Living Lighter

This movie will open up your eyes to many of the solutions and ideas that people around the world are implementing to solve the global warming crisis, while at the same time, teaching us to live “within our means.” But where does one begin. We have put together, and will continually add to, a database of information to help guide you to the solutions that will work for you.

Click here to download a rundown of the steps that the Matt Briggs family took to improve their carbon footprint and energy consumption.

Possible Actions to Lower Your Human Carbon Energy Footprint

(Click here to download .pdf version)

HABITAT RESTORATION
  1. Plant lots of trees
  2. Plant mixed species native trees, berries, flowers
  3. Plant trees north side so south solar is free in cool climates
  4. Plant trees south side for shade hot climates
  5. Add nesting sites—brush piles, rocks, birdhouses—see WWF backyard wildlife habitat ideas
  6. Add a source of water for animals—move it or change it to eliminate mosquitos
  7. Recycle/compost yard clippings, compost all food wastes
  8. Go more paperless in your office
  9. Recycle all paper—most old growth cutting is to make paper
  10. Print on both sides of recycled paper
  11. Print with narrow margins, smaller type
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
  1. Disconnect Second Refrigerator
  2. Disconnect or downsize extra freezer
  3. Install well-designed, good light, compact fluorescent lights (CFCs) or LED lights
  4. Install power bar turn-offs or unplug standby electronics
  5. Replace in window AC with cooling fans
  6. Install programmable thermostat—set at 68 degrees winter, 78 degrees summer
  7. Let your hair dry ambient
  8. Use less water, thus less electricity to pump it
  9. Hang your laundry to dry (if you are crazier than me)
  10. Turn down your water heater to 120 degrees
  11. Clean furnace filters and refrigerator coils
  12. Straighten heat ducts
  13. Mothball giant old electronics
  14. Change from gas power to push lawn mower
  15. Abandon the leaf blower for the rake and broom
  16. Use hand kitchen tools—knives, can-openers
  17. Use hand toothbrushes
  18. Install light dimmers
  19. Wrap the Hot Water Heater with insulating blanket
  20. Disconnect Hot Tub or heat it with solar
  21. Paint with light paint, use light carpet to reflect light/use less electricity
  22. Enable your computer power management system—use a quick, deep (1 Watt) sleep mode
  23. Use Inkjet printers if possible instead of guzzler laser printers
  24. Buy combi print/scan/fax/copy machines
  25. Deep recycle everything at highest use, reuse
ENERGY EFFICIENT APPLIANCES
  1. Join Japan, Europe and now China in a Top Runner program where appliance standards increase every year based on the most efficient designs possible instead of the least efficient.
  2. Front load washing machine
  3. Highest rated beyond Energy Star dishwasher
  4. Refrigerator with lowest Kw Hour use—no icemaker, no butter warmer, etc
  5. Install a good inline water filter at the kitchen sink and use stainless steel bottles
  6. Downsize electronics—laptops instead of box computers, cloud computing, small stereos, LED TVs
  7. Change from CRV computer screens to flat-screens
  8. Use energy saving settings
  9. Timer lights in building hallways
  10. Programmable thermostats
GREEN BUILDING
  1. Blower test to see where doors and leaks
  2. Infra red test to see where the walls and floors leak
  3. Seal with foam insulation and add non-toxic bulk insulation to the max—attic, floor, walls
  4. Fireplace plugs, tight glass doors, chimney dampers up top
  5. Live smaller in house or apartment
  6. Weather-seal doors, windows, walls
  7. Insulated curtains
  8. Insulated honey-comb shades (in tracks-tight)
  9. Occupancy sensors—infra red motion detector triggered to turn on and shut off lights
  10. Day-lighting design to lessen need for electric lights
  11. Energy Efficient Windows—tints/coatings/glazing
  12. Recapture heat in air exhaust—HRV—Heat Recovery Ventilators
  13. Use passive systems without need for electric/carbon power wherever possible
  14. Double pane windows with low e glass coatings and storm windows
  15. Green roof—cools in summer, warms in winter, cleans air pollution
  16. Roof with light colors to reflect light/heat
  17. Use smart materials—chemical cement and drywall, recycled
  18. Reuse materials
  19. Recycle buildings
  20. Install a smart meter on the house and smart chips on your appliances to best use renewable and cheap electricity and to keep the peak use of fossil fuel plants lower
  21. Install rain-catchment, grey water, storm-swale storage systems to lower water use and water pollution runoff.
LIFESTYLE
  1. Open windows morning, close midday—-summer
  2. Close windows morning, open midday—winter
  3. Shorter showers
  4. Think ahead—i.e. thaw frozen food ambient, not in the microwave etc
  5. Buy with less to zero packaging
  6. Buy things that last
  7. Change purchasing habits to sustainable—end throwaway thinking—there is no “away”
  8. Buy local—less transport carbon burning
  9. Grow some of your own food—extreme local
  10. Use the best materials that last longest
  11. Shop with reusable shopping bags
  12. Eat lower on the food chain—less meat means less water use, less deforestation, less pollution
  13. Use lowest carbon transportation—walk, bike, mass transit, carpool before solo car
WATER
  1. Front load washing machine—-1/2 the water
  2. Drip irrigation in yard
  3. Stainless steel bottles for water
  4. Dual flush toilets
  5. Low water use dishwashers
  6. Grey water recycle systems
  7. Eat less meat (5000 gallons to grow 1 pound of meat)
  8. Install water catchment systems—gutters/barrels/cisterns—use goldfish in the barrels to eat mosquito larvae
  9. Install low flow nozzles on showers and sinks
  10. Install storm-swale catchment to lower direct pollution runoff—let the water percolate through the ground slowly
TRANSPORT
  1. Buy and get tax credits for an electric or plug-in electric car
  2. Work at home—telecommute
  3. Walk/bike/bus/carpool/streetcar/train to work—the lowest carbon alternative possible
  4. Live near your workplace
  5. Use flex-car and flex-truck services
  6. Decommission your SUV—get it off the road early—recycle it in toto
  7. Fly a lot less—worst thing we do, biggest carbon footprint—teleconference and skype
RENEWABLE ENERGY
  1. Sign up for all renewable energy in your electric bill
  2. Install geothermal heat pump/ground source heat pump
  3. Or—Install European/Japanese style furnace with solar hot water, renewable electric powered air heatpump with heat capture of exhaust air system
  4. Install solar Hot Water System with renewable electric backup
  5. Install solar electric for the house and the plug-in/electric car on your roof
  6. Solar heat your and every neighborhood pool
  7. Lobby and help your employer to do all this at your place of work
UTILITIES
  1. Install a robust National long-distance High Voltage Direct Current grid to be able to move the biggest sources of renewable energy—wind from the mid-west and sun from the southwest
  2. Open the grid and the Utility business to small, dispersed, renewable energy producers
  3. Refurbish by law all old fossil fuel electric plants to increasingly cleaner levels
  4. Stop building Coal fired power plants and decommission old coal plants as fast as possible unless all carbon dioxide is sequestered and all other pollution is detoxified
  5. Sequester all CO2 from all fossil fuel power plants and big industrial users like cement and fertilizer in deep land storage
  6. Help the Third World leap past dirty fossil fuel energy like coal to renewable energy and energy efficiency with technology transfer, advise, and long term loans
POPULATION
  1. Empower women worldwide with microloans
  2. Make family planning available worldwide
  3. Eliminate poverty worldwide so poor people don’t cut down the last tree and fish out the last fish and pollute their life support system
  4. Have fewer children