Smells Like Green Spirit

So…I’ve promised myself that I am not taking up any more hobbies, because between making art, learning how to play drums, teaching myself French, watching movies, and reading, I have no time for anything new. Nothing new, you hear me?!

But… I think if I had a flat roof, I would defy my promise to self, and make a rooftop garden. Because I have the awareness of a cave person, I had never heard of rooftop gardens until recently! But they sound so cool!

Square mile after square mile of our cities are covered with cement and asphalt, generating heat and emitting smog out into the atmosphere. Yuck! Did you know that because of this, cities can be around 5 degrees hotter than the land around them? That was one thing that was so wonderful about my roadtrip through the midwest a few months ago…just the rolling hills of beautiful farmland.

The Advantages

Here are the exciting advantage of rooftop gardens:

*It reduces the CO2 emissions of your home, absorbing all the bad stuff you’re putting out there, and improving the air quality.

*It insulates your home (cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter…can’t beat that!).

*It creates a natural habitat for birds and butterflies.

*You can grow fun things like herbs and tomotoes and zucchinis!

*Since there probably aren’t as many trees blocking your roof as there are blocking your yard, it’s the ideal environment for plants to get full sunlight.

*I’ve never used self watering planters, but the website gardeners.com has a list of self watering products to make your rooftop garden even easier. (Note: I’ve never bought anything from them.)

*Rooftop gardens reduce stormwater runoff.

*It can double the life of your roof.

*I’ve heard that the city of Chicago also offers tax breaks for rooftop gardens…I’ll write more on that later!

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It seems like the best place in the Chicago area to buy a used bike besides Craig’s List (which I haven’t done), or a farm auction in Wisconsin (where my friend’s dad buys bikes for $10, but which I would have no idea how to go about doing…) is Working Bikes.

Working Bikes is a non profit collective which, besides selling used and refurbished bikes at reasonable prices, ships bikes to low income people in countries like Nicaragua, Cuba, Kenya, and Ghana to meet their transportation needs…pretty cool, huh?

Mostly run by volunteer staff, Working Bikes funds much of its operation from bike sales at its storefront, located at 1125 S. Western Ave, where you can also buy things like bike locks and bike helmets.

Location and Hours

1125 S. Western Ave

(312) 421-5048

Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday: Noon - 5 pm

Check out their website : www.workingbikes.org

They suggest you get there early on the weekends, especially in the summer months, as the bikes go pretty quickly.

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The EPA’s Green Power Partnership was created to encourage businesses to switch from conventional fossil fuel based energy systems to renewable systems. You can visit their website to find lists of companies who are utilizing renewable energy systems.

Say, what are renewable energy systems?

Know exactly what renewable energy sources are?

These days, our choices are solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro generated green power.

Just a Bunch of Renewable Hot Air?

Looking at the list of companies that are using renewable energy sources, first I was suprised. So many companies whose products I would hesitate to buy (Pepsi, Johnson and Johnson, Starbucks), were listed as parters. Had I underestimated these companies?

Sure, every little bit helps, but some “award winning” companies listed on the EPA Green Power Partership website use as little as 3% renewable energy. Impressive enough to really be award winning? I’m not so sure. But, at least they’re doing something? Sure. We as consumers can let companies know that we appreciate what they are doing by supporting the products of companies that use renewable energy, and by encouraging companies to use more of it!

Goin’ All the Way: 100% Renewable

So, as some companies only use a small portion of renewable energy…what companies use 100% renewable energy? Well, the EPA has published a list appropriately called 100% Green Power Purchasers.

Some of those listed as 100% Green Power Purchasers are:

* Whole Foods
*Pepsi Co
* The EPA (Thank goodness, right?)
*NYU
*Coldwater Creek
*The City of Bellington, WA
*The City of Santa Monica, CA
*Burt’s Bees
*Tazo Tea

There weren’t a whole lot of places listed for Chicago or llinois specifically, but those listed are (none of which I’ve ever heard of):

*FPC - Construction
*Farr Associates - Construction
*Goodness Greenness - Food and Beverage
*Saint Xavier University
*PepsiAmericas

The website also lists the top 25 purchasers of renewable energy, which doesn’t by any means suggest they use even 50% green energy…

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All Business for Now?

When I first stumbled upon Indie Energy at www.indieenergy.com, I was looking for something that we could sign up for at our home. The website doesn’t clearly state whether or not it would provide renewable energy for a residential building, but it looks like it might be geared more towards businesses and larger projects. Which is still pretty cool, but do any of you know of a business that provides renewable energy to homes?

On Indie Energy’s website, they list several projects they are working for as the Hubbard Street office complex, the Church Street Village Apartments in Evanston, the Greenwood Live/Work lofts in Evanston, and, most interesting to me, the BooCoo Cultural Center and Cafe in Evanston, where one of my friends runs the cafe.

Boocoo Cultural Center and Cafe

Boocoo just opened in July, on 1823 Church St in Evanston. The founder of Boocoo played in bands for years, and now wanted to create a cultural center in Evanston where bands can record their music, where you can take all types of classes you’d expect from a top notch cultural center, and where you can eat delicious and healthful foods! Boocoo chose to use Indie Energy to save operating costs, using a combination of geothermal and energy recovery ventilation.

Support local businesses that use renewable energy! As the consumers, we are the ones with the real power (the power of our pocketbooks) to encourage change in businesses.

Check out Boocoo’s website at boocoo.org!

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My grandmother owned a dryer, and the gal was no environmentalist, but as a kid I remember playing catch in her backyard in Georgia under her clotheslines of sheets. I imagine there was just something she loved about the smell of sun dried clothes. I wish I had a big backyard with a clothesline, but as long as I’m crammed in a tiny apartment in Chicago, it’s unfortunately not an option for me.

Here are some ideas that you and I can do to save energy while drying clothes…

• Of course, the first and best way to dry your clothes is to let nature do the work! If you have space, a clothes line is the ideal way to dry your clothes. If you don’t have a backyard, you can purchase drying racks in a variety of different sizes to dry clothes indoors somewhere. I have a clothesline that I can hang across my shower (hooking one end to the showerhead and one end to the shower rod at the other end) made out of a bungee-like cord and clothes pins.

• Only dry full loads so you’ll use your dryer less often…but don’t overfill!

• I always thought my mom was just nagging when she’d go on and on about cleaning out the lint trap in the dryer…but apparently your dryer will suck up around 30% less energy if you keep the lint trap clean.
  • P.S. Fun Lint Fact - Lint is a great fire starter, even better than kindling, so if you have a fire place or are an avid camper, you can recycle the lint by reusing it!

• I didn’t know that those moisture sensors really worked, but apparently they do! Put your dryer on the automatic setting so it stops when the job’s done. Less exposure to unnecessary heat will protect your clothes from damage too. It’s like killing two birds with one dryer sensor.
• Another way to decrease drying times is to separate different materials on the auto-sensor cycle. Heavy towels and blue jeans take longer to dry than lighter materials or smaller items like undies, so separate your stuff!
• You spin me right round baby, right round…put your washing machine spin cycle on high if you can to start dryin’ them clothes before they hit your dryer.
• Who would’a thunk it: Throw an already dry towel in with the load of clothes to absorb some moisture and speed up the drying time of your clothes. You can even leave the towel in the dryer, so it’s there anytime you need it. Unless you wash your clothes at a laundromat like me, in which case, not such a good idea.
• Take a quick look outside at the state of your dryer vent. If the vent doesn’t close properly, then air can leak in from the outdoors and mess with your heating and cooling bills. If the vent is filthy and clogged, it will decrease the efficiency of your dryer, and take longer for things to get dry.
• There is information about do-it-yourself dryer venting on this website: http://www.doityourself.com/scat/clothesdryervent
• If you have enough stuff, running dryer cycles back to back helps your dryer use the residual heat from the previous load.
• Instead of keeping your dryer in a freezing tundra or cold garage, keep it in a heated room if you have a choice about it, so your dryer can work more efficiently.
• Gas dryers use less energy than electric dryers, or so I hear, so keep that in mind when purchasing one.
• Here are websites about products that claim to help with drying costs and energy expenditure, so check them out if you are in the market for such a thing (note: I’ve not tried either of these myself):
  • The dryer box at www.dryerbox.com says it is a system for more efficient dryer venting
  • And Spin-X at www.spin-x.com is a centrifuge drying system that was apparently even featured in Time Magazine as an appliance that will pay for itself in saved money! Check it out.

• Finally, two other ways to save money on dryer costs are to join a nudist colony so you don’t have any clothes to wash, and to not ever wash your clothes at all, which is what I try to do.

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I always thought that leaving the lights on, or leaving the fan running during the day only affected the pocketbook by increasing my electricity bill…but according to carbonfootprint.com electricity is one of the largest producers of carbon emissions. Oops!

Many have been the nights where I’ve slept with the light on because I’ve heard a weird noise and been freaked out, or left the tv or radio on to keep the cat company. I didn’t realize that this had an effect on the environment…obviously my use of electricity is an easy thing to change, and a quick way to reduce my carbon footprint!

A chart on carbonfootprint.com lists the largest household electricity users, with hair dryers, tumble clothes dryers, and microwave ovens using some of the greatest amounts of energy. Bummer. I blow dry my hair almost every day, and eat many microwave meals. Much to the chagrin of my loved ones, but to the delight of the enviroment I don’t do laundry often enough.

What can I do to reduce my electricity usage?

1. The simplest thing is to not leave things on when I’m not using them: lights, fans, tvs, radios, etc.

2. Use low-wattage bulbs for my lights.

3. Blow dry my hair less. (Not willing to give this one up completely!) Maybe even wash my hair less, so I don’t need to even dry my hair.

4. Not keep my a/c unit as cold when I do use it.

5. Unplug my cellphone when it’s done charging.

6. Shut my computer down when I’m not using it.

I don’t have room in my small apartment to hang all my clothes out to dry instead of tumble drying them…but maybe I could work on this.

Any other ideas?

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