I was flipping through the October 2007 issue of This Old House. The "theme" of the issue was green remodeling ideas, and I thought great! This will be so useful, as I am trying to make as little of an environmental impact as possible on my house.Unfortunately, most of the magazine was dedicated to expensive ways to save energy by buying new, and new products that are theoretically manufactured using "green" techniques. I am much more interested in information about how to retrofit existing houses with a much smaller consumer footprint, and information on how to use old materials.
Now, before I completely trash the magazine issue, there was a nice article on 22 Little Ways to Go Green, with a number of somewhat useful ideas. We already do most of them, however... no shoes in the house for instance. But, the list is a nice reminder of some of the more basic ways to improve your energy efficiency.
6 comments:
You have to love how all these companies/magazines/etc are jumping onto the "green" bandwagon by saying, "Buy these green products!" But it is still just, buy buy buy. New products, more things, more materialism. Frustrating!
Your house is so cute. I'd love to see pics of the inside!
Inside pictures coming... but I have to CLEAN first!
A question: what difference does no shoes make, aside from keeping the floor clean? :)
That's all. It keeps the floors clean. :)
No, seriously, keeping the floors cleaner means you have to clean them less, which saves water, whatever cleaner you choose to use, wear and tear on brooms, electricity from a vacuum, etc. Not to mention your own time! It's just an easy way to conserve resources.
We started doing it just to save on cleaning and to not track the nasty outside chemicals and such into the house... the "green" factor is a nice plus.
Thanks for visiting!
i totally agree with you that going green by buying a ton of NEW things is counter productive. you are still supporting more production, more use of resources, more consumption, more more more.....
Cool! What a great idea! Have you found that it makes a big difference? I love the idea of having nice warm slippers for my guests to wear. :D Failing that, socks rule. :)
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