"Developers are not following green building practices for fun. They're seeing a market for it and buyers are starting to demand it for the benefit of the environment and their own health."
The new elementary school to be built adjacent to Inglewood Junior High promises to have many green elements saving tens of thousands of dollars yearly in energy costs.
Sure, it's a trend--every magazine out there has had their Green Issue this year. Al Gore became a superstar with a Powerpoint presentation. But, it's a great trend and one I hope continues.
I recently read about a village in England who sought to become a carbon neutral community. In 2006, the community of Ashton Hayes, supported by the villagers, local businesses, their city council and the Energy Saving Trust started in on their effort. Planting trees, installing wind turbines and replacing traditional incandescent bulbs with CFLs are just some of the things the community has done to become carbon neutral.
Why not Sammamish? It seems that now, with the planning of the Town Center and our expected growth, its an ideal time to strive for carbon neutrality and I'd love to see a push by our City Council to do so both in city development and on an individual level.
At the beginning of this year after many high energy bills and watching An Inconvenient Truth, among other things, we sought to make our home more efficient.
I just received our most recent Puget Sound Energy bill with a little bit of giddiness. You see, our bills have been going down. Oh sure, without air conditioning, the summer months always see a reduction in the bill, but it's been going down compared to the last couple of years, and I owe it mostly to the CFL.
Over the years, my husband has been hounding me to swap out our incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents. As much as I liked the idea of a CFL because it uses about 75 percent less energy, produces 75 percent less heat and lasts 10 times longer than its incandescent counterparts, I hated the aesthetics of the CFLs he brought home. The light was cold and harsh with a tinge of purple. They took forever to light up which wasn't conducive to something like a closet where the light was going on and off relatively quickly.
But then, on the emailed advice of the tasteful Rachelle Carson, wife of Ed Begley, Jr. and star of HGTV's Living with Ed, we sought out warmer CFLs and dimmable CFLs. Once they warmed up, there was hardly any noticeable difference. We replaced about 75% of our bulbs--because they take so long to warm up, we didn't replace those lights that were turned on and off quickly.
It was a bit of an expense, but not only did Puget Sound Energy have oodles of $2 off PER BULB coupons at Home Depot, but we knew we'd likely see a difference in our energy bill--and have we ever!
Now, mind you we have only changed our behaviors a little--like turning off computers at nighttime and making sure unused lights are off. But, with little ones turning lights on all the time, this doesn't always happen.
We started replacing bulbs in January 2007. As you can see from the chart below which is our actual electricity usage for the last two years, our energy savings have been significant since the beginning of the year and relatively painless.
Great ideas are not without caveats. CFLs contain mercury. While those old fashioned mercury thermometers contain about 100 times more than a typical CFL, they still need to be recycled properly and not just dumped in the trash.
One idea I saw recently was from Mindy LaClair, a student at Art Center of College Design. You buy the bulb in the box, and then turn it inside out and use it as a postage paid box to send back your old CFL when it burns out in ten years. But, as far as I know, it's still just an idea.
With technological advances, however, by the end of this year, the mercury content in CFLs is expected to drop.
Australia recently passed a law that will ban the sale of incandescent lightbulbs in three years. But, with the advances in technology, warm light, dimmables and hopefully warming up faster, this shouldn't be a problem.
So, if you haven't tried out CFL's yet, go ahead, try a couple--but make sure they are the warm ones. Then get a few more. You'll be amazed at the savings and you'll feel good that you are starting to reduce your carbon footprint--which is a step towards carbon neutrality for all.
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