Carbon Footprint

Like many others we have been working to reduce our carbon footprint. Our biggest contribution to reducing our carbon emissions was done years ago when we began heating our home with carbon nuetral wood pellets.
When we moved into our new house we upped the ante by putting in the boiler so now we not only heat our home with pellets we heat our domestic hot water as well. This is our first full summer with that setup and it is working great.
On the example of friends who use an efficient wood boiler to heat their home and water we turn the boiler on once a day. We take our showers, do dishes, cleaning, and laundry that needs hot water then we turn it off. On average I would say it is on for about ten hours a week as opposed to 168 hours (24/7).
We also do most of our laundry in cold or cooling water and then hang them on the line to dry. I love the crisp fresh feel and smell of line dried clothes!
In the summer months and into the fall we use our wood pellet grill for cooking/baking. It has just as much temperature control (with a built in thermostat) as my oven/range, but doesn't warm my house and uses about one-fifth the electricity.
I went around the house about a year ago and unplugged everything. I plugged things in as I used them, and the others remain unplugged. I also make an effort to unplug things after I use them that I only use sparingly like the iron, an extra tv, boom box, pellet stove in the summer, and sewing machine. I do make an effort to unplug my cell phone and laptop chargers when I am not using them as they suck up almost as much juice whether or not they are charging/powering the device.
When we first moved into this house we changed our lightbulbs for the compact flourescents, and we are upgrading our windows and insulation as we can to decrease energy loss in the winter.
We also buy as much food as we can locally. I love the fresh milk and cream (especially ice cream ;) from our local dairy, and the fresh meats can't be beat. We joined the local co-op for our veggies, and get most of the fruit we eat from our yard. We have had great success with Damon using our greenhouse and fields for growing. Win- win there. Then, of course, we have the chickens now. They are way too much fun! You should have seen them fight over a few grapes I gave them yesterday. Best game of keep away I have witnessed in a long time...
We combine our trips so we aren't constantly in the car running up and down the hill. We got bikes and should be better about using them for local travel, but that is in the "still working on it" category.
The latest project for energy reduction is actually an idea from last winter. For Christmas we bought a 100 year old wood cook stove instead of gifts for each other. It was a little rusty and well used, but still in working order and will be beautiful with a little tlc. Of course, our plan is to adapt it to burn pellets (not changing it to a convective stove just using the pellets instead of wood for fuel). It sat in our friend's garage for almost two months after the holiday, then in the warehouse until today. (We had gotten a hearth pad for it in the spring...) Today we spread it all out and got the grinders and wire brushes out and start cleaning her up. Tomorrow I will paint it and then we can bring it home to set it up! We are putting it where the original house owner's had a wood stove. Venting through roof is done we will just have to adapt into it. Gee- I wonder where we will get the pipe from!LOL! Here are some before pics...

Solar Clothes Dryer

Nearly three years ago when we began our garage addition we did a french drain around the house. This uprooted many favorite plants, grass, and my beloved clothes line. We are slowly replanting or replacing the plants and grass, and I was thrilled when they (finally) reinstalled my solar clothes dryer yesterday. Nothing gives you crisp fresh sheets like line drying! :) :) :)

Naive

We get a large number of solicitations for donations throughout the year. Usually from the sheriffs dept, or cancer society, or United Way, but we also get the local schools, and when our employees kids have fund raisers we seem a worthy target. We have our donations all set up, and I don't usually give to any random cause that walks through the door, but I will at least listen to the proposal, and/or look at the package they have put together. A donation request this week stopped me in my tracks with it's astounding lack of foresight. The wife of one of our guys works at a private school in town, and they are doing a fund raiser promoting environmental awareness and going green. Sounds like a worthy cause, right? Being in alternative energy we'd be a good candidate? Sure. Sounds like a win, win situation? Absolutely! Then he told me what they were doing with their Go Green theme. They are taking donations to put the donating company's logo on water bottles that they will sell, and/or give out at whatever little concerts or get together's their school has. PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES. To promote being green! At first I thought he was kidding. I asked him to clarify. Yup,he was talking about the individual plastic water bottles, like Evian, or Poland Springs. When the snicker snuck out of my mouth, he gave me a puzzled look and boldly pushed forward boasting about how MANY water bottles they were going to get, and wouldn't that be a great promotion to have our name on and very worthwhile for our company? I asked how they were going to encourage recycling them and got a deer in the headlights stare... HELLO? McFly! Anybody home?!?
These bottles are made of PET plastic derived from petroleum. (The point/focus of our business is to get people off of petroleum!) In the US (alone) we use over 30 billion of those bottles a year, or ~30 million a day! One billion bottles could make 72 million square meters of carpet for an idea of scale. According to the American Recycling Institute only 14% of those 30 billion are recycled. The rest go right into the landfills. That's well over 25 billion bottles used once (maybe-MAYBE twice) and tossed. Why not teach the kids NOT to use those little environmental bombs? Or design a pamphlet on why they should A- not use them and give some alternatives like the SIGG bottles and B- Why they should recycle if they have to use them occasionally, and where... I would pay a lot more money for that!
I will admit that I have purchased them on occasion, and do not always recycle them, but I do try to use them as many times as I can. Most importantly, I am not using one of our most needless environment clogging, and wastefully consumptive items to promote being green! To me that is like having a fire "safety" meeting giving out matches and hay then showing people how to easily start a fire. It really doesn't take a lot of common sense. How do you politely say that someone's 'go green' promotion is fatally flawed?

Hot, Cold, Hot...

Little rant.
((((Sigh))))This is our business life. Things are either off the charts, or dead as a doornail. We have years where we are booked out three months in the fall, backordered on stoves for months. The next year you stare at the door and wonder what the hell happened to all those people who were screaming because you couldn't get them squeezed into your schedule in a couple of days as soon as it snows and you wonder if you'll make it through the year??
Where are all the people who swore that pellet or wood was the answer not just because it's cheap (I hate that word), but because it the right thing to do? These people shut their stoves off in droves when oil prices are low. Not lower than pellet in many cases, but hey if you don't have to get your lazy ass off the couch to fill the stove once a day it's worth a few extra bucks right?
Last year was one of the worst for our industry. What people don't realize is they created a very dangerous situation by having such on again, off again support for alternative fuels. There were many major players, and little guys, that went out of business or had to sell to the highest bidder, are carrying large loans and/or are on the brink of collapse because of this. One of the worst parts is that every time we lose users here- even for one heating season- that fuel is LOST. Sold to Europe, sold to China, sold to so many others who know the value of the fuel. We now export more pellet fuel than we use in this country. Good luck getting it back. It won't happen. I have been to a few world pellet conferences in Europe and they spend a great deal of effort and money to woo the US and Canadian manufacturers. Their standards are lower, they pay in advance, and they buy very large quantities.
When the oil prices are out of sight the number of people that use their pellet stoves goes up by the tens of thousands. Well in excess of 100,000 extra stoves were estimated for the 2005 heating season. The average house uses three tons in a heating season. So these extra users can add an extra demand equal to as much as a third of the annual pellet production in this country in an instant. (AND that doesn't account for the fact that we now ship more pellet fuel to Europe than we do domestically.) This creates spot shortages, DUH! The best JIT system in the world couldn't manufacturer 30% of their annual production in a week or two...
The industry took the area shortages in the Northeast very seriously in 2005. They made deals with West coast manufacturers (who had excess that year) to ensure that there was ample supply in New England. Manufacturers, and dealers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and more on infrastructure, and extra stocking space to buy the fuel early. Then our fair weather friends did not turn on their stoves. They did not buy fuel. The Year of the Cricket, where many fell or were severely crippled.
This year the oil prices are back where they should be and suddenly we are back to a packed store of people wanting this yesterday wondering why we have so few employees, why we are sold out of many stoves, and why it will take weeks for us to get out to install a stove. Pellets are holding for now-(knock on wood)...
I have learned to be greatful for the times when I cannot get the product and have a backlog. Even though customers are screaming at us and holding us responsible at least the fuel is being used and therefore preserved for our use- this year at least. ((((Sigh))))