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The Price of Going Green
Going green is a worthwhile effort, but changing your lifestyle requires just that—effort. The way you heat and cool your home, serve up dinner, do the laundry and clothe your family all take time and money.
In Britain, Rebecca Neysari and her family jumped right into the green movement, swapping higher heat for a warm sweater, putting foil behind the radiators and more. She even traded her conventional washing machine for a Hotpoint energy-efficient unit. All these changes resulted in a 53% decrease in their energy consumption. Wow!
The catch? She didn't pay a dime for these changes. Thanks to a gift of 8,000 pounds ($12,340) worth of home improvements from British Gas, decreasing the family’s energy consumption was a breeze.
Neysari is honest: She says that if her family was not given the equipment to go green, like a solar thermal water heater or loft insulation, then they wouldn’t have been able to afford the changes.
Going green does not always have to be pricey. In fact, Neysari’s husband said one of the most important things they do is just “turn things off we’re not using.” Not a bad idea, considering that unplugging unused phone chargers and shutting down computers can slash energy consumption with a literal flick of a switch.
We want to know: What price would you pay to go green? What would be the first three changes you would make if you had an endless budget? [Reuters]
I would definitely want to make apartments more energy-efficient. You shouldn't be able to feel a draft through a closed window! Houses used to be built so that they naturally heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. Now we rely on AC and heaters.
I'd love to get a new fuel-efficient car, update all of our appliances and then update our heating/cooling system. And since we live in an apartment, hopefully that would mean the changes to the home would occur for everyone else in the building too!
If I had an endless budget, I would pay any price to completely "green" my lifestyle. It is so important that we recognize drastic changes are vital to the sustainability of our Earth. My first three changes (with an endless budget) would be:
*I would purchase completely organic, sustainable (and local when possible) food.
*I would use all clean energy.
*I would purchase an earth-friendly vehicle.
And, oh, there are so many more changes ... but those are my first three.