How the Foley family cut greenhouse gas emissions by 65%

Jonathan Foley lived the American dream: a five-bedroom house on a large double lot, a wife, a young daughter, two dogs, two cars, and two jobs in the city.

One day Jonathan, a climatologist at the University of Wisconsin researching how humans are altering the global climate , worked out how much this lifestyle was costing in terms of atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions. The family's direct emissions of carbon dioxide calculated at 42,000 pounds per year (19,050 kilograms). This is slightly less than average for two adults in the United States*.

Once Johnathon understood his family's contribution to global warming he knew they had to make changes. From Audubon.org:

His examination of his family's role in the process was a turning point. "Am I willing to put my money where my mouth is?" Foley asked himself. If not, he figured, he had no business telling others to do their part.

As the headline suggests, the rest is history. Find out how the Foleys went about cutting their GHG emissions by 65%. This Audubon Magazine article has plenty of practical links for US readers interested in what companies can help them cut their own greenhouse gas emissions.

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Change the planet globe by globe.

After my brush with the City of Sydney's box of energy efficient light bulbs giveaway of yesterday I have consoled myself and am back to exploring the subject with enthusiasm. There is plenty of information around.

Greenhouse.gov.au's Home Technical Manual has a comprehensive section on efficient househouse lighting, an overview of different types of lightinting and their correct application. It confirms big savings are to be made by switching to CFL. The table below shows the lifecycle costs for lighting systems using different globes to produce the same amount of light. Lifecycle costs include purchase, running and replacement costs.

	20 W CFL	100 W Incandescent	65W Halogen
Running cost over 10,000 hours*	$20	$100	$75**
Average life	10,000 hours	1,000 hours	2,000 hours
Purchase cost	$25 1 lamp	$5 10 bulbs @ 50c	$20 5 lamps @ $4
Total cost	$45	$105	$95

* Based on 10 cents per unit of electricity,
** Includes magnetic transformer losses.

Ecovoice report in their March 2006 edition that NSW will be saving $2.8 million by converting all traffic light from incandescent bulbs to new, highly efficient light emitting diode (LED) technology.

I also found a link to neco.com.au, an online eco friendly hardware store where I can buy my bulbs.

Remember, if the old idea is now no good, change the lightbulb.

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Drop my watt?

The easiest way to combat global warming is to put fewer emissions up there. Since 90 per cent of our electricity is generated by burning coal, which creates greenhouse gas, lowering the electricity bill seems a good place as any to start.
So I was delighted to Google up an offer from the Lord Mayor of Sydney for free energy efficient light globes.

"City of Sydney residents who want to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions can receive a free box of energy efficient light bulbs, which are being provided through a joint initiative between the City and Low Energy Supplies and Services (LESS).

Each box contains five 15 watt bulbs, which are equivalent to a 75 watt incandescent globe, but last eight times longer than regular globes. Households who use the bulbs should save about $240 over their lifetime.

I do the maths - 20% of the energy usage of filament based light bulbs. A saving of $240 per lightbulb. That box is a $1,200 giveaway by the City of Sydney.

Great! Except I live in Wentworth, not City of Sydney. So close ... so I post as a service to my neighbours, and for a cleaner climate.

LESS estimates that 2,000 boxes will potentially help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4,800 tonnes, the equivalent of around 1,066 less cars on the road.

Ta: City of Sydney resident blogger nicholsstreetsurryhills

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Welcome to The Green House.

Global warming is real, and there is nothing the skeptics can do about it. But you can, and I can. Along with a growing movement of millions who are making simple and easy adjustments to their lifestyles to make big reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions.

75% of the world's energy that sustains the global economy that supports our lifestyle is derived from fossil fuel. Global warming skeptics argue that changing is going to cost too much money. They claim the maths just does not add up. And so we still have the situation where 75% of the world's energy is provided by oil and coal despite the 'realness' of global warming becoming more and more apparent every day.

Those with the hands on the levers of the economy protect the status quo to drive growth, pumping more and more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Humanity's collision path with habitat collapse has us looking like the proverbial deer in the headlights, but we don't have to sit there and wait for global warming to get worse. We can take action now, small but effective cumulative actions, to mitigate extreme climate change.

That is what this blog is about. I am here to teach myself how to make slight adjustments to my lifestyle to minimise my carbon footprint and, over time, find out how to neutralise the effect of the carbon dioxide that is emitted into the atmosphere as a result of my lifestyle. I am also curious to see how much money I can save by conserving energy.

This project is about living within one's means by taking into account the true cost of goods and services, and it is about learning stewardship, and passing on to our children the ability to prosper in a sustainable way. Teaching them to trade in the currency of life, energy.

I will be looking at how my spending can be adjusted to send out market signals to support sustainablity. An example is how the costs of cheap oil and coal should not be borne by humanity and habitat just down the track. There's not just me, there's millions, and green business is becoming big business.

Mainly this blog journey is about my becoming part of the solution, and not being an on-going part of the problem. So bookmark me, blogroll me, furl-me, but come back and see how I am going.


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