Day in The Life of a Treehugger
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 10.22.05
It’s just one week shy of a year since Graham took the risk of letting my first post grace the pixels of Treehugger. (Thanks GH, it's been fun.) And with this post I pass the 500 mark. So to celebrate the milestone, thought I'd do something a little left field. As Treehugger is a ‘lifestyle filter’, I’d like to open up the comments section for our readers to share how they live their greener lives. What they do for a job, what elements of eco-living are they able to squeeze into busy schedules, even the frustrations they have in trying to make the switch to a more sustainable mode. We have a lot of 'lurkers' out there, who are probably doing great things in their career or home life. So I’m offering myself as the sacrificial lamb, to embolden you to put finger to keyboard and tell your story. Thus an average day in my wee life:
I groggily raise myself from slumber and extricate limbs from within Coyuchi organic cotton sheets (a decade old and still going strong!). On leaving our multi-occupancy, inner city house for a walk, into my head are plopped earbuds from my iPod, that was previously powered up by a Solio solar charger. Returning from the morning perambulations, I wash under a triple AAA rated, low flow showerhead, cleaning my hair with organic shampoo, that I'd refilled into a reused bottle, from a bulk supply at the local organic food co-op, Alfalfa House (whose website alas, appears to have gone belly up for the moment). I dry off with a Harmony organic cotton towel, (that’s was once of a natural colour, but after many years of hard work required it be dyed to look respectable.) The shower itself looks bright and shiny, because I recently scrubbed it down with Orange Power citrus-based tile cleaner. Teeth are dutifully brushed with Miessence organic toothpaste, on a Mont Bianco Clip replaceable head toothbrush (both noted here). The toilet is an old model, without dual flush, so the old standby axiom of “If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down” applies. The loo paper is of course post-consumer recycled, from Safe, though why they package it in plastic, beggars belief. For the days work I pull on clothes, that mostly average a life of some 10 years, many with patched war and wear wounds. These were cold water washed in a secondhand machine, salvaged from the street and line dried. If organised enough I might get time to have a quick breaky of organic cereal biscuits, with organic soy milk and organic sultanas. The domestics completed, I don a $5 second-hand bike helmet, jump aboard my trusty stead, a 15 year old Moulton, and pedal off on the quarter hour ride to work.
I arrive at the Bower Reuse and Repair Centre, where I do a job-share as the coordinator (manager). It’s a community based co-operative, with the primary goal of diverting unwanted household resources from landfill. Come lunch time, which on good day might happen before 4pm, I’ll make sandwiches with ingredients I carried to work in a hemp canvas daypack, of my design and construction. During the day I might take a call from Conservation Volunteers Australia, asking if I can fit in some team leading on an upcoming field project. If the brown stuff hasn’t hit the spinning thing during the day, I may get to leave the Bower just on dark. So long as there is no evening meeting of the Society for Responsible Design or the Bower Board, I’ll soon be heading home on the bike, LEDs lights flashing wildly into the night, my trouser legs protected by a $3 pair of second-hand reflective bike clips (like these) that came into work one day. Back at base, my low energy LCD screen iBook, (which replaced a desktop Mac that hadn’t been upgraded in nearly 8 years, but now serves my Dad well) sits upon an upturned rubbish bin, that I cut up and reconfigured to make a display stand. All for just $2, compared to $80 AUD for the commercial version. I check my emails and see that the Australian Wetland Alliance have some text changes for a brochure and poster I’m designing for them.
Alterations made and it’s dinner time — mostly organic veggies, maybe with some organic quinoa, pasta, tofu (again from the co-op), or whatever is hanging around in the small, 250 litre 560 kWh/yr energy efficient fridge. Food scraps go into the compost bin, with most paper, plastic, tin and bottles into the recycling tub. And unless we’re going out to the movies, or the like, which would probably require the use of the 'on-smell-of-an-oily-rag' 4 cyclinder car. (This once sat unused for so long, the council nearly towed it away, thinking it was abandoned), it’s most likely going to be some research and writing for dear old Treehugger before bed. That’s after the weather has been checked for the weekend, to see if it will be a backcountry skiing (still a little white stuff left up high) or bushwalking trip. By the light of a compact fluoro, as eyelids droop, try to read the latest release of eco-architecture magazine, Environ, to belatedly find any grammatical errors in my articles. Zzzzz.
w,
great post! congratulations! you have been
an absolute pleasure to work with and
prove yet again the value of hiring
people smarter than you.
you are truly an inspiration in the way
you live your life and should feel proud
of the tremendous impact you have had
on treehugger and more importantly, its
readers.
go man go!
graham
big fan of your weblog.
my biggest frustration about going green is the price. my fiance aould like to build a house in the next year or so. we would like to do be an Energy Star compliant house with energy star appliances - which in itself is not so expensive, but we would also like to live off sun and wind power exclusively (with battery and possibly generator backup) without having to tie into to the local power grid unless we absolutely had to - but it is the power generating and storing which is so expensive.
I read your inspiring post and couldn't help but add a comment about a day in the life of a green parent.
Wake up early and breastfeed baby. Change baby's compostible nappy (I gave up my washables when she was a year old), and head downstairs to feed baby and big boy some organic wholegrain cereal with organic milk. Put a load of washing into the washing machine using Eco-balls.
Walk big boy to school with baby in her buggy.
Head to the allotment to water our home-grown veggies, pick what we need for our meals for the day, and then head home to feed our organic laying hens, collect their eggs and to hang the washing outside to air dry.
Put baby down for her nap and do the house-cleaning chores, using home-made environmentally friendly cleaners (distilled vinegar/water mix in a spray bottle or tea tree oil for disinfecting). Update my TreeHuggerMum blog.
Feed baby her lunch, home-grown organic veg and locally baked bread, home-made jam or local honey.
Walk to school to fetch big boy. Home via local shop for any extras needed for supper.
Supervise homework and play with children. Do an outside activity weather permitting.
Feed children supper (homegrown veg where possible). Bath children (sharing bath water) with water heated by condensing combi-boiler. Put children to bed.
Relax! Look forward to eco-architect husband getting home by train and bus. Enjoy our supper together with a lovely glass of local organic ale.
Make sure all electrical appliances are switched off before going to bed.
As a recent lurker, let me chime in to say that going green has been a delightfully slippery slope. The primary issue is simple awareness, and a few basic practices can raise that awareness.
Rather than post a "Greenie Brag Sheet" here I will invite you to check in from time to time at easygreen.blogspot.com where we share some of the easy things we have done to live a lot more greenly.
Aimed at our friends and community members who complain that "we would be more green but. . . " the blog contains some of the longer rants I have given as an invited speaker and activist, as well as some "Quick Green" posts which can help the newly aware on down the hill to sustainability.
Feel free to borrow any useful ideas for Treehugger.
Three Teasers: Solar is NOT as expensive as it seems in cash, especially if you are buying a house or building one and can fold it into a mortgage. Our solar cells cost us US$40.00 per month for the 25 year life of the cells, and should produce 100% of our power in a calendar year. (We have a 2403 Watt system) Our electric bill was just a little more than that monthly, and we still run all the usual appliances -- microwaves, coffee makers, five computers, TVs etc. at no net drain on the grid. In future we will do a piece on our solar install.
We will also do a piece or two on non-auto mobility, and how to use mainstream suburban values to begin to achieve less car use and a more walkable, livable community.
Finally, there is a recent three part screed on the ins and outs of Municipal recycling -- our gateway green practice that lead to so many other more sustainable life choices.
Thanks for adding to our arsenal of green practices too.
Roger
Co-Founder, Pasadena Walks!
www.pasadenawalks.org
My efforts to live green began about four years ago with the pending birth of my third child. I found out that traditional disposable diapers stayed at landfills for approximately 500 years, not to mention the numerous chemicals that would absorb into my babies skin through the diaper-with that I promptly decided to use cloth diapers. The decision to use cloth diapers caused me to do extensive research into the multitude of options available to me. I concluded that hemp diapers and wool covers were my best options and that is how the story begins.
With each little tidbit of information I came across I read something new that shocked me and moved me to make a change. Today my life is very different. We try to eat organic or local, we recycle and try to use less stuff, and most of all we are question everything. We no longer assume that just because they sell it at the local grocery store it must be good, or just because you feel compelled after seeing it on TV a dozen times and hearing a commercial for it half a dozen times on the radio that we must need it.
In my quest for the best values in my new way of life I decide to open an online store. The store grew and evolved and has now become a network of three websites, the main being www.earthfriendlygoods.com, an eBay store, and a physical store in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Through this outlet I have been able to share what I've discovered and make a difference in many lives. The most important change that it brought about was my sister’s lifestyle change. Since her change, my sister left her corporate desk job to open the local Earth Friendly Goods store and help with the online store operations.
The power of the people to spread the word and mold the future by choosing to spend their money on healthy, earth friendly, products that were made by small business and businesses who care about their employees and their impact on the world is enormous - and wonderful. I look forward to my children's generation being one in which the masses are informed and armed with the ability to see the truth, tread lightly, and to ultimately live well.
Graham,
Congratulations on your 500th post and thank you for sharing your many informative and insightful thoughts.
Amie
I am so humiliated I am handing in my Treehugger Decoder Ring and going to write for Jalopnik.
Congratulations on being such an inspiration!
regards, Lloyd
where is the pictured compost bin available?
Hi CTP, I believe it is an older style compost bin from RELN plastics, who make them out of "100% recycled plastic, including the use of $5 and $10 plastic [Australian] bank notes." Unfortunately while I can see images of it on their site, there appears to be no direct link to that model. They seem to be focussing more on their lighter, cheaper 'corrugated' design instead. These are sold by 400 councils across Australia. Cheers W.
Wow, that's quite a comprehensive green lifestyle Warren. Props to you! Its good to see how much farther you can go with living green.
As Roger wrote, "going green has been a delightfully slippery slope. The primary issue is simple awareness, and a few basic practices can raise that awareness." I agree totally and for me, the first step in the slippery slope was my conversion to vegetarianism almost four years ago now. My good friend had recently made the switch and convinced me on my own moral terms that it was the right thing to do. I haven't questioned it since, nor regretted it. It was only the first step in what has become a growing awareness of the impacts that our lives have upon the world. I have been supported and prodded by my equally conscious girlfriend of the past two and a half years as well. It's so much easier to keep on the green path when you have someone else for support.
I am a university student and my funds aren't so great that the added cost in many cases of going green has deterred me from doing everything I can do. However, I do make a point of doing the following:
-I eat vegetarian as I mentioned above, lessening the impact my food habits have on the world. I should probably cut dairy out of my life completely but a staple of my diet is cheese and I have been unable to give up this easy and tasty protein source. Also, I could never give up ice cream for I love it so greatly (I can have my one vice right?). I did recently cut milk out of my daily diet in favor of soy milk, although it does cost almost four times as much! Why does the cost of going green so frequently have to be so high.
-I try to conserve energy as much as possible as our energy use has a huge impact on the planet. Compact fluorescents for any frequently used lights, power strips to switch off those 'leaky' appliances like TVs and microwaves that create phantom loads even when off, keeping only those lights on that are necessary, and being generally conscious of consumption has gotten my girlfriend and I's electricity usage down to only about 250 kWhs per month for the both of us.
-Any electricity we do use is 100% wind power from our local utility, EWEB, a great and eco-friendly public utility. It's still a small premium for the clean wind power but considering how little we use, it's not much of a burden and the difference in prices IS shrinking. See this story on how wind power is now cheaper than the regular power mix in Colorado!
-We try to buy organic whenever the price isn't too much higher but its so hard to make myself do it when the organics are 2-4 times as expensive. Perhaps when I have a larger income (i.e. when I have a real job!) I can make the plunge.
-A little gripe: we always take home leftovers when we go out to eat to avoid food waste but why do restaurants insist on using Styrofoam to go boxes! Is it that much cheaper for them than paper ones I can recycle?
-Obviously we try to recycle everything we can but sadly we live in a rented apartment and have no way to compost so food scraps go into the garbage.
-While at the university, the car stays in the driveway for days at a time (sometimes all week). I chose an apartment directly across the street from the university so all classes are in walking distance, friends live near enough to walk/ride bike etc. Weekly trips to store are taken in car because we buy too many groceries to take home on bike but its a short trip. I've used barely a half tank of gas (about 4 gallons for my car) in the last month I've been back at university. Car is used for infrequent trips to other stores (damn our urban sprawl) and the movie theater.
-I also devote a lot of my spare time to energy conservation/efficiency and renewable energy action here on my campus and in my community. Just a way to make a small difference around here...
Anyway, I know there is much more I could do - buy all organic, go vegan, buy local products, buy more green consumer products etc. - but almost all cost quite a bit more money (perhaps not individually but they do add up) and I don't have a lot of extra cash. If anybody has any more low/no cost added suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Oh, forgot to add, I purchase CO2 offsets from Climate Care to mitigate the damage the few vehicle miles I drive do cause. Check them out, they do good work and the cost is minor. Check out their easy CO2 calculator to see how much CO2 your living habits produce and find out how much it would cost to offset them.
I started experimenting with veggie burgers 2 1/2 years ago after reading what a Mad Cow prion is. Soon I started reading about how damaging the meat industry is to the environment, and how resource intense modern farming is. I've tried to go vegan but ice cream is my weakness. The soy ones are expensive and never as good, but they are getting better. Also my girlfriend loves cheese and won't eat the soy versions.
I was absolutely disgusted and ashamed of my country for starting another senseless war for oil, and after I learned what peak oil was all about I am trying to add solar power to my daily life. My modest 120 watt battery based system does not much more than charge some batteries (digital camera, video camera, cd player, cordless drill, etc), and sometimes power the entertainment center. When my current computer goes belly up I plan to buy a laptop and recharge it with solar as well. I need at least another panel and probably a larger inverter to do anything more substantial.
My location and wage slave status are huge obstacles to being more green. I can't afford to cover the roof in solar panels, and living on an island I have to commute for an hour to get to work, so walking or biking or even carpooling are not an option. If I had the money I'd get a hybrid, but I think my next car will be a VW turbo diesel that I can run on biodiesel.
I try to buy organic and recycled but the cost is frustrating. Of course as demand increases the cost will go down, so I often buy the more expensive items just to "support the cause" even though I usually don't.
Hey JesseJenkins, do you have a Greenmarket or local gardens nearby? I do, and they collect peoples kitchen scraps for composting-- so my roommate and I collect our scraps in a bag in the freezer, then bring it over to the Greenmarket when it's full. Our local city garden has a similar program, so perhaps this is an option for you, too.
My lifestyle is 1.6 - 1.8 planets. I try to reduce my footprint while still living among the mainstream population.
I buy local & organic nearly everything, occasionally eat seafood cos it's hard not to. Try to minimise toilet flushing. Cook with gas, cook my own grains/beans etc, don't buy prepared ingredients. Foodscraps go to council compost. Use low-impact household cleaners. Have compact flourescents for lights that stay on a long time. Try to use only 1 light where it's needed.
I'm trying to wear all of my clothes out (although some are lasting longer than I'd like) & repair things. Unplug appliances from wall (v's standby). We have maximum energy efficient appliances, no clothes dryer or dishwasher (I don't believe they are as efficient as handwashing). I try to reduce heating & general water use, eg I use water after washing veges/grains to water plants. I walk most places, occasionally public transport. I would like to cycle more but I'm chicken of getting squashed by cars.
Have tried to convince people not to give us gifts. When we must give gifts we try to give experiences or something local or donations to a cause that's relevant to the person or something to expand their outlook without it being too weird.
I'm also trying to live a life of continual learning and only engage in occupations that progress sustainability. I don't buy pop-culture mags or watch TV. I'm careful which movies I support and which products I "vote" for when I do shop. I rarely go to supermarkets. I also deliberately fly less although I would love to travel more.
Like many people I have too many possessions I bought when I was less aware. To project a enviro/PC image, you would hide them, but I figure they've gotta be used/worn (unless they're energy suckers).
Warren I used to live in inner west sydney. I plan on moving back soon - I'm def. gunna pop in & say hello when I do.
I think it would be an interesting exercise (competition) for TH contributors to track down the most genuinely sustainably-living person they can in their city & interview them for TH. I mean people who have been living lightly on the planet for sometime, but who still interact with normal urban society (ie not drop-outs or 100% fringe dwellers) so they can influence others by their example.
Thanks to everyone for their contributions. It's inspirational to learn what others are doing with their lives. It would be heart-warming to learn that the concept of a collective conscious might be real, and once a critical mass of people, choosing 'right livelihood', was attained, then the bulk of humanity would gravitate in this direction too. But true or not, each of us has to walk the path most appropriate to ourselves. I've always been taken by a quote by Helen Keller, who although deaf, mute and blind completed a university degree, and much more besides.
"I am only one; but I am still one.
I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.
I will not refuse to do the something I can do."