Earth Day Actions

Not wanting to be all talk, I decided to take some actions today to begin "greening" my life. I can't promise this will be a very comprehensive, "turn my life inside out" attempt, but I will give it the ol' college try. Here's what I did today:

1. Replaced three conventional light bulbs (two 60-watt & one 150-watt) with 15-watt CFL bulbs. Not only are these bulbs cool-looking, they will use less energy (in the case of the 150-watt bulb - 10 times less!). This will bring my landlord's electricity bill down a bit (electric is included in my rent) & only cost me $3.
2. Plugged my TV, DVD player & cable box into a power strip, which I will turn off when these appliances are not in use. This is a similar savings to the British electric system, where you have to flip a switch on each outlet before the electricity flows to it. It should help me reduce the amount of electricity that "leaks" from my outlet even when my appliances are not being used.
3. Purchased the "Puddle Jumper" TerraPass to offset the CO2 emissions that were generated by my recent round-trip to Edinburgh. It cost me $9.95 & came with a break-down of what my money bought. 33.3% went to Renewable Energy Certificates & 66.7% went to Carbon Credits.
   

A few of the changes that I will implement this week:

1. Use reusable bags for grocery shopping. I bought a cloth bag at Stop & Shop (usually near the check-out) awhile ago, but haven't used it consistently. Considering I most often use the self-checkout, there is no excuse for not bagging my groceries in the cloth bag.
2. Bring a metal spoon into work for my oatmeal. I eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast & it creates a lot of waste if I throw away each morning's plastic spoon.
   
3. Walk (instead of drive) to the grocery store/Dunkin Donuts near my office. I often take the car (because I'm lazy), but it's a mere 1/10th of a mile away. Unless it's pouring, there's no real need to drive instead of walk.

Wish me luck!