Pound by Pound, Dollar for Dollar; The Complicated Equation for Going Green
Filed under: Earth 911 - April 20, 2007
Doing the Math on Carbon Neutrality
By JESSICA MARMOR
April 20, 2007 12:38 p.m.
Going green is the new black in 2007. Advice abounds on how to cut your carbon dioxide output and do your part in the battle against global warming. But how much does a person have to spend to go green–and what kind of environmental impact would that spending actually have?
GOING GREEN
See the changes you can make:
• At Home
• On the Road
• In the Grocery Store
The U.S. is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, accounting for 25% of the world’s total. The average American is responsible for about 20 metric tons a year of CO2 equivalent (CO2e), a standard measure of greenhouse gases. That’s about 40,000 pounds of CO2e a year, per capita, a far greater number than that of any other industrialized country.
We set out to evaluate a few of the in-vogue recommendations based on what they cost and what they’d do for the environment. In each area we offer up three levels of feasibility–hard, medium and easy. Where possible, we’ve crunched the numbers to estimate how much a change would cost, how many pounds of CO2e each step can save and the percentage each would knock off one person’s emissions.
At Home
Sixteen percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are generated from our homes–from the fossil fuels burned to power our electronics, lighting, heating and cooling systems.
The Hard Way: Buy an Energy-Efficient House
Cost:
Energy-efficient homes may cost a few thousand dollars above market value, which would generally add about $10 to $15 to one’s monthly mortgage payments. Some will not be valued above market.
Savings:
It’s estimated that an energy-efficient house will shave $30 off monthly utility bills for an average home, according to Energy Star for Homes, an EPA organization. The average U.S. home is about 2,500 square feet.
Impact:
4,500 pounds of CO2e a year, or 11% of one person’s total emissions.
The EPA’s Energy Star program works with 3,500 home builders to spur the construction of homes that are 25% to 30% more energy efficient than a home built to the International Energy Conservation Code, which most states use as a standard.
That increase in efficiency comes from increased insulation, better windows, controlled air filtration, and efficient heating and cooling systems. So far, about 750,000 such homes have been built. The EPA expects two million by the end of the decade, reducing the U.S.’s CO2e emissions by one million metric tons.
The Medium Way: Switch to “Green Power”
Cost:
$120 to $500 a year. Varies by area and size of home.
Impact:
14,173 pounds of CO2e a year, according to the EPA, or 35% of one person’s total. (This number varies depending on the amount of energy your household uses. In New York City, where houses and thus energy bills are much smaller, ConEdison Solutions estimates that its green power purchasers save 4,700 pounds of CO2e a year.)
Go to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Web site, and you’ll find a section called Green Power Switch, where customers are encouraged to enroll in a green power program. It seems simple: sign up and the TVA, which services seven states and 8.7 million customers, will bring energy generated from renewable resources, such as solar or wind power, “to your home.”
But there’s not a switch for each TVA household that can simply be flipped to green. Rather, the TVA takes the extra money that Green Power Switch customers pay and uses it to procure green power, which then gets mixed in to the company’s total pool of energy and distributed to the overall customer base.
The TVA tacks on $4 to a customer’s monthly bill for each block of green power they buy. (A block is the equivalent of about 12% of a typical household’s monthly energy use.) A year’s worth of TVA green power — about 96 blocks — comes at a premium of about $384 a year on top of your energy bill.
In states with deregulated energy markets, customers can choose to buy green power from an alternative electricity supplier. These costs vary even within a single market; in New York City, for example, Con Edison works with several green power suppliers whose programs cost anywhere from $3 to $20 a month.
The Easy Way: Use Low Energy Light Bulbs
Cost:
$19.76 for a 12-pack of GE Energy Smart CFL Light Bulbs, at Walmart.com1, or $4.98 for a single Soft White Compact Fluorescent Bulb, at Lowe’s and other major retailers. (Purchasing tips2)
Savings:
$30 per bulb
Impact:
1,200 pounds of CO2e a year (for 12 bulbs), or 3% of one person’s total.
Only 10% of the energy consumed by a normal light bulb generates light — the rest just makes the bulb hot. Compact-fluorescent lights convert more energy to usable light and less to heat, requiring 75% less electricity. They’re about eight times more expensive at the checkout counter, but will last up to 10 times longer than ordinary bulbs–saving about $30 over the life of each one.
But CFLS aren’t no-brainer purchases: Some give off harsher light than others; some work with dimmer switches, some don’t. Also be aware that each bulb contains about four milligrams of mercury, a small amount but enough to warrant special disposal. The EPA recommends placing it in a sealed plastic bag and discarding at a local hazardous waste collection site. (Earth911.org can locate the closest site to you.)
On the Road
In the U.S., the transportation sector accounts for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions and is the fastest-growing major source of greenhouse gases, according to a recent EPA draft report4. Cars and light-duty trucks contributed to 61% of transportation CO2 emissions in 2005, down from 63% in 1990.
The Hard Way: Get Rid of Your Car
Cost:
A year’s worth of public transportation varies widely, from $200 to $2,000 depending on location.
Savings:
The Sierra Club estimates that the average yearly cost of driving a single-occupant car is between $4,826 and $9,685. Fueleconomy.gov puts the cost of gas alone at about $1,300 for an average car, like a Honda Civic.
Impact:
The EPA’s calculator5 estimates that a typical car driven by the average American emits about 12,100 pounds of CO2e a year — about 30% of one person’s total emissions.
Even riding public transport takes its toll, given that buses, subways and commuter rail all emit CO2. Riding a bicycle would save even more emissions and money, but won’t be much help when you need to drop the kids at soccer practice.
The Medium Way: Drive a Hybrid Car
Cost:
$22,600 (MSRP, Honda Civic Hybrid)
Savings:
$445 a year in gas, according to fueleconomy.gov6, plus you get a $1,700 tax credit.
Impact:
4,700 pounds of CO2e a year, or 12% of one person’s total emissions.
Despite advances in technology, the vehicles we drive are on the whole getting less efficient. Between 1990 and 2003, greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles increased by 19%, according to the EPA, mostly from higher sales of light-duty vehicles such as SUVs and minivans, and an increase in the number of miles Americans drive every year.
If everyone in the U.S. purchased one of the four most efficient models7 in each vehicle class (sedans, sub-compacts, SUVs, light trucks), fuel economy would be 12% higher and Americans could save 13.1 billion gallons of gasoline — about 254 billion pounds of CO2e, or 1.6% of the U.S. total yearly CO2e emissions, according to calculations we did based on the EPA’s numbers.
For those who own a car that’s less efficient than the standard American car, which gets between 30 and 40 mpg, switching to a hybrid can have an even bigger impact. Swapping a Hummer for a Honda Civic Hybrid would save about 13,000 pounds of CO2e a year and $1,676 a year in gas.
The Easy Way: Drive Less and Boost Your Mileage
Savings:
Varies. The less you drive, the more you save on gas.
Impact:
Reducing the amount you drive by just 2,000 miles can save 1,100 pounds of CO2e a year, or 3% of per capita emissions.
Every gallon of gasoline you save avoids approximately 20 pounds of CO2 emissions, according to the EPA.
Any steps taken to boost a car’s gas mileage will also help you reduce emissions. Fueleconomy.gov8 says that giving a car a tune-up can improve gas mileage by about 4%. Replacing a clogged air filter can get you 10% and simply using the recommended grade of motor oil will up gas mileage by about 2%.
In the Grocery Store
At the end of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” he rattles off a list of things one can do in daily life to help the planet: switching one’s light bulbs and driving a hybrid are both among them. What isn’t on that list: your diet.
The Hard Way: Cut Out All Animal Products
Cost:
Wouldn’t dramatically increase or decrease spending at the grocery store.
Impact:
3,000 pounds of CO2e a year; or 8% of one person’s total.
The average American diet produces 3,000 more pounds of CO2e a year than a calorie-equivalent “vegan” diet that is derived only from plants, i.e., fruits, vegetables, beans, according to the authors of a 2006 University of Chicago report9.
The savings come from bypassing the livestock industry, which is responsible for 18% of the U.S.’s total greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report10 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. A good deal of that comes from the methane emitted from cow manure (methane is a greenhouse gas), the CO2 produced by the operation of farm machinery and the devotion of colossal amounts of land to grow single crops, like corn. Corn is cultivated with a synthetic fertilizer that emits greenhouse gases in two ways. First, manufacturing the fertilizer–a combination of nitrogen and hydrogen gases–requires large amounts of natural gas. Second, runoff from this fertilizer evaporates into the air as nitrous oxide — a greenhouse gas hundreds of times more powerful than CO2.
Much of the rest of the food industry’s CO2e output simply comes from transporting meat and dairy products around the world, a phenomenon that is not unique to meat — turning a seemingly clear-cut option into a bit of a puzzle (more on that later).
A vegan diet also omits fish. The University of Chicago report found that the energy involved in the production and transport of certain varieties of fish — such as tuna and swordfish — can be just as bad as with meat. If you want to eat fish, one of the report’s authors, Gidon Eshel, recommends sticking to herring and sardines, which are found closer to shore and require shorter boat trips to be caught.
The Medium Way: Eat Chicken Instead of Red Meat
Impact:
2,205 pounds of CO2e a year; 6%
According to the Chicago report, taking a smaller step and cutting out red meat — while continuing to eat chicken — can save about 2,205 pounds of CO2e a year. Granted, this exact number reflects a somewhat unrealistic dietary change from eating only red meat to only chicken, but Mr. Eshel says it’s still fairly accurate.
The Easy Way: Eat Everything, but Make Sure it’s Local
Cost:
Varies, but can cost more.
Impact:
60-242 pounds of CO2 a year, or about 1%
The diverse bounty of vegetables, fruits and meats found in a grocery store have consumed a lot of energy getting there. The food industry burns nearly a fifth of all the petroleum consumed in the U.S. — about as much as automobiles do, as reporter Michael Pollan points out in his book “Omnivore’s Dilemma.” Only a fifth of that energy is used to grow food. The rest is spent processing and transporting it. Eating products that originate close to home can be a powerful alternative to giving up meat, dairy and fish, depending on where you live.
If you’re an employee at Google’s Mountain View, Calif. headquarters, eating locally won’t be a problem. The company’s dazzling new employee cafeteria is named Café 150, because it serves only food originating within a 150-mile radius.
For a Fortune 500 company staffed with famous chefs and nestled in a valley lush with farms, ranches and fisheries, eating local isn’t so much of a challenge. But sticking solely to local products won’t be so easy for individuals living farther a field, so to speak. “It’s easy if you’re living in the Central Valley,” Mr. Eshel says. “But in Vermont, there’s no way.”
3 Responses to “Pound by Pound, Dollar for Dollar; The Complicated Equation for Going Green”
There are many more “easy ways” to impact your carbon load at home.
1. Plug all your electronics into power strips and shut “off” the power strip when you are not using the appliance. You can save 10-25% off your monthly electric bill.
2. Hang your clothes out to dry.
3. Turn down the temperature on the hot water heater.
4. Replace applicances as you need to with Energy Star rated ones. Large savings depending on how old the appliance being replaced is.
5. Turn off or up the temp on air conditioning.
There are many more “easy things to do which have great impact.
We can all do with less.
Thank you, claire
Hi Sir,
I would do anything for our hometown in Jacksonville, Il 62650 can you give me some information where I can help with compound site, I miss to live in Blaine, Mn I can haul out leaves,sticks, or grass and get some free soil to fill up the pothole in the ground and fill up for the garden and flower bed, I get frustrate have to pay for the leaves put in brown bag cost me 2.50 per a bag why not we do the compound site? Thank you ,Linda
Two new studies show why some people are more attractive for members of the opposite sex than others.
The University of Florida, Florida State University found that physically attractive people almost instantly attract the attention of the interlocutor, sobesednitsy with them, literally, it is difficult to make eye. This conclusion was reached by a series of psychological experiments, which were determined by the people who believe in sending the first seconds after the acquaintance. Here, a curious feature: single, unmarried experimental preferred to look at the guys, beauty opposite sex, and family, people most often by representatives of their sex.
The authors believe that this feature developed a behavior as a result of the evolution: a man trying to find a decent pair to acquire offspring. If this is resolved, he wondered potential rivals. Detailed information about this magazine will be published Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In turn, a joint study of the Rockefeller University, Rockefeller University and Duke University, Duke University in North Carolina revealed that women are perceived differently by men smell. During experiments studied the perception of women one of the ingredients of male pheromone-androstenona smell, which is contained in urine or sweat.
The results were startling: women are part of this repugnant odor, and the other part is very attractive, resembling the smell of vanilla, and the third group have not felt any smell. The authors argue that the reason is that the differences in the receptor responsible for the olfactory system, from different people are different.
It has long been proven that mammals (including human) odor is one way of attracting the attention of representatives of the opposite sex. A detailed article about the journal Nature will publish.