7 Ways To Offset an Environmental Ooops!

Oooops

It’s true. Last night I committed a cardinal sin of environmentalism—falling asleep with the lights on. Right now I should be prostrate in front of the environmental gods asking for forgiveness and finding ways to right my wrong. What I am really counting on is that a) I will not pass out with the lights on in the near future (unlikely) and b) other past and future energy saving activities might make up for my increased carbon footprint last night (probably unlikely).

That said, I got to thinking about seven vindicating activities that might put me in the “okay, so you’re not sooooo bad” chapter of “oh-dear-the-earth-is-screwed-and-it’s-all-your-fault” book.

7 vindicating activities:

1) Taking shorter showers: We’ve all heard the 5 minute rule. It’s golden.

2) Cycling: Not only has cycling to work staved off increased muffin-topping, but it produces no carbon emissions. This bike was bought second hand meaning no new materials were used by purchasing it. Some people are making new bikes out of bamboo too!

3) Victoria car-share coop: Because not everything is bicycle accessible. I just joined the car-share and so far love it. You make an intial, refundable, investment of $400 (refundable when you leave the co-op), and then are able to book one of 16 cars throughout Victoria for trips up to 3 days long. You pay by the hour and by the mileage. It means you can have access to a car, share it with other people, not use more resources than necessary (e.g. materials used to make a car only for you), build community, and get where you want to go. Let’s face it, I like local, but I really like traveling too.

4) Only having lights on when it’s actually dark: Sometimes this looks a little creepy when I’m sitting in my office and the lights are off. The 2 x 1 window in the right hand corner of the room provides enough natural light to get the work done. However, when clients come in or when it’s cloudy and actually too dark to do work, on go the lights. I can’t appear too creepy all the time.

5) Composting: I have never felt less guilty about peeling vegetables.

6) Recycling: You can recycle just about everything. No joke. Check out the CRD's site about where you can recycle what.

7) Camping: If done “right,” camping can be a low impact way to vacation. You don’t use electricity, excess water, and you learn a little more about the place you are in. The basics of respectful camping seem to mean “leaving no trace,” adhering to rules of the camp grounds, not throwing garbage amassing raves (non-garbage producing raves are fine minus the noise pollution that might disturb the wildlife) on the beach (and yes… this does happen—DJs, lights, and all), and staying on trails.

There are so many more things that one can do to reduce their carbon footprint and a lot of them can be fun! While composting may not be the highlight of my day, going camping definitely is. Today I think I will eat from the garden—probably the most local way of eating—and try not to fall asleep with the light on.