A Nudge Here, A Nudge There

When I went to pick up a pizza yesterday, there was a sign on the napkin holder that said, “remember paper comes from trees. Please conserve.” It actually made me take less napkins than I normally would. Sometimes we do things so unconsciously--like my grabbing gobs of napkins when I pick up take-out orders and then stuffing the extras in my glove compartment. A little reminder can go along way to remind people like me that I already have three trees of napkins stuffed in my car!

So, on that note what do you think about us adding this to our emails?

P Save A Tree- Don't print this if you don't have to.

Take a Breath

Harold Wilson:
He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. 

Unplug. Conserve. Save.

Even when powered off, appliances from air conditioners to DVD players draw power. Called "stand by power," it enables devices to be ready to spring into action when we turn them on. Unfortunately, the most inefficient of these electronics and appliances can draw 15-30 watts of power when off! Stand by power is 5% of the residential energy used in the United States every year. If you multiply even a low estimate of 5 watts by the amount of devices you have in your house by days of the year . . . are we on the same wavelength about this?

And let's keep it real--my Tivo takes about 10 minutes to restart anytime it's unplugged, so I'm not even going to pretend that I'm going to unplug that even when I have nothing scheduled to tape. But, just looking around my home I've already found five things I can easily unplug until I need to use them such as my toaster, coffee maker, printer, desk lamp, blow dryer . . . Look around. How many do you see?