Environmental Table: Lots of Ways to Live Green

Water Usage
• Replace toilets and showerheads with low-flow versions. This can save gallons a day.
• Replace sprinkler systems with drip systems that are specifically targeted at the base of each plant (works great with courtyard planting, hedges, and gardens, not so hot with lawns). These are really cheap and easy to put together from kits at Lowe's Hardware, and they save amazing amounts of water that can otherwise end up on the sidewalk wasted. Plus, if anything breaks (which admittedly might happen more often than a buried sprinkler system), it's more obvious where the break is, cheaper to fix, and you don't have to dig it up.
• Replace your lawn with just about anything else (huge use of water). Especially use native plants that need very little water to thrive in your specific climate. It'll be less water, and in some cases, less maintenance (hey, give away your lawn mower!).

Transportation
• Carpool.
• Seriously, check out where you can walk or bike instead of driving. At the very least, plan your errands in advance for the least amount of backtracking.
• I'm listing public transit as Medium, because for most people, it's considered a pain in the neck and requires walking and waiting. But check out the bus lines near you, whether your business has a shuttle to and from the local train station, etc. Or do it once a week, or on Spare the Air days.
• Limit the number of plane trips you take. Planes, I'm told, are the least fuel-efficient mode of transportation per passenger. Carpooling, trains, or even combining trips for fewer legs all help.
• This isn't possible for everyone, but if you are renting or already thinking of moving, look at where you can live that's close to your job and/or within walking/biking distance for your major errands. There's a growing movement to create higher-density housing in the center of cities close to what you already do every day, instead of living out in the suburbs where you're forced to drive to everything. Driving your hour-long commute in a Prius instead of a Suburban is great, but pales beside reducing your commute to ten minutes. California is supposed to grow from 35 million to 60 million people by 2040, so get your good spot now!

Housecleaning
• There are lines of housecleaning products, such as Seventh Generation and Simple Green, that are made of less harmful or even green ingredients. Drawbacks: some of these require a little more work to use (don't instantly dissolve everything in ten seconds like nastier chemicals), and not all of them are available yet in "normal" grocery stores. You might have to go to Whole Foods or the like. Even laundry detergent has greener flavors now. Do your own tests to make sure they clean what you want them to.
• Some maid services now use only green cleaning agents, both for your preference and for the health of the housecleaners themselves. In the Bay Area, check out Emma's Eco-Clean.

Body Care
• Look for shampoos and soaps that do not have sodium laurel or laureth sulfates in them. These chemicals are sudsing agents that stay in groundwater as pollutants without breaking down well.
• Look for body products of all sorts that use organic ingredients. Organic lavender is just as kind to the land to grow as organic food crops are.
• Many products now brag if they are made without animal ingredients - animal fat or tallow for soaps, for instance.
• Some cosmetic companies have signed an online promise of sorts to never use chemicals that are known to be harmful. This isn't regulated or legislated at all, and it's totally voluntary, but it says something about the companies that DID sign.

Food/Drink
• Avoid using bottled water. Not only are most bottles not reclaimed, and end up in landfills, but the water is often not any cleaner (Pepsi and Coca-Cola sometimes bottle just municipal water, I'm told) and it takes petroleum to both make the bottle and ship it to you. Fuji water? Shipped to you from Fuji? Dude, buy a reusable bottle out of glass or stainless steel, etc, and fill it before going out. Also worth noting: Nalgene, a type of hard plastic often used for hiking bottles, is supposed to be safe at dishwasher temperatures, but there are some studies that question whether plastic of any type is immune to leaching at high temps. If you have Nalgene, that's still more reusable than Evian, but you might want to only handwash it.
• Look for organic foods, especially foods where the outside is part of what's edible (like apples). For foods where you'd peel off a shell or rind before eating, it's not AS important because some of the pesticides and fertilizer chemicals will come off with it. Organic food is often more expensive, because farmers are in some cases learning how to get modern crop yields without the chemical help. They're doing the R&D, so to speak, and we pay for the research. Prices should come down over time.
• No bags. When you go shopping, regardless of where you shop, throw some cloth or canvas shopping bags in your trunk. Bring them in with you so you don't have to worry about the "paper or plastic" question at all. Some places, like Whole Foods, even give you a discount such as 5 cents per reusable bag, for doing so. Even when shopping for non-food items, think about whether you need a bag for the item you just bought. If you don't, actively say, "I don't need a bag, thanks" to the checkout person.
• I mention it because it's scientifically sound, not because I am myself: vegetarianism uses fewer resources to create the same amount of food. Also, see mistreatment of animals in corporate giant farming and overfishing of some types of seafood. (Yes, animals are tasty. I still eat them too. You can choose how often to eat meat, and which meat to eat, without going, er, cold turkey.) See the Monterey Bay Aquarium information on overfishing/safe seafood. Also, devil's advocate: studies are starting to question whether too much soy is actually bad for you.
• Shop locally, and local brands, whenever you can. Farmer's markets support local economies. Buying items made within 100 miles of your location means that less petroleum was used to ship it to you. Also, corporate farms can be really severe polluters, and have the lobbying power to avoid cleaning up. (Read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser for more details. Gruesome, powerful, but you don't HAVE to go vegetarian after reading it - it gives some hope.)
• Buy paper products that are recycled: paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, whatever. Ideally, buy ones that area not then bleached white again, because that process is very caustic. Drawbacks: some of these products are a little rougher. Personally I can use all of them just fine, except we do keep a box of real Kleenex-brand soft tissues for head colds where you're using 5 tissues a minute.

Energy: House
• Weather-strip around doors and windows.
• Caulk cracks around window and door frames.
• Seal up holes where pipes come into the house under sinks and such. They can bring in the cold air from under the house. Hardware stores sell cans of foaming gel for this.
• Replace normal light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. More energy efficient and a longer life, by far justifying the slightly higher price.
• Install a programmable thermostat. Keep it turned down while you're at work, asleep, or away. Program it to come on just before you get home. These come as cheap as $20-30.
• Change the air filters in your heater and air conditioner.
• Buy a special wire brush that can snake the lint out of your dryer trap and dryer line out. You'll let the dryer work more efficiently and reduce a fire hazard.
• Double-pane your windows where you can. If you can't, some hardware stores like Orchard Supply Hardware sell plastic that you can tape around your windows and heat-shrink with a hair dryer to create a cheap double-pane, where the dead air pocket insulates for heat. (Of course, then you can't open the window, so do it for winter months.)
• Attic insulation: most important, most bang for your buck efficiency change you can make. Rolls or spray-in insulation in your attic and even wallspaces can improve your heating bill a lot. A city house inspector can tell you what your current insulation rating is and how much you can raise it.
• Also in attics: check your heater ducts for leaks and loose connections and duct-tape them. If your heated air is escaping into your attic before it even gets out the grille into your room, you're paying too much for heat.
• If your existing heater is old (like, older than 10-15 years), check how much money a new, more efficient model could save you. Power companies like PG&E give rebates for Energy Star appliances, and sometimes the city you live in will give additional rebates.
• Check your water heater for the same things as your heater, above. Also, check out the newest versions of the electric, water-on-demand water heaters. These are now much more efficient and fast than the old European versions. The only drawback I've heard: you can't do two hot-water-intensive things at once, such as run the dishwasher AND shower, but it will keep up with any one thing you do. If we hadn't bought a house with a brand-new water heater, I'd totally want one of these. If you have an old water heater and can't replace it for a while, check whether you'd gain anything by putting a blanket on it for more insulation (again, house inspector), and drain it once a year so sediment isn't making it harder to circulate hot water inside the unit.
• Use natural lighting as much as possible. If you're remodeling, add high windows or skylights on the south side of the house to reduce the electric light you need.
• Add solar panels to counteract the cost of electricity. New panels have better return on investment, but I don't have figures on that. They come in two kinds: thermal, for heating water, and photovoltaic (PV) for electricity. (Of course, an electric on-demand water heater means you can use PV for both!) I'm told that modern setups can be mounted AND dismounted from a roof, so if you want to move, you have two choices: add the cost of the solar cells to the cost of the house for the buyer, or take them with you.

Energy: Car
• Again, carpool.
• Keep your tires properly inflated to improve your gas mileage.
• If you have the money and desire, get a hybrid. If you have the geek desires, modify it to be a plug-in hybrid. (Might void your warranty, though.) This is now of a price where it will pay for the higher price over its lifetime, although if gas stays around $2.50 a gallon, it probably won't gain you much more money than that.
• See the Better World Handbook for the comparative scorecards of the major gasoline companies, and decide where you want to buy your gas. Note: some of the newer companies like Valero score really well. Not sure if this is because they're really cleaner, or have just had less time in the industry to do damage.
• If you have a big diesel monster, look at whether modifying it for biodiesel makes sense. It's still diesel, but at least it's carbon-neutral (the only carbon burned is the carbon the plant absorbed while alive).
• If you want to go completely left field, look at how to get away from a normal car altogether. Plug-in electric scooters, semi-powered bicycles, heck, even a motorcycle gets great mileage. Small all-electric cars also exist (a search on "Sparrow" brand produces interesting results), but are usually much smaller than "real" cars.
• Consider whether you really need to buy a truck that can seat eight or haul that big load camping every summer, or whether you really need a compact car most of the time and could rent a bigger truck a few times a year. You might save a lot in insurance and gas money.

Recycling
• If your local trash pickup gives you separate bins for recyclables and yard waste, read the instructions and use them properly.
• Green Citizen (Bay Area). Take your electronics, even small ones and CDs and CD cases, for recycling. It is now illegal to throw away anything with electronics in it anyway, so you might as well save up your stuff and make a big run. Also, Weird Stuff in Sunnyvale takes some kinds of stuff for free. Both places charge small fees (anything from $1/lb to $20 for a big monitor, etc) for some goods that don't have good waste streams.
• Freecycle. Both Freecycle and craiglist have places where you can get, and get rid of, stuff for free. You'd be surprised what people are willing to come to your house and pick up and haul away. Before throwing away that weird, pain in the ass item, see if someone wants it here.
• RecycleWorks tells you where to donate unwanted goods of all sorts.

Remodeling
• Some home decorators and professional organizers make a point of using recycled or green materials. I knew one who made closet organizers out of old doors because the wood was so cheap and sturdy.
• Paint, carpet, flooring, counters, brick, and wood can all be had in greener forms. Studies are now suggesting that chemicals in the house, in things like paints and carpets, off-gas toxins slowly over time. Instead, look for things like milk-based paints that are completely non-toxic (think baby's room). Bamboo is now a tough, beautiful hardwood-like flooring that's renewable. Re-pave your back patio with antique brick, or side your house with redwood slats that have already silvered and swelled as much as they ever will from water and weather - a perfect fit the first time. Look on Freecycle for old stained glass or antique doors from building teardowns.
• Some architects and remodeling agencies are certified as green builders. LEED by the US Green Building Council is one such organization.
• Green furniture. Buy furniture that is created responsibly, especially that's made from renewable wood (certified Forest Stewardship Council, or FSC) and is processed with low or no formaldehyde. Interestingly, IKEA furniture all fits this bill. Or get antique furniture and refinish it yourself in nontoxic stains.
• See the sections on big, south-facing windows and solar panels, above, if you're remodeling your house. Take advantage of natural heat and light to reduce your electricity use.

Learn More
• Look for local non-profits that either educate and/or run environmental stewardship programs. Acterra is a group in Palo Alto that regularly puts out newsletters full of workshops, runs weekend hikes to plant native plants and tear out invasive ones, and has started a 9-month class called Be the Change that teaches a select handful of students every year about the current environmental climate, what the challenges are, and who's already working on them.
• Look at your local universities and city colleges for classes or even majors in environmental studies or environmental engineering. De Anza has a program with Kirsch Center, and so does San Jose State. I hear Stanford is excellent but way pricey (duh). There are now even MBAs in environmentally sustainable business.
• Go to your local city .gov websites to find programs that teach citizens about how city politics work and how to be a civic leader. This isn't environmental per se, but if you ever want to be an activist, or even just advocate for a particular bill in your area, they'll tell you the do's and don'ts about interacting with local government.
• Ideal Bite is a site that offers daily green tips on practical changes you can make in your life, and where to buy green goods of all sorts.

Cool Sites
• Earth Day Footprint (ecofoot.org) calculates your ecological footprint: how many Earths would it take to support your lifestyle if everyone lived as green (or not) as you do?
• National Association of Diaper Services (diapernet.org) has a list of companies that offer cloth diaper services. (Every year, the equivalent of 105 garbage truck loads of disposable diapers go into the Sunnyvale landfill and cost $110,000.)
• Cradle to Cradle tells about one of the best green books I've ever read, from two scientifically amazing guys who are reinventing modern chemistry and design.
• California High-Speed Rail Authority tells about the high-speed railway plans that are already in place for California and, indeed, the US, but are flailing for lack of public funding. Cool tech, though. 2 hours from SF to LA!
• 100 Mile Diet describes the journey most food takes to get shipped to you - and asks, can you buy so locally that everything in your cart was made within 100 miles of you? You'd be surprised what's "local" these days. When I heard about this, I was advised to shift the radius of my circle so it wasn't mostly over ocean - if it's 100 miles diameter and I'm at one side of the circle, rice from Sacramento is local!