It's Easy Being Green

It’s Saturday and still dark out which means it’s time for me to gear up and get ready to make my last rounds of deliveries for the week today.  Before I take off, I like to check my email and peruse the scheduled happenings of the day.  One event I’m sad I’m going to miss is the launch of the new Nissan Leaf this afternoon.

In a bid of creative social marketing, the folks at Nissan will be streaming live the delivery of their first electric car to one lucky customer.  What better of a way to build hype around a green product than to involve the rest of the world at the same time.  I’ve followed the Leaf from conception to pre-order and am now excited to see the thing finally hitting the streets of our nation.  Homestead Hottie even has her eye on one now so maybe there will be a Leaf in our near future.

We need more of this kind of ingenuity and excitement around products that will help us maintain a sustainable life here on Mother Earth.  I’m hoping more U.S. companies will get on the wagon and start planning for our future, not only to save our world but to put our workers and our country as a whole back on track to lead the world by example and thus bring back prosperity.

If you’d like to join in the Nissan Leaf Event today (scheduled for 1:30 PST), than click this link.

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I’ve been without a lawn mower going on two years now and in the land of green grass, that’s proving to be a bit of a challenge. I’ve been borrowing mowers from my neighbors but have decided I just need to get me own. I’m tired of having to work the lawn around other people’s schedules and prefer to be as independent as possible.

I’ve known for a long time that my new mower was not going to be gas powered. I get tired of listening to the almost constant hum of gas powered lawn equipment here in southwestern Indiana. To top that off, the air quality here is already poor since we’re surrounded by several very dirty coal-fired power plants. Just this last week we had two ozone warnings with local officials urging people to avoid fast food drive-thrus and trimming their lawns. The warnings certainly didn’t stop most people around here from doing what they wanted to do and spewing even more pollution into the air.

Originally I thought about just getting a push-reel mower. We have a fairly small front and back yard to begin with so there wouldn’t be a ton of effort required to push-reel mow my grass. Secondly, we live in a small home with a one car garage and don’t really have the room for a big clunky mower to sit around. A push-reel mower could hang up on the wall though and take up no floor space. Then there’s the idea of actually getting some exercise while you’re doing lawn work, something most people seem to try and avoid.

The last couple of weeks though, I changed my mind, thinking I would rather have an electric rechargeable mower. There’s several different versions available right now but T has been questioning just how long the batteries really last and how long it is before they won’t take a charge anymore. The prices aren’t easy on the pocketbook either, ranging from about $250 to $450.

So now I’m back to the beginning again, thinking about getting a push-reel. I’m looking for something that’s going to hold up well over time and has some decent features. The hunt is on! If you have any suggestions or a brand and model you’ve tried out, let me know. I’d like some feedback here!

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It’s taken me a while to jump on the LED Christmas light bandwagon, mainly because the incandescent strands we have still work and the prices on the LED lights are still a little high for my liking.  Last year though, I noticed I had about three strands that weren’t working properly, so I began pillaging them for bulbs.

Mini-LED Lights

This weekend, Home Depot was running a trade-in deal that I couldn’t pass up though.  For every strand of incandescent Christmas lights you brought in to recycle, you got $3 off the purchase of a new set of LED lights.  I ended up picking up 3 boxes of LED lights for about $9 after the discount, saving me 50% off the original cost.  That’s what I call a heckuva deal!

I can’t wait to decorate for Christmas and see how these new LED light strands look and perform compared to their old outdated cousins.  It will be nice knowing I’m using 80% less electricity to light up my holiday display with LED lights, they stay cool to the touch and you can (if you’d want to) plug in dozens more strands to each other before you risk overloading an outlet.

Have you purchased any LED lights?  If so, share your experience with how they’ve performed and if you want to share a photo of your LED light display, that would be great too!

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If you haven’t already read my brief review on a new book profiling modern architecture and alternative energy, click here.

A new book profiling 10 modern homes and how they're built with alternative energy useage in mind

Lori Ryker, author of Off The Grid: Modern Homes + Alternative Energy, grew up in Texas and has lived several places around the world. She now lives in Livingston, Montana and teaches at Montana State University’s School of Architecture and is a partner of Ryker/Nave Design. I recently had the opportunity to ask Ryker some questions about her new book and her thoughts on the future of sustainable living.

Q: What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about living off the grid?
A: That someone else should take the first step, that alternative energy is something of the future.

Q: You discuss how you think living off the grid brings people closer to where we live, making us more involved in how we live. Why do you think it’s important for more people to be connected to where and how they live?
A: Understanding where we live in the world and the reality of what it takes to live in that place (without the support of mechanical/big energy that creates a pseudo-environment) helps us take responsibility for the place in which we live, and the planet in general. Understanding the conditions of where we live help us make healthier and more responsible choices for environmental conditions such as clean water, air and landscapes; local food sources including plants and animals. Peter Berg coined a phrase in the 1970’s called bioregionalism, which addresses how we live in a place with particular identifiable physical and environmental features that then influence the use and consumption of local foods, materials and native plants, among other things. In the same way, living responsibly with alternative energy requires the knowledge and understanding of regions, bioregions and particular places so that we most efficiently employ the natural resource, such as sun or wind. Such a quality of life also makes us more grounded and invested in ourselves and the world.

Q: Have you found that a lot of people don’t think modern architecture and green features like off the grid living can be combined together?
A: No. I find that most people believe this relationship is normal. However, even three to five years ago this was not the case. There has been a strong and successful popular media push in the past few years to dispel the perception that living off the grid means living in the back-woods somewhere.

Q: You say the book is all about great living in great architecture. These homes certainly aren’t like the earth ships of the 60’s and 70’s are they?
A: No, but every once in a while I drive by an earth ship style place and think to myself, they are still quite sophisticated in their energy use and ability to connect people to the place in which they live, even if they do not appeal to everyone. I would argue that earth ships are also a “style” of architecture. An architect or designer could use the same materials and strategies of an earth ship today and arrive at a vastly different form of expression.

Q: You talk a lot about resource extraction and what you call “dirty energy”. What do you think it will take for people to understand how big of an environmental impact their home has?
A: A completely different way of evaluating home construction and energy use. Such as how bank loans are made, or how homes are taxed, how a builder accounts for the construction of the home and the materials used. In the meantime, we need alternative energy to become more affordable, better methods of measurement of an individual’s energy use and means to control particular components of energy use. Such as being able to separate out use of heating and cooling from media, not simply unplugging. We need more accountability. Simple things such as timers on lights and showers that are already in use in other parts of the world. These strategies remind us that the Earth is not limitless.

Keep checking back for the second half of my Q&A with Lori Ryker coming up later this week.  That’s when I’ll also post the details behind how to enter the contest to win a copy of Lori’s book.  You can get an early entry now by subscribing to my RSS Feed and then posting a comment on this article.

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There’s a lot of talk these days centering around living life on Earth a bit greener than we have been. Green living, alternative energy and sustainability are all buzz words surrounding the movement to live more in harmony with our environment. Some might question though whether that movement can really be partnered with the construction of a new home utilizing modern architectural designs.

A new book profiling 10 modern homes and how they're built with alternative energy useage in mind

Lori Ryker’s book titled Off The Grid: Modern Homes + Alternative Energy shows that you really can live in a beautifully designed, modern home while reducing your demand for energy. The 160-page glossy, hard-backed book profiles ten homes around the globe and shows how they’ve overcome complete dependence on the grid and leave a smaller footprint on the Earth.

Through example and illustrations, Ryker shows how each technology from geothermal heat pumps, wind turbines and solar arrays, can be integrated into the beauty and design of a modern home. The homes profiled in the book aren’t straw bale homes or Earthships. They range in size from small to large and sparse to intricately decorated. If you’re embarking on a journey to build a new modern house and have considered making it more green, Ryker’s book might be just the ticket to turning your visions into reality.

Stop by later in the week for a Q&A chat with Ryker and I’ll also tell you how you can have a shot at winning a copy of her new book.

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Long before gasoline powered mowers, gardeners used different tools to trim up the lawn.  Whether it was a push reel, human-powered lawn mower or something as simple as a scythe, people lost the desire to use some hard work to keep up with the grass in their gardens.  Then came along the gasoline powered mower and the rest was, well history.

I remember as a kid watching a neighbor of mine struggling with his electric lawn mower.  I always thought that was quite the novelty, knowing only one person who actually plugged their mower into an extension cord as opposed to a gas pump.  It always seemed a bit of a struggle for him though, wrestling with the extension cord he was dragging behind him in the yard.

Black & Decker's new 24 Volt Cordless Mulching Mower

That’s why I got excited about Black & Decker’s new 24 Volt Cordless Mulching Mower.  It’s brand new to the market and seems like a fantastic edition to anyone’s arsenal of lawn care equipment.  The mower is Energy Star certified and plugs into the wall outlet to recharge itself.  The unit isn’t suggested for large lots as it can only cut about 1/3 of an acre per charge but for smaller lots it’s ideal.  Estimates show it will cost about $10 per year in electricity to operate their new mower.  Compare that to about $5 in gas every two mows.

Why else is it such a great idea?  Americans use 800 million gallons of gas every year just to mow our lawns.  In that process, we spill more gas than the Exxon Valdez spilled into the ocean back in 1989.  Gas-powered mowers are also responsible for about 5% of our air pollution each year.  It might be hard to believe those facts but when you consider American’s lawns take up three times more land than the corn currently grown, you can see just how big of an impact your lawn can have.

If you’re interested in entering a contest to win Black & Decker’s new 24 Volt Cordless Mulching Mower, head over to the Alternative Consumer Blog and enter yourself!  You can also win an electric sweeper there too.

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If you aren’t already familiar with the organization 25x’25 and are interested in our country’s progress in eliminating the usage of fossil fuels, you should check out the group’s new blog.  Their goal is that by 2025, 25% of America’s farms, ranches and forests will provide 25% of the total combined energy used by the U.S.

They’re goal is also set on continuing to provide safe, abundant and affordable feed, fiber and food.  The group’s new blog, just rolled out last week during their 5th National 25x’25 Renewable Energy Summit, contains a host of information about the progress toward that goal and what each state is doing to get there.  The blog also offers RSS feeds for those of you on the blogging go.

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