by Mercia Tapping, President, GreenandMore.com

I just got last month’s electricity bill and it was almost half what it had been a year ago and a savings of $110 for that month alone! Since the energy savings were so dramatic, I reflected on what I had been doing bit by bit over the last year, to achieve that result. Yes, some of the stuff seems obvious and I am a bit embarrassed that I even had to think of changing our behavior - but here goes.

1. Of course, I have been changing light bulbs to more energy efficient ones, but more importantly, I religiously turn off the lights in a room when I leave if only for 5 minutes, and I certainly do not leave lights on in the house even in the hallway when I am out. Outdoor path lights blazing for the one unscheduled visitor a year are a thing of the past.

2. I have turned the fan on our furnace from ON to AUTO so the fan is not going all the time and we still get enough air circulating.

3. I do not use the dishwasher until it is a full load, and so we use the dishwasher half the number of times we used to.

4. We spend time in our summer home every weekend, so our primary residence is unused at weekends. I turn the heat way down as I leave and deal with the inconvenience of a chilly house on my return.

5. I told my husband at the end of last year that if I caught him turning on the built in wall space heaters this year when he watched television, or if he threw open the windows in our bedroom to air out the house all day and heat the outside- I would levy a fine of $10 a day. After coughing up fines a couple of times, he no longer opens the windows for a long time in winter and wraps himself up in a throw blanket rather than turn on auxiliary heat.

6. We no longer think it is our god given right to walk around the house in shorts in the dead of winter and dress in layers with silk undershirts to keep toasty. Our thermostat is several degrees lower than last year.

7. We turn the computers off when not in use, and unplug all unused appliances, even the lowly toaster, except the refrigerator, in order not to spend money on ghost energy.

The reality is we have achieved these improvements in our energy efficiency with a minimal effort on our part. Like many Americans, we were thoughtlessly guzzling energy without any thought of impact it might have on the planet. The best part for us personally is seeing that energy bill go down every month and being able to pocket the savings. It has now become a game as to where next we can effect improvements. There is still more we can do, but I feel we are on our way to being far more responsible about our consumption of energy than we have in years.

by Margie

The Going Green Expo in early February in Boston is now a distant green memory, but was well worth the visit. I tromped around wearing our very own juicebags solar backpack, which charges cell phones, mp3s and other portable electronic devices. A few people, including the green business reps, asked me to demo how it worked. I came with my own cellphone charger and phone inside the pack, and promptly brought it out upon request.

The thousands of folks who were walking around when I was there seems to be a good indicator that going green is important to Americans, especially in Boston. And now that our city was ranked the 3rd greenest in the US, we can have something to be proud of.

Mercia Tapping

We have a north facing den, which in winter gets abysmally chilly. And, much to my chagrin, my husband has been prone to putting on space heaters at full blast and running up our electricity bill. I have been racking my brains as to stop this behavior without having him to go to bed to watch TV and be warm enough.

So, this fall I have a number of cozy throws strategically draped over chairs and sofas. The first members of the family who think that this is a splendid idea are the cats! They have instantly adopted the new throws. Now we will just have to see whether my husband can be persuaded to use them. Or, at least use a sweater instead of going around in his short sleeves in the dead of winter. Stay tuned.

Mercia Tapping

One of the great contrasts I saw after a recent trip to England, is that people rarely use a clothes dryer; whether they live in the city or country. Of course my family owns dryers, but they hang their clothes out to dry. Now in this country it is often forbidden—and seen as littering the landscape—interesting!

Mercia Tapping

Do any of you have a partner who insists on heating the great outdoors by having the windows thrown open all day while the furnace is blazing during the heating season? With the heating season upon us, I will share with you what I did last winter. Every time my husband left the windows to our bedroom wide open all day, and I discovered them open after I returned home,I fined him $10 on the spot! Now you don’t go up in the popularity polls, but I can tell you he changed his behavior pretty darn quick! I am sure it will happen again, but I am ready for the battle!

Mercia Tapping

I recently returned from the UK, where I grew up with solar panels, and where recycling wasn’t even a term—it was a way of life. We reused every piece of string and paper bag. Foil or cling wrap were carefully washed and reused, and we never went from one room to the next without turning out the lights. After living for 35 years in America, I realized just about a year ago that I had forgotten my roots; and was a greedily guzzling resources like many other Americans. Continue »

Ginny and Cindy

Car Pooling in the metropolitan Boston area is not just about reaching your destination. It is about the journey–the conversations, the interruptions and—finally– reaching the workplace safely!

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