Walk is the new Drive

I had to go to orientation for one of my new jobs this afternoon. It's about half a mile away, and normally I would have driven, but it's not like it was really that far away. So I walked there and back. And it really was pretty pleasant. So from now on (as long as temperature and sunlight permit) I'm going to walk to work. I can't imagine it'll make a huge impact, but every little bit helps.

At the laundromat

Oh how I wish I had a washer and dryer of my very own. Laundry has always been my least favorite chore, and the fact that I have to do it in a crappy laundromat where half the machines are always broken doesn't help matters. Thank God for unsecured internet access.

But as I'm sitting here wasting away my day, a question comes to mind - what is best detergent to use, environmentally? I used one of those little single load boxes with the powder detergent. On the plus side, it's recyclable. On the minus side, it seems like a waste of packaging for one little scoop of powder. And who knows what kind of damage the powder itself might do? I'm thinking on the whole that powder is better than liquid because it is packaged in cardboard, not plastic. So I suppose i should be buying bulk-boxes of powder to cut down on packaging..... if only I had a place in my tiny apartment to store it.

Taking Stock

A couple of weeks ago I used a carbon footprint calculator just to see how environmentally awful I am. It said if everyone lived like me, we'd need 2.7 earths. I was SHOCKED. Then I realized I'd done the calculations for my household (me + a husband + a miniature dachshund) so maybe it's not so bad.... but it's still more than one earth per person so it's too much. I've been wanting to try to reduce my impact, but I'm not quite sure how. I'm going to blog my changes - and I welcome feedback. And let's see if my family can be just a little greener.

Here's what we're starting out with:

We rent a studio-ish one bedroom

We own a car, but we both take public transportation to work

We drive about 10,000 miles a year

We recycle - mostly

We have LOTS of electronics, which are always plugged in

I'm veg*n, he's an omnivore

We get the majority of our produce from a CSA group

We use lots and lots of plastic bags

This being summer, the air conditioner is on full blast most of the time

Obviously, we're doing some things right, but there are many other things we can improve on - and this is only what I can think of now. Time to get to work.