Cut Carbs ( Carbon Dioxide that is)

Dec. 28, 2008

Last summer, Elizabeth and Jon Roth had an epiphany when they learned the grapes they’d been happily buying and eating were harming planet earth. Simply getting that bunch of grapes from Chile to their Traverse City table poured six pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
“We were shocked by that,” Jon said. “We started wondering what other habits in our life caused that kind of carbon emission. So we went to a website where we answered questions about our energy usage and living habits—how many cars we had, how many kids, where we lived, that sort of thing.
“The web site did a calculation that if everyone on Earth lived with the same profile we lived with, it would take 4.3 Earths to support us all,” Elizabeth added. “They didn’t even ask if I owned a horse that lives in a barn out in the country to where I drive five times a week.”
The couple was surprised by their carbon footprint and decided to make
a different kind of New Year’s resolu-tion. They’ll spend the year of 2009
re-engineering their lives to go “green.”

BOOK IN THE WORKS
Jon intends to keep a blog of what he discovers on his journey of a less wasteful life, and turn it into a book, Carbon Wise: An Average Midwestern Family’s Search for a Responsible Standard of Living, to be published by Spirituality and Health Books, a Traverse City-based publisher. (And in the spirit of “green,” the recycled paperback book will also be available on demand off the Internet and in e-book form.)
Roth said he’s in a good position. He’s solidly middle class, right in the thick of the bell curve. He believes that it’s time that his slice of the demographic evolve from “talking about” change to taking real action.
“Right now, I hear people saying, ‘Why should I lower my standard of living? I don’t see anyone else doing it.”
Jon is hoping that his book will provoke people into action, in part, by demonstrating that it’s possible to lower your carbon footprint while enjoying pretty much the same quality of life. In fact, the Roths have already made a jump start on making changes and it’s been great.
Case in point: the family committed to doing less downhill skiing this year—“It takes a lot of energy to get the skiers to the top of the hill”—and replace it with snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.
“You get the exercise benefits, and you go more slowly, see more, set your eyes on nature a lot. And we can take our dogs with us,” he said.
Roth is an easy-going guy with a laconic, Garrison Keillor way about him. Tall with an impish grin, he doesn’t come off as strident, but as unusually persuasive. He said he’s always taken a unique path in life, having written a novel, a graphic novel, and a handful of original songs on his acoustic guitar. He doesn’t write necessarily for the money—although it would be nice to get his work published—so he makes a living with a successful website design company, Brightbridge Studios. His wife, Elizabeth, an attorney, has been off work, recovering from a horse-back riding accident, and will help research the book. Jon will be the main author, but all the family members—including their two dogs—will contribute their perspective, she said.
FLOATING BTUs
Jon believes the majority of people don’t make the changes they should either because they don’t realize the impact of their buying decisions, or they just feel it would be too complex.
“We’ll take the journey for them and chronicle it in book form. At the same time, we’ll end up with a user manual for people like us. We’ll search out who to call, what to buy, how much it costs, and how much they’ll save in the long run.”
Jon said he’ll attack a different subject each month—shelter, water, fire, food, transportation, and entertainment.
For each decision, he’ll try to estimate how much the family will reduce its carbon emissions. He’s already started on the first chapter—shelter. He contacted Traverse City Light and Power for a $12 energy audit. An insulation contractor later measured his home for drafts, and it turned out that a tremendous amount of heat was escaping through the walls. “It’s not adequately insulated at all. How many other homes in Traverse City are like that? What if we added up all the other homes in Northern Michigan, heating up the outdoors? It’s an unbelievable amount of BTUs floating into the neighborhood.”
The escaped heat translates into wasted natural gas, but it also consumes energy just to deliver the natural gas to his furnace. And speaking of furnaces, he’ll look at all the different kind of furnaces. What type of furnace burns most efficiently using the most sustainable resource and is the most affordable to the homeowner?
“We’ll bird-dog it as far as we can go. The demographics for this book are people who are busy with kids, who don’t have the time. I’ll take the time, so people like us can learn.”
Jon acknowledges that in these tight times, there’s not much chance people will have extra money to insulate a home or invest in a new furnace or solar panels. “I anticipate we’ll have to put a number of ideas on a wish list. If I know the cost-savings and the relative difference they can make, I can prioritize and plan for them. Maybe over two years time, we can make huge gains.”
Elizabeth said she feels a little like a frontiersperson as she heads out on this project.
“I don’t know what the consequences will be; what changes we’ll really have to make in our lives. They might be fairly significant. Maybe we won’t be able to stay in this house in order to achieve a carbon footprint we can accept. We already live small, relatively small, compared to your average family. We have two cars, but one car we’re not using. We have a small house, we only have two kids, so the worst thing for me might be giving up the horse to be really legitimate. Can’t do it! There are things we’ll run into that we just can’t sacrifice.”

AIM FOR THE BULLS-EYE?
Jon said he won’t even try to be 100 percent environmentally correct—it would be setting himself up for failure. But he’ll come as close to the bulls-eye as he can. He’s already buying most of his food at Oryana Natural Food Co-op, because they do a lot of the homework.
His two big ideas: To keep food costs down, he plans on building a hoop house—a greenhouse, only plastic and inexpensive—and sharing it with his neighbors. A hoop house extends the growing season on both ends. He also wants to pare down to one car and share a second car with his neighbors in the downtown Traverse City neighborhood.
“You not only save money, you also have that face-to-face contact with your neighbors everyday. It’s a hidden benefit. It makes you feel better, your day is improved.”
His smaller ideas: spend more time with candles, books, and board games. He plays his guitar acoustically, instead of plugging in as often. Canoe.
Yet, he doesn’t plan to limit international travel, but to reduce and choose trips thoughtfully.

NO EXTREMES
“If you pursue this to an extreme and become a zealot you risk mis-training your kids by keeping them too close to home. But I don’t think that will happen; we have the Internet and there’s a lot of discussion going on about green purchases. I want our kids to explore anything they want to explore. We’re not going to shun global experiences, but we’ll choose our purchases more consciously. “
They also won’t default to buying the cheapest item on the shelf.
“We’ll see where they’re made and how they’re made. Part of this inquiry will show us there are a lot of things we think we need to buy, but we really don’t. Do we really need another laundry basket? We’re already buying our meat and eggs locally—for a lot of reasons.”
Besides the planet, there’s another reason—make that two —that Jon and Elizabeth want to embark on these big life changes: their two daughters, Anna, 11, and Mary, 7.
“Part of our motivation is we need to teach our kids a whole new set of life skills. We can’t make all the changes in a year, but we can start thinking consciously about our choices. I want it to be second nature to my kids. I grew up in the 1970s, and it wasn’t second nature for me, but it will be for them,” Jon said.
“We all have to explore these changes for our generations of children and for the wildlife so they can inherit an Earth that has an abundance of clean places, and enough food and resources to live comfortably. To do otherwise is just selfish.”

This is Fun…

Want to know your own greenhouse emissions? You can calculate your current total household emissions and figure out how to reduce them. Check out this website: www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html. Here is a pared-down version of what the website says:

Change five lights. Replace the conventional bulbs in your five most frequently used light fixtures with “energy star” bulbs. If every household in the U.S. took this one simple action, we would prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars.

Look for “Energy Star” qualified products. When buying new appliances, lighting and electronics, get the features and performance you want AND help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

Heat and cool smartly. Take simple steps like cleaning air filters regularly and having your heating and cooling equipment tuned annually by a licensed contractor. When it’s time to replace your old equipment, choose a high-efficiency model, and make sure it is properly sized and installed.

Seal and insulate your home. Sealing air leaks and adding more insulation to your home is a great do-it-yourself project. The biggest leaks are usually found in the attic and basement. If you are planning to replace windows, choose energy star qualified windows. Forced air ducts that run through unconditioned spaces are often big energy wasters. Seal and insulate any ducts in attics and crawlspaces to improve the efficiency of your home. Not sure where to begin? A home energy auditor can also
help you find air leaks, areas with poor insulation, and evaluate the over-all
energy efficiency of your home.

Use green power. Green power is environmentally-friendly electricity that is generated from the wind and sun. There are two ways to use green power: you can buy green power or you can modify your
house to generate your own green power. If you are interested, there are a number of steps you can take to create a greener
home, including installing solar panels and researching incentives for renewable energy in your state.

Reduce, reuse, and recycle. Make sure you buy products that come in containers
that can be recycled, as well as items that can be repaired or reused. In addition, support recycling markets by buying products made from recycled materials.

Be green in your yard. Use a push mower. If you do use a power mower, make sure it is a mulching mower to reduce
grass clippings. Compost your food and yard waste.

Use water efficiently. Saving water around the home is simple. Municipal water systems require a lot of energy to purify and distribute water to households, and saving water, especially hot water, can lower greenhouse gas emissions. Look for products with EPA’s WaterSense label. Be smart when irrigating your lawn or landscape; water only when needed and in the cooler, early morning hours. Turn the water off while shaving or brushing teeth. Do not use your toilet as a waste basket - water is wasted with each flush. And did you know a leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons of water per day?

Spread the word. Tell five family members and friends that energy efficiency is good for their homes and good for the environment.