbon footprint down while you do it. Regardless of how you travel, the best way to get your carbon footprint down is simply by thinking about it. I’m always surprised by how I have to...

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Cutting carbon from your diet: a practical guide

Mark Bittman dishes up some advice for planet-friendly eating.

Cookbook author and food writer Mark Bittman offers up some practical advice on reducing your meat consumption, which, you may recall, is probably the most effective way to cut the carbon footprint of your diet. Fans of Bittman (I am among them) may have noticed a tidy compatibility between Bittman’s food writing and Michael Pollan’s more polemical work on food and eating. Pollan in some sense is laying the intellectual groundwork and penning the manifesto....

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Cutting the carbon from your diet

Forget food miles and take a look at what’s on your plate.

I’ve been digging more deeply into the question of what you should eat if you’re looking to lower your carbon footprint. I’ll have a few posts on this topic coming up, because it’s one of those vexed issues with lots of tradeoffs and corner cases and tricky considerations. But let’s start off by keeping it simple: eat less red meat and dairy. A lot of people, myself included, happen to enjoy eating meat and dairy....

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Low carbon barbecue

Some tips for low-carbon entertaining during Memorial Day weekend.

Memorial Day weekend and the smell of barbecue is in the air. As you pick up the propane tank to check if there’s any juice left from last summer, you may be wondering about the carbon impact of the outdoor grill. A few thoughts: The actual grilling process isn’t really the big carbon part of this. If you’re using a propane grill, you’d have to make your way through a whole tank of propane (roughly...

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Words of wisdom for bike commuters old and new

A few tips for overcoming mental obstacles.

Today is National Bike to Work Day.* So bike to work. Or if it’s raining, like it is in New York, consider postponing your ride. The Commute by Bike blog recently ran a very sensible slacker’s guide to bike commuting for people who aren’t trying to win the Tour de France. Among the tips: Skip the bike when the weather is nasty. Wear normal clothes. The only bits of cycling gear I wear are a...

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Reduce your footyprint

The English Football Association is helping soccer fans to reduce their carbon footprint with simple ideas — like going to the pub.

When a newspaper front page ad carries the tag line “Help the planet. Go down the pub,” I’m reassured that climate change has finally arrived in the national psyche. The British psyche, that is. The English Football Association (that’s soccer, of course) is running a series of adverts on TV and in newspapers explaining ways in which fans of the country’s number one sport can reduce their impact on the environment while indulging their...

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Turn the faucet off, save water and save energy

There’s a new water supply issue stirring in California. There may have to be a serious cut in supplies next year after a ruling in August designed to protect an endangered fish. Until an official resolution can be reached, the water agencies are doing the only thing they can: asking people to cut back in their water use. Last week members of the TerraPass team were trying to impress each other with conservation stats....

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A dubious conservation tip: buy your car in Europe

Let me begin by saying I don’t really believe what follows. But I can’t find any explanation. So please if you know, get in touch so I can sleep better. Thanks. A few weeks ago, while I was still in London, I helped a friend buy a new car. I was a little wary. She’d just got a new job and a handsome pay rise with it. I knew she was interested in buying...

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Caution: Back to school carbon bump!

Ah, labor day. The end of the summer, and the end of many parents’ blissful summer commutes. Mom walked. Dad took the bus. Now they’re both back in their (family-size) cars shuttling the kids around. EPA reports (pdf) show that morning drive time traffic jumps up 30% at the beginning of the school year. The report put this in historical perspective: In 2001, less than 15 percent of students between the ages of five...

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Bottled water - good for whom exactly?

Tap water, well-traveled water and the TerraPass water bottle, free with every Dorm TerraPass A Heineken TV commercial shown here in the UK 20 years ago featured an elocution teacher instructing his young pupil to pronounce the phrase, “The water in Majorca don’t taste like what it oughta” (video here). I was reminded of this recently when I read about the furore surrounding the revelations that Aquafina water comes straight from the tap. PepsiCo...

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Save water to save energy

Water systems use a whopping 19% of the electricity in California. Dry landscaping could save you 357 lbs a year, or about the same as 8 CFL’s Looking for a new idea to fight climate change? Maybe you’re just starting to act on climate change, and have plenty of previous TerraPass conservation tips on your to-do list. Maybe you’ve gone way overboard and are starting to stealthily replace your neighbors light bulbs with CFLs....

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Conservation tip: carry a book with you

In the midst of this interesting back and forth about public transportation, Michael O’Hare offers an easily overlooked tip for ensuring that you never have to wait a single moment for a train or a bus: carry a book with you at all times. The essence of waiting is doing nothing while you sit in anticipation of some event. Waiting sucks. No one likes waiting, which is one reason why many people prefer cars to...

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Conservation tip: Measure your energy use

Real time feedback in a car can change your driving patterns. What about your house? Many users of Prius’ and other hybrids report that simply having the fuel efficiency counter on the dash has changed their driving behavior. What used to be a “get there as soon as possible” task is now turned into a “get there with the highest MPG” task. Pretty cool. The same promise has been around for decades in energy,...

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Let the sunshine in!

Who knew that the song from Hair is also a great energy tip for the winter months? If you are like much of the country and hunkering down in the midst of a wee nip in the air, then be sure that you are making the most of what little sun there might be to warm your home. Try opening blinds and shades, particularly on the south and west sides of your home before...

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Energy tip #27: The best frequent flier miles are those unspent

Among a raft of holiday cards this season, I received one ugly letter from the otherwise nice folks at Continental airlines — my notice of achieving elite status. We try to minimize trips as much as possible at TerraPass, but with partners and board members scattered across Seattle, Michigan, and the east coast, I log a lot of miles on the red-eye. And every year I make status, it’s a sign I’m not doing too...

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Energy Tip #22: Deck the halls with solar-powered LED Christmas lights

Last week I was justly called out for passing along some dubious holiday energy statistics, so this week I’m going to play it safe with some figures I’m sure are correct: did you know that every year, Americans buy six hundred trillion trillion miles of Christmas lights, enough to stretch to the outer limits of the known universe and back eighteen times? All those lights suck a lot of power — in fact, total power...

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Energy Tip #21: veggie for a week

“Eat your veggies.” Who knew that mothers everywhere were really advocating a low-carbon lifestyle? Many environmentalists and health conscious citizens have committed themselves to structuring their diet on vegetarian foods. Others, such as myself, have forayed from time to time into the no meat zone without lasting particularly long. Regardless of individuals’ reasons for going veggie or how long they continue their eating habits, however, one fact remains true: eating lower down on the food...

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Energy Tip #20: Lint be gone

Sometimes in life, if you try to dress up something that just isn’t “all that,” you end up fooling nobody. So this week’s tip — straighten and clean the air ducts on your dryer — isn’t going to get sexified. Maybe straightening and cleaning your air ducts seems like a hassle, but sometimes small, inconvenient steps can have a measurable impact. This is one of those times. You should clean your clothes dryer ducts twice...

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Energy Tip #19: Regulate home temperature

Simple solutions are always attractive. And it doesn’t get much simpler than turning down the thermostat to save some money and CO2, right? Well, say hello to the programmable thermostat, which combines the drama of temperature control with the thrill of programming a VCR (if this is even done anymore in an age of TiVos, DVDs, and YouTube). Given the added complexity of what used to essentially be an on-off switch, why bother with a...

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Energy Tip #18: Follow the speed limit

From James Dean to The Fast and the Furious to Herbie Goes Bananas, racing has long been an iconic Hollywood staple in which the ‘pedal to the metal’ mentality is consistently glorified. However, if you like to leave fellow drivers in you wake, you might be interested in knowing that you can save $17-67 (plus a few hundred bucks in speeding tickets) by simply obeying the rules of the road. Going above the speed limit,...

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Energy Tip# 17: wash and rinse in cold water

Congratulations to TerraPass tip readers who earned some coverage this week in Time magazine. How do you easily save 1% on national CO2 emissions as well as over $3 billion in energy costs? According to some studies, this could happen if we all simply wash our clothes in cold water. Most of us are unaware of the full extent of energy required to wash our clothes. A staggering 85-90% of this energy is used by...

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Energy tip #16: solar thermal energy for your home

There has been much in the news lately (and on this blog) about the potential of solar power. From Google’s solar panels to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s speech at the 2006 Solar conference, it seems solar has arrived onto the scene in a big way. While much of the focus has been on the photovoltaic variety, there is a low tech solar option that is still a relatively hidden gem: solar thermal. This relatively basic technology can...

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Energy tip #15: Insulate your home

Wool you or won’t you? All puns aside, don’t be sheepish about insulation. With fall here and winter quickly approaching, some seasonal preparations could help turn your heat-hemorrhaging home into a model of efficiency and conservation. How? By giving your attic and walls a winter coat of fiberglass, mineral wool, recycled cotton, or even vegetable-based foam. Insulation can come in many different forms and is in many cases regionally specific. Depending on where you live,...

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Energy tip #14: use your dishwasher for good, not for evil

Got a dishwasher? If you happen to have an dishwasher and are running it on a daily basis, there are a few small things you can do to cut down on energy use. Don’t run the dishwasher’s dry cycle. Simply stop the dishwasher and let your fine china air dry, or just put a towel to them. Turn down the water temperature on the dishwasher to 120° F (also see Tip #13). Use the energy...

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Energy tip #13: lower your water heater from “scalding” to merely “burning”

Turn a knob and put $100 in your pocket. We often aren’t aware of how we’re using energy, and therefore not aware of what we can do to limit our consumption. This week a simple turn of the knob could help save 9-15% on your heating and cooling bill. Next time you open up that extra hall closet or are in the basement, be sure to pay a visit to your water heater. If you...

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Energy tip #12: ease up on the acceleration, leadfoot

Looking to save on gas money? You can save up to 37% simply by adjusting your style of your driving. If you have a tendency to accelerate quickly and brake aggressively, smoothing out the ride will give your tank some extra legs. Not to mention make your neighborhood a little safer. You’d be amazed how much your of your car’s fuel economy is under your control. Edmunds.com ran some tests to determine the best way...

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Energy tip #11: fixing a hole where the draft gets in

Saturday Night Live’s Jack Handy once offered the following Deep Thought: “Blow ye winds like the trumpet blows…but without that noise.” In the home, there are plenty of silent winds that blow. Unfortunately, they are the type that inflate your energy bill by sneaking in through small gaps between window and door seals. As we head into the colder seasons, a do-it-yourself audit of all the seals in your home could pay big dividends. One...

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Energy tip #10: remove wall warts and slay electricity vampires

Are you plugged in? If you have ever left rechargers or unused appliances plugged into the electrical outlet, you may be in for a bit of a shock. The U.S. Department of Energy tells us that not only do appliances continue to draw electricity while the products are turned off, but in the average home nearly 75% of all electricty used to power electronics is consumed by products that are switched off. VCRs, televisions, stereos,...

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Energy tip #9: get your ducts in a row

Duct tape. Everyone’s favorite utilitarian product has been used for many, many things: hanging posters on walls, taping packages, wrapping up a wiffleball to get extra distance on your home-run swing. It’s one of the most useful products on the market, except when it serves it’s namesake purpose of wrapping the ducts in your home to prevent leakage.* Air ducts are tubes, pipes, or channels through which hot and cold air flow when summoned by...

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Energy tip #8: slow and low, that is the shower flow

If you like singing in the shower but are concerned about conserving water, you’re faced with a interesting challenge: you can either find a shorter song to sing or put up $10 for a low-flow shower head and continue pleasing the neighbors with quite possibly the best versions of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” they’ve ever heard. The nice thing about some of the newer low-flow shower heads is that they maintain high water pressure. Older versions...

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Energy tip #7: get the junk out of your trunk

Fore! Heads-up for incoming savings! If you’ve been carrying around a set of golf clubs in your car, or, maybe slightly less likely, have managed to strap them to your roof rack, you may be losing out on some precious green fee money. Worse yet, you may be missing out on funds to buy your buddies a round of coffee or other beverages to tell them about the Tiger-esque eagle you managed to pull out...

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Energy tip #6: tame your fridge

The scene: ‘Twas a typical night in the Johnson house. The 1.8 cars resting in the driveway and 2.2 children scarfing down chicken soup and fresh greens at the dinner table. But, just when dinner was coming to a close and with sleep time beckoning, Lynda perpetrated the pecuniary mistake of putting warm soup directly in the fridge. $.03 — gone. Never to be seen again. The crime: Eating up your discretionary spending. The suspect:...

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Energy tip #5: use the right motor oil

Feed your engine the right fluids and you will improve performance. That’s why a healthy portion of us opt to fill up with a cup of leaded coffee in the morning. If you want to give your car a boost and are in the mood to save money, checking to make sure you’re using the right motor oil could help to pad the pocket and please your auto’s underbelly at the same time. Next time...

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Energy tip #4: get yourself a clothesline

Mark Twain obviously lived in a different era. Summer in San Francisco has been hot — so hot that I’ve thought about switching to iced coffee in an attempt to beat the heat. So given the current weather, I think it’s an appropriate time to put forth possibly the least sexy tip in the bunch: Air dry your clothes. But, but…no excuses. When it’s 108 degrees in inland California you could dry out a t-shirt...

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Energy tip #3: replace your car’s air filter

Replacing your air filter could help you save up to $150 a year…and allow you to afford your favorite coffee maker, a thermos, and finally drop those pesky disposable cups. It will also eliminate over 1,000 lbs of CO2 emissions. The air filter (a slightly meatier version of the coffee variety) is a necessary part of your car that cleans particulates from the air before it hits your engine. The result is dramatically improved horsepower...

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Energy tip #2: inflate your tires

Fresh off the heels of Tip #1, I bring you Tip #2: inflate your tires. It’s often said that the best things in life are free. And while I’m still waiting for someone to send a free bag of coffee beans to headquarters, inflating your tires doesn’t cost a penny. In fact, it pays you about $57 a year. According to the the U.S. Department of Energy, you can improve your gas mileage by about...

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Energy tip #1: don’t be a dim bulb

Introducing a new series of conservation tips: How To Finance Your Monthly Coffee Or Yearly TerraPass (HTFYMCOYT). I’ve been spending a good portion of the budget lately on coffee. Every morning at 8:30, $1.65 goes into the barista’s outstretched palm. Now, I happen to think the coffee is worth it, but I thought I’d do some quick math on what I spend each month. Dang. Twenty days of a small house blend — plus the...

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The $7.6 Billion dollar tire inflation gauge: Inflate your tires to save money and the environment

Imagine you found a way to fairly effortlessly save $7.6 Billion every year, and reduce 52 billion lbs of CO2. You would be pretty happy right? Well this is what I stumbled upon this morning. I’ll admit to not being so religious about car maintenance, but this morning I was motivated enough to try out a handy little Brookstone Digital tire gauge that I received as a stocking stuffer last year. (MSRP $20). I tested...

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