Руководство безотходного человека. Пятница-суббота

Friday: water

Soak up the personal benefits in using less water!

You’re now six days into the No Impact Experiment.

Having looked at your trash, transportation, food, consumption, and energy habits, there’s one major daily lifestyle change left to tackle — water. A whopping 71% of Americans are trying to reduce their footprint. Of those 71%, 60% are reducing their water consumption, and saving a lot of money on their water and electric bill. In this economy, every flush counts! Turn off the tap. Believe us, you'll feel better about yourself

FYI

The average American uses 170 gallons of water per day around the house. By reducing time in the shower, scraping (not rinsing) dishes, installing aerators on taps and using efficient appliances, you can reduce your water consumption by over 25%.

We brush our teeth [with] baking soda using a cup of water (rather than letting the faucet run). We may or may not take a bath — one at a time in the same water — depending on whether it is bath day [as] we’re in the water conservation stage.

—No Impact Man blog, September 10, 2007

Steps

1. Assess your current water habits from the moment you hit the snooze button until bedtime. Calculate your approximate water footprint (http://www.waterfootprint.org/index.php?page=cal/waterfootprintcalculator_indv_ext) and figure out the water footprint of your food here. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/from-lettuce-to-beef-whats-water-footprint-of-your-food.php

2. Create a list of the water you will likely consume today (not exact measurements, just general usage). Think about where you use water: at home, at work, church or school, on the go, and eating out. This will help you think about how you use water.

3. BEGIN! Turn off the faucet. Run the water gently when needed. Soak the dishes. Sponge-bathe.

4. Ask yourself throughout the day: What is the hardest part about reducing the amount of water you use? Are you doing something particularly novel or fun

to reduce your water consumption? Go to our site and blog about it, share a short video of a unique technique you’ve invented or show us some photos of the tools you used to cut back.

5. Please take your brief end-of-day survey. We will send it to you tonight to the email account that you initially registered with.

Ideas for change

In the kitchen

• If you don’t own a dishwasher or just have a small load to wash, fill one side of the sink with hot, soapy water. Stack your dishes and let them soak so that you use less water and less effort. Then load into an in-sink rack, and rinse by pouring hot water over the top or using your sink’s spray nozzle. If you’re using a dishwasher, wait until you have a full load to run it, and use the energy-saving setting, of course.

• Reuse all cooking water for making soups, stocks, and other dishes, as well as rinsing produce, watering houseplants, and

washing pets.

• Reuse the same glass throughout the day instead of dirtying up several.

Cool idea #1

Gather spring water! Spring water is delicious, chemical- and hormone-free,

and fun to collect! Find a spring in your area.

In the bathroom

• Take shorter showers. Set a timer.

• Take colder showers! It’s good for your skin, circulation, and better than coffee in the morning!

• Sponge-bathe: Use a washcloth. You’ll exfoliate at the same time. This is great as a refresher at the end of a sticky summer day too.

• If you don’t have a low-flow toilet, set a plastic bottle filled with water in your

toilet tank to reduce the amount of water used per flush.

• Turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth or shaving.

• Only flush if you must. “If it’s yellow, let it mellow!” and then flush with water saved in a bucket during your shower.

Cool idea #2

Calculate your water footprint.

1 lb plastic = 24 gallons of water

1 lb cotton > 100 gallons of water

Do you know how much water you really use? Calculate your water footprint using H2O Conserve’s water footprint calculator.

Wash It

• Wash clothes with full loads or set the water level to the appropriate amount of clothing.

• In a twin-tub washing machine, reuse rinse water for several loads.

• If your washing machine drains into a sink, use the drained water for plant-watering and toilet-flushing.

Cool idea #3

During Colin’s No Impact year, his family washed their clothes by filling up a bathtub with water, using a method very similar to grape-stomping in Italy. Check out his blog post for more about this experiment!

Going out

• In restaurants, only order water if you’re going to drink it.

• On that note, drink water instead of other beverages!

It’s the least processed drink you can consume, and actually uses less water (and energy) to produce and transport than any other drink.

• Ask for tap rather than bottled water. Did you know that you’re spending 1,000 times more for bottled? That’s crazy.

• Carry around a reusable drink container. Fill, drink and repeat. Help others break their bottled water habits by downloading and sharing Food and Water Watch’s Smart Water Guide. http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/bottled/SmartWaterCard.pdf

Cool idea #4

Pledge to stop buying bottled water. Make a promise to yourself, the world, and future generations.

Saturday: Giving back

Pay it forward. Feel the benefits of service

Welcome to day seven and the weekend, baby!

By now, you’ve probably slaughtered some of your carbon footprint — trading in some gas guzzling for sweat equity, phasing out prepackaged processed food for delicious local dishes, shopping less and saving more, turning down the lights, and quenching your thirst with tap water while lightening your planetary load. Pat yourself on the back for coming this far and do a little dance: it’s time to share some of your exuberance with others!

By giving back, you slow down and appreciate what you have. The conversation and community that you will experience will give you that all-important, essential nutrient: happiness. Challenge yourself today to be charitable, to act in good faith, to become one with others. Ultimately, you will not only be giving back — you’ll be getting back. Today and tomorrow are interchangeable. If today is your regular day of rest, switch today’s challenge “Giving Back” with tomorrow’s “Eco-Sabbath.”

FYI

More than 30 peer-reviewed, longitudinal studies have found a strong connection between

volunteering and a decreased risk of heart disease, lower rates of depression, and greater longevity

But the final stage was to me the most important. In the giving back stage, I volunteered with environmental organizations. The final stage was not about conservation. It was about innovation. And it was in this stage that I met new people and made the most friends. It was here that the people were most excited. It was not about doing less harm. It was about doing more good. It was less about limits and more about possibility. — No Impact Man blog, July 22, 2008

Steps

1. Make a list of all the ways you contribute to your community now. Do you watch your neighbor’s kids for free? When’s the last time you held open a door for a stranger? Do you write checks to charity or volunteer on occasion? How can you step up what you’re already doing and do more? Where are you on this pyramid?

Career: Work for a nonprofit

Leader: Run an ongoing project

Weekly: Donate time to more than one project

Monthly: Volunteer

Annually: Write a check

pyramid (lowest to highest impact)

Steps

2. Make a list with three columns: 1) all the charities you’d love to help out, 2) why you feel you can’t, and 3) how you can address and remove those barriers. Do your barriers — as legitimate as they may seem to you — outweigh the importance of participating? Remember: you needn’t become an “activist” or even a leader to be active in your community! Simply participating in an ongoing project is giving back and living your values.

3. Practice what you preach. Give. Do. Help. Change. In other words, sign up today to volunteer for a local environmental cause.

4. How do you feel? As you give back throughout the day, ask yourself what benefits arise from volunteering. Did you meet your neighbors? Find common ground with strangers? Evaluate the hardest obstacles you’ve faced today and share possible solutions with the No Impact Experiment community online. Talk it out. http://experiment.noimpactproject.org/

5. Please take your brief end-of-day survey. We will send it to you tonight to the email account that you initially registered with.

Ideas for change

Pay it forward

• Tithe your income. Dedicate a fixed percentage of your gross income toward charity. When you align your values with your actions — put your money where your mouth is — your life is enhanced.

• Practice random acts of kindness. Pick up litter around your school or church. Give up your seat for a person carrying groceries. Shovel someone’s sidewalk. Install a low-flow shower head for an elderly friend. Little altruistic things add up and feel oh-so-good!

• Celebrate Earth Day every day. Show kids how to garden organically. Answer phones for a local eco-charity. Plant a tree. Live in New York? Find a volun teer opportunity through IOBY. Outside of New York, go to VolunteerMatch or Idealist to find a way to improve your community. Discover new friends with shared interests and feel good about doing good while you’re at it.

• Look on Twitter for a community group in your area that tweets about one-day volunteer projects. Some good examples are: San Diego, volunteersd, Toronto, volunteerTO, and Boston, GlobeDoGood. http://twitter.com/VolunteerTO, http://twitter.com/GlobeDoGood

• If your employer doesn't have an organized volunteer program, try to start one.

Cool idea 1

Got a kid in school? Help them form a Pay It Forward Club. http://www.payitforwardmovement.org/programs.html

Take a break from everything. Ohm Chanti

This week you have phased out trash, unsustainable transportation, and consumption.

You’ve behaved more eco-consciously about your energy usage, water usage, and food habits. You have contributed your time to a good cause. You have truly embarked on a special journey!

Today, Sunday, is about awareness and taking some time back for yourself. This is a chance to lay off the lights, televisions, computers, appliances, cell phones, flashing gadgets, and other stuff that seems to make the world go round. It’s a special time to hang out (or in) by yourself or with friends and family. It

is a time to reflect on the well-being of yourself and the planet. This first Eco-Sabbath you may wish to reflect on your No Impact week. Consider what worked well for you, what was particularly difficult, and what you’d like to permanently adopt. Consider how you can go even further. Think about how your week affected others in your life and what adjustments, if any, are in order. This is a time to discover and appreciate the bare necessities.

FYI

Item #3 on No Impact Man’s Top Ten Eco-Lifestyle Changes is “Observe an Eco-Sabbath.”

Ecology – The interrelationship between organisms and their environment

Sabbath – A time of rest Eco-Sabbath – Together, you and the

environment take a break

For one day or afternoon

or even one hour a week, don’t buy anything, don’t use any machines,

don’t switch on anything electric, don’t cook, don’t answer your phone, and,

in general, don’t use any resources.

In other words, for this regular period, give yourself and the planet a break. Keep your regular Eco-Sabbath for a month. You’ll find that the enforced downtime represents an improvement to your life.

—No Impact Man blog, May 29, 2009

Steps

2. How do you usually spend your day off? Consider how different — if at all — this day will be.