Greenest Person in Chicago
by Kristin Underwood, Sacramento, CA
on 09.23.08

Image source: Randombassist Flickr.com
Think you've got what it takes? Well the Chicago Tribune recently named Ken Dunn, 65, "Greenest Person in Chicago" for his sustainable and low-carbon lifestyle. Game on.
To earn this coveted spot he beat out a guy who composts his own "excrement" and another guy who biked 16 miles to work in the dead of winter (remember, this is Chicago we're talking about).
So just what makes Ken Dunn so great? Well, he bikes. check. Air-drys his own clothes. Check. Grows his own vegetables (he lives in Chicago, not the suburbs). Check. Heats his home with a wood-burning furnace. Okay. And he eats leftover and outdated food. Hmm. In total, he produces 3,800 tons of carbon dioxide, compared with the 44,000 tons the average American products. gulp! To look at it another way, Dunn is producing the level of carbon emissions the IPCC says we will all have to achieve by 2100 in order to avoid the really scary effects of climate change.
The survey was done by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the Chicago Recycling Coalition and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Scores were calculated by looking at consumption levels as well as waste reduction activities, then carbon footprints were calculated and the winners were chosen.:Chicago Tribune
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