Eco friendly ideas Lakewood style

Stephen Eisel · Post by **Stephen Eisel** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:15 am

What are you doing to help the environment? What are you doing to conserve energy or natural resources? I do not want to turn this into a debate on global warming. I am just looking for more ways to make my home eco friendly.

Stephen Eisel · Post by **Stephen Eisel** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:16 am

I was inspired by Joe's post..

Robert Bobik · Post by **Robert Bobik** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:27 am

Our family has one car. We made the decision almost 4 years ago to try to make it with one car. Not a decision with the environment in mind, but, obviously one less vehicle burning fuel, oil... We use, when possible, our own bags at the grocery store. Recycle all we can. Bicycle to the stores, when possible (which is quite often). Walk the kids to school. Commute to work on bicycle. All of this benefits our wallet and, as a side benefit, uses less natural resources. Don't know if this helps with global warming.

Stephen Eisel · Post by **Stephen Eisel** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:03 pm

Thank you Robert!

Lynn Farris · Post by **Lynn Farris** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:14 pm

The number 1 thing that we have done is to become vegetarian. Actually we did this about 16 years ago. By all accounts everything else we do is minimal to this.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/11 ... cnnSTCText

You may not want to become a vegetarian - but may be willing to consider eating vegetarian one day a wekk as an alternative.

We are working to buy more organic food. We participated with CSA.

We have replaced most of our lights with florescent. They look pretty good now and you can get them in nice hues too now.

Many of our employees telecommute from their own homes. Saves in many ways.

We live in Lakewood.

Interestingly enough I was reading The Consumer's Guide to Efective Environmental Choices - Practical Advice From the Union of Concerned Scientists by Michael Brower and Warren Leon. In it it talks about not agonizing over the little things - for example the difference between cloth and disposable diapers is insignificant - same with plastic or paper.

But one of the big things to be concerned about is where you live - Choosing a place that reduces the need to drive. Well - we haven't given up driving - but being this close to downtown is certainly a less drive than if we lived in Westlake or Avon. I really think that Lakewood is so well suited to do a big green campaign. It would really attract people here. Grants are available in this area and the head of our new Mayor's transition team is a leader in this area in NE Ohio.

My daughter completed her Leeds certification late this summer and went to Green Build this year in Chicago - I'm trying to get her to write an article on it - pretty cool. (Maybe after the first ofthe year.) My son is doing his honors thesis on Conservation vs. Innovation. Basically looking at the Post Environmental movement. So this is what I hear about all the time.

Steve Hoffert · Post by **Steve Hoffert** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:16 pm

We keep our heat at 55 and the radiators off in the bedrooms. I also ride a scooter whenever possible. All the bulbs in the house are compact florescent soon to be LED when the technology/price catches up. Around Lakewood we walk when we can and only drink beer from a tap

Stephen Eisel · Post by **Stephen Eisel** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:28 pm

Thanks Lynn, I am a former vegetarian who still eats several vegetarian meals each week. We also try to buy as much organic food as possible. What is CSA?

Stephen Eisel · Post by **Stephen Eisel** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:29 pm

We keep our heat at 55 and the radiators off in the bedrooms

Steve, are you part Eskimo?

Valerie Molinski · Post by **Valerie Molinski** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:38 pm

We use CFL's where ever we can in the house

We have Energy Star major appliances.

We have programmable thermostats installed.

We have a timer in the shower and limit ourselves to 5 minute showers.

We recycle anything and everything we can. We are a family of four, but we only generate 1-2 medium kitchen size bags of trash a week.

We compost all vegetable materials as well as leaves.

We buy local as much as we can and organic if we can, depending on the product.

We use reusable grocery bags for all of our grocery trips.

I use compostable diapers on our baby that are made of cellulose with no plastics.

I use low/no phosphate detergents and enviro friendly cleaners in our home.

My husband and I commute together and fill up our car maybe every 2-3 weeks. We knew at least one of use would be working down town and wanted to limit our commute time. My husband also bikes to work when he can in warmer months.

We walk and bike a lot. My husband takes our daughter in a bike trailer for short trips to the grocery store.

Both my husband and I are LEED accredited professionals.

We are working to make our old victorian more efficient- replacing our water heater this spring with a direct vent version and the boiler in the next couple years with a high efficiency one.

Joe Whisman · Post by **Joe Whisman** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:55 pm

A vegetarian based diet is a good start. Know where your food comes from and try to cut down food miles. Compact fluorescents are a cheap way to reduce electric bills. I feel like they will be replaced by LED's before too long. Light emitting diodes do not contain mercury. Insulate your house!
I am impressed by Valerie's post. Wow.

Steve Hoffert · Post by **Steve Hoffert** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:55 pm

Stephen Eisel wrote:
We keep our heat at 55 and the radiators off in the bedrooms
Steve, are you part Eskimo?

No, just frugal, much to the dismay of my wife and kids.

You get used to it but it's a bear when your tongue sticks to your glass

Stephen Eisel · Post by **Stephen Eisel** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:01 pm

Steve Hoffert wrote:
Stephen Eisel wrote:
We keep our heat at 55 and the radiators off in the bedrooms
Steve, are you part Eskimo?
No, just frugal, much to the dismay of my wife and kids.

You get used to it but it's a bear when your tongue sticks to your glass

One Sunday, I turned the temp down by one degree each hour. I made it down to 64 degrees. I do not remember much after that

Valerie Molinski · Post by **Valerie Molinski** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:20 pm

Joe Whisman wrote:A vegetarian based diet is a good start. Know where your food comes from and try to cut down food miles. Compact fluorescents are a cheap way to reduce electric bills. I feel like they will be replaced by LED's before too long. Light emitting diodes do not contain mercury. Insulate your house!
I am impressed by Valerie's post. Wow.

Thank you, I appreciate your appreciation. We really want to insulate our house better as well. I want to find someone to take a thermal picture of our house this winter to see where we are having problems. And I agree with you on the LED's.. I cant wait for those to be more available and a little cheaper.

As far as buying organic versus local.. you hit the nail on the head. It doesnt matter as much if those oranges are organic if they are coming from Morocco. I look at all the produce and will choose berries grown in New Jersey over those from California, for example, if I can find any local growers on the shelf. You need to consider the carbon footprint of the food, how much gas it took to ship from wherever to you.

Then again, it is probably 6 of one and a half dozen of the other... organic and shipped versus chemical ridden and local.

Joe Whisman · Post by **Joe Whisman** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:45 pm

Local vs. organic vs. organic local. The clear winner is organic local. The City Fresh progam provided the best produce I had this season. I like meeting my farmers and learning of their programs. I have found after talking with farmers that they use organic means, but do not get certified because of the cost.

Stephen Eisel · Post by **Stephen Eisel** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:59 pm

The Web of life use to have some great organic produce. I hope the new owners keeps this tradition up..