Celebrate Earth Day 2011 By Ditching Your Oil Addiction

To fully understand America’s dependency on oil, you have to begin with a basic paradigm. Everything that we use costs oil, either during manufacturing or distribution.

This means that in virtually every segment of our lives, we have opportunities to conserve. Using less resources means less oil consumed and less dependency. 

However, changing our consumption patterns can be a difficult process. Often we have to overcome years of habitual behavior, past beliefs about our choices and institutional systems that encourage less sustainable practices. While living sustainably has been encouraged in recent years by government public policy, there are still large corporations and lobbying groups that represent non- sustainable goods that continue to guide our consumer choices.

Many of us are still deeply affected by the current global recession, so rather than suggest ways to conserve energy that involve capital investment in addition to behavioral change, I set about to find ways that each of could affect our bottom line and conserve energy at little to no cost. Following are some changes that you can make in various areas of your life, that in the aggregate will save you money, reduce America’s oil dependency, and make the planet a healthier place to live.

Grow something. Every plant grown indoors acts as a natural filter for the air you exhale and filters the toxins emitting from chemicals in the products in your home. Growing plants outdoors can have a myriad of benefits includin, home energy savings, food savings and positive environmental impacts.

Eat fewer processed foods. Preprocessed foods require a lot of energy to manufacture and distribute nationwide. While they seem like a bargain, they are made available at a high cost to the environment. Loaded with preservatives such as sodium, MSG, fructose and sucrose to extend their shelf life, they are significantly less healthy than raw foods. These products travel through an enormous system of manufacturing (using oil) and travel thousands of miles to get to your neighborhood store. In addition, they have a larger percentage of packaging than less processed food.

Opt out of junk mail. You can stop the tide of junk mail swarming your mailbox by paying a 1 dollar fee for 5 years to the Direct Marketing Association and signing on to their “Delete” list.

Start composting. Reducing your waste will keep organic material out of landfills (requiring oil for disposal) and provide you with rich soil for use when you garden.

Buy durable, rather than disposable, items with strong warranties. Buying longer lasting, locally made products helps stimulate the U.S. economy and breaks the oil-addicted global production system that cheap international products support. Many cheaper brand products are designed for obsolescence, and are meant to break down after a limited time. This forces consumers into a product dependent behavior cycle.

Use natural cleaners and pest controls. Many household cleaners and pest control products are highly toxic and derived from distillates and poisons. Using natural alternatives not only keeps poisons out of your home, but reduces the amount of oil we consume and improves your indoor air quality.

Use email instead of snail mail. Scan items and send them, rather than mail or fax. Print only essential documents. Be careful, however, to keep multiple back-ups of your information. There’s nothing worse than losing your data online.

Pay bills online. Think of all the gas and timber you’re saving by paying bills online, rather than mailing them. Open around the clock, online bill payment is often more convenient and can reduce your overall late fees. Make sure that the bills you pay online are not charging a fee for the convenience.

If you have a smart phone, use the note pad app to jot down quick notes to yourself, rather than post-its. Always in reach and easily manageable, smart phones have helped me reduce time spent finding small notes and remembering details on the fly.

Use both sides of your paper to print out reports. Your customers will realize that you are a conscientious businessperson.

Set timers on office equipment. Most office equipment has energy saving features to shut down equipment after business hours. Better yet, turn the power off completely to these devices each night for maximum savings.

Plan local outings. Rather than travel long distances to take a break from the norm, try a local vacation. Take some time to find the out of the way spaces closer to home and take a more mental than physical vacation away from home.

Enjoy the outdoors. Hiking, camping, kayaking and canoeing are but a few of the many outdoor activities that make for great environmentally friendly vacations. Rather than a road trip, take a walk in the woods.

Participate in sustainable volunteer events. Next weekend, Pacifica will be hosting a huge cleanup in town for Earth Day, sponsored by the Pacifica Beach Coalition. Everyone is encouraged to come out and spend a little time outdoors giving the environment a makeover. Remember, this is only one event throughout the year

Turn down your thermostats when you’re on vacation. If you’re not at home, why heat your house? Give your home a vacation, while you’re on one and save some energy at the same time.

Choose environmentally friendly hotels. You may not have heard, but green hotels are not only environmentally friendly, but are smart business for hoteliers. There are numerous sites online to find them, such as the Green Hotels Association.

Add a passenger. We all know about carpooling, but what about other commutes? If you are going the same place as another in your neighborhood, look out for opportunities to travel together. Trips to the mall, kids activities, field trips and special events are all opportunities for carpooling.

Plan your errands. Careful planning can save you time as well as fuel. Plan your trips carefully to optimize the proximity of stores you need items from.

Shop at cheaper stores rather than for coupon prices. Coupon clipping can reap savings, but if it costs more in fuel to travel to the store, then the savings is false. Find a store that you like with better overall savings.

Use your car with the best mpg. If you have more than one car, make sure you use the one with that has the best gas mileage more often, such as during the weekend to save on fuel costs and consumption.

Keep your tires inflated properly. Doing so can improve the mileage on your car and save you gas, money and tire wear.

Teach kids about conservation. This is arguably the most significant impact you can have on the environment. By teaching kids how to conserve over their lifetime, you are creating lifelong sustainable partners with the planet. PG&E has a webpage called Energy Star Kids with lots of tips for kids to help conserve energy and build healthy habits for the environment. The California Energy Commission hosts a website for kids, as well.

Try packing “no waste” lunches. Use reusable containers and less packaged foods, rather than the prepackaged lunch items marketed for school lunches. Be sure to use a thermos, since the beloved “juice box” has an enormous amount of packaging for its size. Lastly, pack a lunch that your child will eat all of.

Plan “recycled” art projects. Kids love making art from recycled materials and organizations like the local Trash Mash Up, which teaches art and environmentalism in the Bay Area, can facilitate that.

Play outside. Rather than fun with electronics, try fun activities that use human energy rather than electrical energy. There is no greater power than imagination.

Having an impact on the environment doesn’t have to be painful or expensive. If each of changed one or two behaviors this Earth Day, next year the world would be significantly healthier. Small changes have huge impacts!