Carbon Footprint
How To Live In A Tiny Home
Sure, there was a time when only royalty built and lived in homes of enormous scale. But, in today’s world, some of the largest homes in the history of mankind are occupied by average citizens. At the same time however, there are more and more people who occupy incredibly tiny homes and, not only out of necessity but by choice.
In fact, wherever you go, you can find very small homes. Of course, most living spaces must be smaller in crowded cities like Tokyo and New York. If you make your home in a large, populous city, chances are you will have no choice but to contend with less living space than if you lived in the less densely populated countryside. But, that is not necessarily the whole truth. More people are choosing to move into tiny homes, mostly for environmental and cost saving purposes.
Recently, a man chose to spend his four years at university in a van in order to save money. There is a company called Tumbleweed Tiny House Company that makes and markets homes ranging from 65 to 837 square feet at the largest. You can find loft spaces in New York City that are comparable to that size as well and ones in Tokyo even smaller.
There are many advantages to these homes. The main benefits are cost savings, low carbon footprint and easy maintenance and upkeep. You don’t have to spend nearly what you would to take care of a larger home and you save time as well when you clean. Spend a little more on some top of the line equipment like the Dyson upright vacuum cleaner and you’ll have your place cleaned in no time and never have to worry about buying another vacuum.
Tiny homes may look small on the outside but, on the inside, they can be made quite roomy and comfortable. With things like strategically placed mirrors and other ideas a good interior designer can suggest, your home can appear much larger. There are tons of do-it-yourself ideas as well you can find on the Internet for making the most of small spaces. Another example is creating of buying furniture that is dual purpose like a sofa/book shelf. Once again, if you buy small but buy the best, like a Delonghi space heater, you will not need central heating and your house will be plenty warm.
You don’t necessarily have to buy the best all the time. In fact, there are things you should not spend too much on. How many dinner parties do you think you’ll hold in a tiny home. Not many, right? So, why spend on the best steel cook wear when you can get a nice anodized cookware set that works for any occasion for less money?
Living in a tiny home is not for everyone. In fact, some people would probably be driven crazy. But, for those who are willing and able, it is a great time, money and environment saver. Plus, it can be very pleasant and enjoyable if you know how to do it right.
Eco Friendly Cleaning Tips
Many cleaning tasks that we take for granted, such as washing the dishes, doing the laundry, cleaning the windows or polishing the furniture often involve harsh chemicals. These are bad for both the environment as a whole and for your personal environment – your home.
Toxic chemicals can cause health problems for humans and pets. When you wash them down the drain or throw them outside, they become part of our land and water. Here are some green cleaning tips to help make your cleaning jobs more eco-friendly.
** Baking soda makes a great natural and inexpensive cleaning product. You can
clean floors, walls, refrigerators and counter tops with a warm, damp rag and
some baking soda.
** Want to make your house smell nicer without harsh air fresheners? Try
aromatherapy. Essential oils can be placed in a room. The great thing about
this is that you have a vast selection of scents to choose from. Each has its own
particular effects on mood. Of course, you don’t have to follow an aromatherapy
guide, you can simply follow your nose and use what pleases you. You can try
rose, various citrus blends, peppermint, lavender, and eucalyptus for starters.
** Another good household cleaning product is borax. This is very effective for
cleaning carpets. You can mix it with essential oils to create a nicely scented,
natural carpet cleaner that you can apply to the rug before vacuuming.
** For a natural window cleaner, mix two tablespoons of white vinegar with a gallon
of water and clean your windows using newspapers. This simple and cheap
solution works at least as well as your typical commercial mix that has strong
chemicals in it.
** To clean wood floors, you can use another common household item –tea! Just
boil up two teabags in hot water and mop up the floor.
Other household cleaners that can be used in the house are lemon juice and club soda. Both of these remove stains from most surfaces.
Of course, in addition to these suggestions you can go to your health food store and find a wide variety of organic and natural cleaning product for every purpose. These tend to be more expensive than commercial brands, but many are also highly concentrated.
You can do just as well with the DIY (do it yourself) type green cleaning tips included above. Either way, always try to make a greener choice when you have some cleaning to do!
Environmental Reasons for Recycling Gold
If you were to be able to collect all of the gold which has been mined and extracted from the planet since man began searching for this precious metal, you would have a cube of gold some 22 meters (about 70 feet) along the side – imagine all the gold found since time began is just a cube 70 feet by 70 feet by 70 feet – that fits in a very small office building or a large house.
Shifting, mining, blasting, dissolving in acid, land clearance, people clearance, tons of earth, toxic pollution of billions of gallons of water, and the eradication of numerous species of plant and animal life – all of these things are required in order to extract that relatively small amount of gold.
That doesn’t even count the amounts of energy that have to be used to power all these activities.
The environmental cost of mining and extracting gold is simply fantastically, enormous – which is one reason it is currently trading at $900 an ounce!
Fortunately, there is a simple and very easy-win for those who are environmentally conscious and also want to be rewarded for their green efforts – recycling gold and other precious metals costs a fraction of what it does to extract it from the ground. The vast bulk of the carbon footprint has already been created in getting the gold mined and worked into rings, necklaces, bracelets and other jewelry items.
With a combination of severe recession causing people to look for ways to raise extra money and at the same time, savvy investors looking to invest in gold because the stock market is not a safe place to invest anymore – the price of gold is now historically high and sellers are getting top dollar on their pieces.
Using the following numbers from a “prodcutive” mine, here is how you work out the environmental impact of producing just one little ounce of gold
30 tonnes of ore are required
400 tonnes of earth are required to be shifted to extract the 30 tons of ore
3,000 Kw of electricity are required
4,000 gallons of water are used
Remember – all this just to produce one ounce of the bright shiny stuff!
Though the vast majority of the world’s gold has been extracted since 1910 (all those California gold rushes helped settle the American West but they contributed a tiny drop in the ocean for the world’s gold reserves), it is thought that 85% of the total reserves are still in the ground. While “new” gold is mined worldwide, gold is found on every continent, there is a growing recognition that mining gold is an extremely highly polluting activity and yet so much extracted gold is readily available and sitting in bullion deposit centers such as Fort Knox, KY or the Federal Reserve Bank of New York simply doing nothing!
Recycling existing gold is clearly a very green and very profitable exercise and if ever there was an environmentally sound, win-win situation, selling old gold is definitely it!
Log On To Save The Planet
It’s probably fair to say that we’re all much more environmentally aware these days. It seems improbable that we are about to turn into a nation of eco-warriors overnight, but the majority of people are quite happy to make a little effort to be greener. It is a lot of relatively small changes by a large number of people that tends to make the difference. The good news is that you can be more environmentally friendly whilst saving both time and money.
For example, Carnegie Melon University recently conducted a study which concluded that shopping online is considerably better for the environment than the traditional method of shopping at retail outlets. One example used in the study was the purchase of a flash memory stick, and it was found the environmental impact of the traditional retail method was 35% greater than making an identical purchase using the internet.
A similar study – carried out by CleanTech this time – found that the carbon footprint of a book was 7.5 kg of CO2 during the course of its life. However, this figure was increased by a factor of two if the customer got into their car, drove to the store, purchased their book and then drove home again instead of having it delivered in the mail.
Approximately 65% of the emissions generated by traditional shopping methods are a direct result of the customer’s transport to the store and back again.
Not only is shopping online better for the environment – it will save you time and you will often be able to find what you’re after at a better price. You can increase the environmental benefits even more simply by choosing the right type of product.
For example, if you choose to buy electronic books instead of the conventional printed type, you will save on paper, ink and the energy used in the printing and binding process. As a rule, electronic books are cheaper than the printed versions – plus you save on gas. You can even subscribe to get newspapers and magazines delivered to e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle reader every day.
In a similar manner, if you choose to download music to your mp3 player or PC, you will save on CDs, packaging and distribution emissions. Downloading movies, which you can now do from Amazon, iTunes and a host of other sites also has both financial and environmental benefits.
So when it comes to purchasing goods on the internet, why not use a twin pronged attack. Firstly, if you can buy online rather than using your car to visit the local store then that will generally be a good alternative. Secondly, if you replace physical products with downloadable ones then not only will you be environmentally friendly – but you will save both money and time.
The Amazon Kindle Will Lower The Carbon Footprint Of Reading
In 2008 the US book and magazine industry was responsible for the harvesting of 125 million trees. Many publishing firms are environmentally aware and use sustainably sources for their paper supply. Simply put, they plant a tree for every one they cut down. However, not all do this and even those who do usually fail to take account of the large quantities of water and thermal energy used in the production of the paper.
The carbon footprint of the average book is 7.5 kg of CO2 over its lifetime. However, if you ho into your car, drive to the shopping district to buy your book, and then drive home again, the carbon footprint of that book will be doubled. It’s amazing how relatively small actions like this make such a difference.
So it should be no surprise to learn that electronic book readers – such as the Amazon Kindle – are kinder to the environment. Even aside from the fact that no paper, ink or water are used in the production of electronic books, the method of delivery – download from the internet using either standard connection or 3G wireless technology – is considerably more environmentally friendly.
Of course, it would be wrong to suggest that e-book readers have no environmental impact. Clearly they consume both energy and materials in the course of the manufacturing process of the reader device. Additionally, they require electrical power when in use. Even when these factors are factored into the equation, they are still considerably better for the environment than the continued use of traditional printed books, magazines and newspapers.
It is estimated that in 2009, e-book readers will be “carbon neutral” – the CO2 saved by the use of electronic media will almost exactly balance the CO2 used to manufacture and power the devices. In the near future, as usage of e-book readers grows, the manufacture and operating “cost” will be more than outweighed by the savings gained by avoiding the production, processing and distribution of traditional paper based books and magazines.
The majority of people will purchase their Kindle reader based on the fact that it’s convenient, trendy and that it offers a way for them to save money on books. The fact that it’s more environmentally friendly will probably be a secondary consideration for many – even so, it will have a significant positive impact in the future.
