The Green Coach's Blog

How you drive can be as important as what you drive

thecanadiangreencoach — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 23:37:00 +0000

While the type of vehicle that you drive can often be the largest single factor in determining your CO2 emissions and fuel costs, your driving habits can have a huge effect as well. Susan and I have incorporated a number of ideas from Hypermilers into our driving habits and have calculated savings of hundreds of dollars a year as a result. Hypermiling is increasing your vehicle’s gas mileage by making skillful changes in the way you drive. Accelerating and decelerating gradually are two of the most important strategies. A key is remembering that every time you touch a pedal, whether it’s the accelerator or the brake, you are burning up money. Coasting up to traffic lights that have turned red in the distance is a good example. Not only are you burning less gas by taking your foot off the accelerator, you’re more likely to not have to come to a complete stop which, because of friction, means considerably less energy to get going again.

The Numbers

The average vehicle in North America gets about 20 miles to the gallon (12 L/100 km). Using current Canadian prices of about $1.25 per litre, the average vehicle will take about $3000 to fuel up this year. Susan and I use about 10% less gas now, but there are documented cases of certain drivers turning to hypermiling techniques and using 25% less fuel. That’s a $750 annual savings for the average driver, and of course if you drive more than the average, the savings will be even more.

Saving more

Of course savings can be had just by driving less. Choosing alternate methods of transportation, carpooling and just having fewer trips by doing all your errands for the day in one trip, are some of the ways to lower your carbon footprint. UPS saves money and pollutes less now since instituting a policy of driving in clockwise routes. By doing this they minimize the amount of time (and gas) they waste at intersections because they maximize the number of right hand turns per trip. This technique works less well in New York City and Montreal….the two places on the continent where turning right on a red light is not allowed! One of the best websites for Canadians to learn more is www.vehicles.nrcan.gc.ca and see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy-maximizing_behaviors for a great article on green driving.

Save $1000 a year, every year, for the rest of your life

thecanadiangreencoach — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:35:59 +0000

Some people have said to me “so you tell people how to save a few hundred bucks – big deal”. Wrong. Simply by following the advice in my first five posts on this blog, the average family can save approximately $1000 a year, every year, for the rest of their lives. These are not one-time savings. These are permanent positive changes that result in more cash in your pocket, forever.

You’re welcome

And I haven’t even mentioned the one biggest source of savings for the average North American (both monetarily and in terms of lowering your carbon footprint) – transportation. That will come in future posts. The point is, there are a lot more than five things you can do. There are dozens; in fact for some families there are hundreds. Literally.

Now almost nobody is actually “average”. Chances are you would save somewhat less, or somewhat more than $1000 a year, every year, for the rest of your life by choosing to do what I’ve written about. What if you had someone to help you look at your own situation and decide what areas you could save most, and help you prioritize? That’s exactly what we green coaches (or eco-coaches) do.

Now some of you will be saying that you already have changed in a number of ways to live greener, and so you don’t stand to save as much. Wrong again. You will probably save more in the long run because you started earlier. But there are many things that you can still do, you just haven’t thought of them yet. How would you like to have someone help you think of things? Someone who has researched for over twenty years on this topic and knows literally hundreds of things that could be done?

Starting to get the picture? I have literally helped people put thousands of dollars a year back into their pockets. Yes – by living greener. The other common thing I hear is “But I don’t want to live like some barefoot tree-hugging granola-eater.” If you’re saying that, you’re not paying attention. Green coaches (unlike consultants) will NOT tell you what you should do. Green coaches (at least the good ones) do the number crunching for you based on your own data so you can see how much you are currently spending in any areas of your life you want to consider. Then discussion ensues on what you want to do to save money and reduce your carbon footprint. Not based on averages, unlike my posts (because they are not addressed to only one person). When I’m talking to a client we almost never have to talk about averages. It’s based on their actual consumption and spending numbers. If you choose to do X, you will save $Y.

You may want to go back and look at my first five posts again. How many have you done? If you’d like to do some of them, but haven’t gotten around to it yet, you’ve hit on another major reason for having a green coach. Motivation, and an accountability partner. Just like a sports coach, a green coach will allow you to push yourself to do what you know you want to do but haven’t done yet. Instead of becoming a better pitcher or faster swimmer, though, the green coach helps you save money and live greener.

Lots of money, and a lot greener.

If you want.

Check out my website www.the greencoach.com

Here’s a news article about the increasing popularity of green coaching that you might be interested in.

Are you a CFL fan?

thecanadiangreencoach — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:12:35 +0000

Susan and I are still using the first compact fluorescent light bulb we bought, back in the mid-1990s. In fact only 3 of the CFL bulbs we have ever bought have burnt out. For a number of years we did not replace our tri-lights, dimmable and outdoor lights until the CFL versions were available. We also found we could not use CFLs in certain light fixtures because they were too large or simply a different shape, until recently. We currently still use a few non-standard small incandescent bulbs that we have not found a fluorescent (or LED) replacement for.

The Numbers

Did you know that incandescent bulbs are so inefficient that 90% of the energy used by these bulbs goes to create heat, and only 10% creates light? This means that your air-conditioner has to work harder this time of year, so you lose twice by using the old-fashioned bulbs if you’ve got A/C. That first CFL bulb we bought in the mid-1990s cost $17 at the time. You can now get a 6-pack of them for less than that. At this time of year, for the average household with air-conditioning, the payback time for replacing all of your old bulbs with CFLs is only 3 or 4 months. Replace them now and you’ll probably be saving money before the end of fall. The average North American house has 45 light bulbs – count ‘em, you’ll be surprised – and would save over $300 a year in electricity.

Saving More

For most households, unfortunately, it’s best just to throw out your incandescent bulbs now, but surprisingly there are certain cases where this is not true. If you live in a cold climate such as Canada or the northern US and you heat with a dirty, expensive fuel like oil, it can actually be cost effective to replace your CFL bulbs with incandescents for the winter. It can also be better for the environment if you have clean electricity such as Hydro Quebec or Bullfrog Power. The heat created by the bulbs can reduce your heating bill measurably. So some people should keep their old incandescent bulbs that haven’t burnt out yet and put them back in December. Of course I do not recommend actually buying incandescent bulbs. The long term solution for these folks is to replace your oil furnace with a geo-thermal heat-pump, a boiler or natural gas. Many people have switched over to LED bulbs for their Christmas lights. But did you know that LEDs are now available as regular light bulbs? Yes, they’re expensive; upwards of $40 per bulb right now, and for many purposes they do not yet emit enough light. But these guys are ultimately going to take over from CFLs. They are even more efficient and last many times as long (that is, they will last decades). They also have no mercury in them as CFLs do and they remain cool to the touch. If you haven’t replaced your old incandescent Christmas lights with LEDs, that’s where to start. They are now quite cost-effective and can be used indoors and out. And if you’re like me you will want to keep an eye on the new LEDs to ultimately replace your CFLs. Keep checking in at www.thegreencoach.com

Have you tried ground turkey yet?

thecanadiangreencoach — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:12:51 +0000

Try this test. Buy some ground turkey and put it in your pasta sauce instead of ground beef. Don’t mention anything, and see if anyone notices anything different. My family didn’t, so now we almost never buy ground beef. Ground turkey can be leaner than even extra-lean ground beef, the percent meat protein is just as high and it’s usually less expensive. But the really important thing to know is that turkey (and chicken) production per pound is responsible for less than 40% of the climate change that beef production is. (There is data from some places that argues it’s actually much less than 40%, but I’m always cautious with my claims.) So for every meal you have turkey or chicken instead of beef, you are causing quite a bit less than half of the climate change you otherwise would be.

The Numbers

And what you eat does matter. Twelve percent (again erring on the conservative side) of the average North American’s carbon footprint is caused by what we eat, with beef being the single biggest culprit. Only the categories of a) transportation and b) household heating & electricity use cause more climate change by the average person than what you choose to eat. On average beef cattle eat 13 times as much as they produce in meat whereas turkey and chicken eat less than twice as much as they produce. The billions of cows on the planet now directly contribute a measurable amount to global warming with their methane belches, and it’s beef farmers who continue to be responsible for most of the tropical rainforest destruction so they can have more rangeland to raise more beef. It is true that if you get your beef from a farmer around the corner so there is no transportation cost, it is less harmful, but it still causes more environmental harm than turkey (or chicken) that has been trucked in from almost anywhere. Personally I used to have about 10 meals a week with beef . Now we seldom have more than one. We eat a lot more turkey, chicken, pork (you cannot catch Swine flu from eating pork) and locally farmed rainbow trout. We also eat somewhat more salmon (try to get wild Pacific). As a direct result we are saving over $200 a year and eating very well.

Saving More

Having more meatless meals really helps too and they are typically less expensive. Meatless pastas, like eggplant lasange, are easy and go over well with kids. Put more beans (refried or otherwise) in your Mexican food and try chili with tofu and/or corn instead of “con carne”. Have eggs instead (am I showing my age?) and forgo those all-beef sausages for breakfast. Especially shun any kind of canned beef – can there be any single thing worse to choose to eat than the corned beef in a can from Brazil? Rainforest destruction, canning factories, transportation from the other side of the planet and it’s the worst meat you can choose to eat for the environment (and probably for your health as well). Instead, have a peanut (or almond) butter sandwich or roast turkey leftovers!

Program your programmable thermostat

thecanadiangreencoach — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:15:37 +0000

We have read from a number of reliable sources, that the majority of North American homeowners now have a programmable thermostat, but most of these have not been programmed! Susan and I installed a programmable thermostat shortly after we bought our home 16 years ago. I admit that prior to installing it, I wasn’t the best at remembering to turn down the thermostat every night before bed. I usually didn’t think to turn it down when we left the house at all. Letting your thermostat do the remembering for you can mean big savings, we discovered. Of course, you don’t have to worry about being uncomfortable at all because you can set it so that the temperature is back up (or down for those who have central air) to normal before you get up or come home.

The Numbers

The programmable thermostat cost us about $30. It paid for itself in about two months. During the winter we set the thermostat at 19C(66F) normally, 17C(63F) at night and 15C(59F) while we are not here during the day on weekdays. We had previously normally had the thermostat at about 21C(70F) most of the time during the winter. By setting our programmable thermostat as we do, our average home temperature now works out to about 17C(63F). Our heating bill decreased by almost 20% as a direct result. You can of course set it even lower than 15C(59F) when you’re not in the house. In our case we have some medicines whose labels say not to store them below 15C(59F), and some of our plants were another consideration. Otherwise 10C(50F) is not unreasonable when you are not in the house. Depending where you live you can expect to save between 3 and 5% for each degree Celsius you decrease your average home temperature (about 2 to 3% for each degree Fahrenheit).

Saving More

There are big grants available in both Canada and the US to retrofit your home with a more environmentally friendly heating system. For example if you install a geothermal heat pump you can qualify for a $3500 rebate from the Canadian government. These systems, while fairly expensive, will result in a heating cost that is typically less than one half of most people’s. The heat is extracted from the ground beside your house or from the water in your well and these systems are virtually emissions-free. Some people have paid them off in less than 5 years although it can take 10 years. If this change is not appropriate for you, there are still many options to consider such as high-efficiency natural gas furnaces or boilers. Check out thegreencoach.com for more. There are also rebates available for increasing your insulation and replacing windows and doors.

Gasoline-powered lawn mowers pollute more than cars

thecanadiangreencoach — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:52:53 +0000

Susan and I have a one-acre lot, about half of which we keep mowed (the rest is mostly woods with a creek running through it) . We always used a gas powered push mower in the past. That changed in 2007 when we bought an “old-fashioned” reel mower. I wish I could say it worked just as well, but honestly it did miss the occasional weed and it did take a little longer. Where the grass is longest and thickest you do need to use a little more muscle as well. Still we stuck with it and have not used any gasoline to mow our lawn since 2006! It had the added benefit of getting our teenage son to help mow more often as well. You do not have to sharpen the blades all the time like the “real” old-fashioned reel mowers you might remember. We have not sharpened the blades yet – they come pre-sharpened and the claim on the box is they do not need to be sharpened for three years under normal usage.

The Numbers

The reel lawn mower cost us just over $100 as opposed to well over $200 for the kind of gas powered mower we used to use. As well we save about $30 for the gasoline that we typically burned each summer. The cutting width of the new mower is only 18 inches while the old one we had was 21 inches. As a result, instead of two hours it now takes us about two hours and fifteen minutes to mow the whole half-acre. That time I figure was off-set by not having to drive to the gas station every few weeks to get more gasoline.

Saving More

The most ecologically friendly approach is not to mow at all (that way one less lawn mower needs to be created). There are various natural ground covers you can use or you can just let the wildflowers grow and have a path covered in sand or gravel winding around your yard. If your yard is small you may want to consider covering it with stonework and flower beds. Another option is to use an electric mower and get your power from a non-polluting source like Bullfrog Power (available in parts of Canada – many states have a similar option). The new cordless electric mowers do just as good a job as gasoline-powered models and prices have come down to where they are virtually the same. The electricity will cost you considerably less than gasoline, so you will save in the long run. Most have batteries that allow you to mow for an hour or so on one charge. If your yard is larger than that, consider getting more than one battery.

Only large families need 60-gallon tanks

thecanadiangreencoach — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:57:13 +0000

A couple of years ago my wife Susan and I questioned whether the 60-gallon hot water heater we leased was our optimal solution. We looked into newer technologies such as demand water heaters but discovered that the retrofit costs were higher than we were willing to pay. Knowing that we had not run out of hot water for years (since we went to low-flow showerheads and wrapped insulation around our tank and pipes) we decided to experiment with a 40-gallon tank. Success! It has now been over two years and even though we sometimes have four showers in less than an hour, we still have not once run out of hot water. Conventional wisdom says that a family of four (especially with teenagers) needs a 60-gallon tank. We’ve proven that belief to be outdated.

The Numbers

The company we lease from charged us nothing to replace the old hot water heater with a new 40-gallon model. (If yours says they will charge something, just tell them you will jump ship to another company. Then they won’t.) To rent the smaller model we now pay about two dollars less a month. More importantly, we’re using a lot less electricity than we used to! The new tank is quite a bit more efficient as well as two-thirds the size. My calculations show that instead of around $35 per month, the electricity is now costing us less than $20. So we will be saving a total of over $200 a year and using over 1600 kwh less electricity.

Saving More

Even more efficient are solar, heat pump, indirect and demand water heaters. Consider a replacement now if you can afford it. You will save in the long run. Of course the simplest way to save is to use less hot water. Have shorter showers or fewer baths. (A bath is approximately equivalent to a ten minute shower with a low-flow shower head.) Don’t use hot water when cold will suffice, especially in your washing machine. You may also want to consider lowering the temperature setting of your water heater, although you need to be careful about bacteria growth if you turn it down too much.