For most people the most obvious and easiest place to start is by turning off standby appliances and other energy vampires. I’ve been aware of this issue for some time, every since about 10 years ago hearing that, in the USA, it took something like 6 large power plants to power all the TVs while they were turned off. 

I was thinking I’d write a bit on this, or at least provide some resources, but then I was forwarded the following article that does a much better job than I could do in articulating the issues and providing easy solutions.

And while I do a fair amount of turning things off, this article has inspired me to take it to the next level. It also doesn’t suggest unplugging your computer as some article do. The authors of those articles must never have tried that one, because when I completely turned off my computer for a week I then had to reset all kinds of things. But the peripherals, on the other hand…

Thanks to Dennis Shibut of Kyoto Action for clearly articulating the issues, making the solutions sound so easy, and letting me share his report here.

Losing Our Energy Fat

by Dennis Shibut

In the previous Kyoto Action Report I quoted two prominent international economists, Paul Krugman and Sir Nicholas Stern. Both made the same point that Kyoto Action has always emphasized: the most important first step in curbing global warming and climate change is not sacrificing our living standards or the world economy, but eliminating the lazy and wasteful ways we use energy both at home and in the office.

In official documents and studies, this is technically referred to as the “energy efficiency gap”, or more simply, our “energy fat index”. And just as body fat threatens our health, so does our excessive energy fat damage the environment.

Reality Check

Today the average home and office are crammed with electronic devices that have chargers or converters, or which must be left in standby mode when not in use. Though this may seem inconsequential and harmless, the contrary is all too true. On a national and global scale these devices cause a significant drain on energy production, which in turn produces more greenhouse gas emissions. Experts refer to these plugged-in devices and components as “energy vampires”.

Recently the Union of Concerned Scientists cited a national home energy study done in 2007 in the U.S. That study estimated the amount of wasted energy from standby appliances and plugged-in chargers and converters in U.S. homes. Below are the key figures.

• Total waste… 65 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, yearly.
• Cost to U.S. consumers… $5.8 billion annually.
• Environmental damage… 44 million tons of CO2 dumped into the atmosphere each year, not to mention the associated mercury released from burning the coal to generate this electricity.

[Source: http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/greentips/energy-vampires.html]

Here’s another sobering statistic about our energy waste. A UK national energy study determined that 6 – 10 percent of its national energy generation was wasted each year due to standby appliances and plugged-in chargers/converters doing nothing while home owners were at work during the day and asleep at night.

In parallel with the U.S., the European Commission for Energy did its own study of the energy waste from plugged-in chargers/converters and standby appliances in offices and homes throughout the twenty-five countries comprising the European Union in 2007. The results stunned the Commission: the energy waste nearly equaled the entire electricity consumption of Greece. The primary numbers are similar to those for the U.S., which show Europeans are not far behind Americans in energy vampire devices:

• Total waste… 48 billion kilowatt-hours per year.
• Cost to EU consumers… €6.5 billion ($9.3 billion, £5.8 billion) annually.
• Environmental damage… 19.3 million tonnes of CO2 dumped into the atmosphere each year (plus mercury).

This energy waste extends worldwide throughout Asia and Australia. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that this standby energy drain results in an additional 40 million tons of CO2 each year. [Sources: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/; www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/unpluggadgets.shtml; www.iea.org/; European Commission for Energy]

Take Action

Here are some of the best ways to quickly and easily lose “energy fat”:

Just turn it OFF. Train yourself to turn off lights, electronic systems, and appliances when you leave the room, even for 15 minutes. When I first started to turn things off when leaving a room, my electricity bill dropped 18 percent!

But be forewarned: many of our devices today actually don’t turn off when you push the OFF button. Read further.

Disconnect the ‘energy vampires’ in your home. Some dark (but not necessarily rainy) night switch off all the lights and take a look around. What you’ll see is a galaxy of little pin-points of light and glowing panels on desktops, in corners, on shelves, under tables, and on kitchen counter-tops. These show you where your ‘vampires’ are, constantly sucking electricity day and night, while your are asleep or at work.

These ‘vampires’ are our electronic devices and appliances in Standby mode like televisions, audio-visual systems, Internet connection boxes, play stations, microwave ovens, high-tech stoves, cordless phones, etc.

Then there are those devices that need plug-in chargers and converters to function, such as portable computers, digital printers, cell phones, digital agendas, digital photo and video equipment, etc.

Here’s how to take control of these ‘vampires’:

Get rid of plug-in digital or LED display clocks and clock-radios that constantly use as much energy as a 40-watt light bulb. Use instead a wrist watch or rely on the time/date display of your cell phone or digital agenda (DA), which use a lot less energy for the same function. Also, use cell phones and DAs for your alarm clock instead of a plug-in clock-radio or alarm clock.

Use power strips (or surge suppressors). These multi-socket outlet extensions are equipped with an on/off switch so you can completely disconnect power to all attached devices with just a press of your big toe. Power strips are a lot more convenient than trying to unplug each device every night before going to bed, going off to work, or leaving on a trip, and they make it easy to power-up again later. Note: Switching off a surge suppressor does not disable its protection against power spikes.

A power strip is a multi-plug extension equipped with a foot switch that lets you turn off all power to plugged-in chargers, converters, and/or standby appliances.

Unplug chargers when not recharging your portable computer, camera, cell phone, etc. Many people don’t realize that these chargers use power even when they are not connected to the devices they recharge. If you see a light and/or it feels warm, it’s using power.

Avoid ‘Standby’ mode in remote-control appliances such as televisions, stereos, DVD players, when you are not using them. New models allow you to turn off Standby by pressing the power button on the front panel. If your appliance doesn’t have this feature, then plug it into its own power strip and use the foot switch to turn off all power to that appliance.

Do use ‘Standby’ for computers. Computer ‘Standby’ saves energy when the computer is idle during the day, for instance, when you’re out to lunch, in a meeting, or taking a coffee break. Don’t confuse Standby with Screen Saver mode, which comes on automatically when the computer is idle. Screen Saver only reduces power to the screen display, not the computer. When clicking Standby, don’t forget to also switch off the power button on the screen display.

However, never use computer Standby mode when you leave the office overnight or go to bed. Instead, turn the computer completely off. Click ‘Turn Off’ to power off the computer. To turn desktop models completely off, you must then push the power buttons on the screen display and the computer box.

Switch Off Internet ADSL/cable boxes overnight. These boxes consume a significant amount of power and should not be left on overnight when you are asleep and have no need for Internet or cable service. The box I have has no power switch, so I’ve plugged it into my power strip which allows me to turn off everything in my home office with one switch before going to bed. This also turns off my phone service, but callers can still leave messages that I can hear in the morning when I switch things back on. If you need constant phone service (e.g., for children or parents), leave your cell phone on; it uses a lot less energy than a combo cable box.

Power strip your microwave. The clock displays on microwave ovens that are always on even when the oven is not in use can consume a lot of energy. Estimates have shown that each year these clock displays cost owners nearly $11 (7.80 € or £7 ) per year, even if you never use the microwave. You could probably multiply this figure by all the other gadgets around your home that ‘conveniently’ display the time when doing nothing. This situation adds a new meaning to the phrase: “Time is money!” — that is, as bonuses for the executives of your power company! Get tough with these appliances by plugging them into a power strip so you can switch the power on only when you use them.

By taking all the steps above, we can stop wasting energy and money on appliances that do nothing.

— Dennis Shibut
(Creator of the Kyoto Action website, MS Physics, member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, former researcher for NASA and US Coast & Geodetic Survey) Special thanks to Kath Massam and Mary Podevin for their assistance in preparing this report.

To find out what other personal actions you can take to change the course of global warming and climate change, visit our Website at www.kyotoaction.com. To receive Kyoto Action Reports, send your request to contact@kyotoaction.com.

I’m here at home, with the Last Night of The Proms on the tube and, as I tend to be, slightly distracted with surfing the internet. 

So I found it incredibly ironic when I came across this fact:

The rate of rubbish generation in the UK would fill the Albert Hall in less than 2 minutes.

More astounding facts at waste online.

Wikipedia has more on The Proms.

Photo by Cheryl Kempton.

I already knew that there’s less precipitation in the UK that what one would think.  Sometime last year I stumbled across these stats comparing my hometown to London:

• While the Twin Cities (Minnesota) has about 50% less “wet days” (108 compared to 153 in London) and more than 50% more sunlight hours per day (average 6.8 compared to 4 in London)…it has significantly more precipitation per year (28 inches) compared to London (23.5 inches).

But I was still shocked by what I found on the WaterWise website:

• “The South East of England has less water available per person than Sudan and Syria” (think about that!).
• “Large scale drought is already occurring in the UK, with the lowest rainfall, groundwater and reservoir levels for decades.”

As for water use, Water Wise says:

• 1/3 of the water we use daily is unused and wasted down the drain or the toilet.
• Average daily consumption (for cooking, cleaning, washing and flushing) is 150 litres.  Including industrial and agricultural water use for the products we buy, what is called “embedded water consumption” brings average consumption to 3400 litres per day.
• 30% of water use is from toilet flushing.  (Old toilets use up to 14 litres of water per flush.  Newer dual flush toilets use 2.6 to 4 litres per flush.)
• Water use has increased by 1% per year since 1930.
• Finally, “this consumption level is not sustainable in the long-term.”

(In the USA, average water consumption is 200-300 litres per person per day. source)

Water use also impacts global warming, as stated in a research report from the Energy Savings Trust:

• Water use contributes to 6% of the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
• Most of those emissions (nearly 90%) come from water use in the home.

It’s easy to forget everything that goes in to getting water to the tap, and what happens with it after it goes down the drain.  As the Energy Savings Trust points out, all these processes require energy, and thus emit CO2:  water extraction from the environment, water treatment, getting it to the households, the use in the home (heating), collecting sewage, treating sewage and discharging back into the environment.

How do you conserve water?

Photo by Joe  Shlabotnik.

A really, really truly green product would have no negative environmental impact and be a “cradle to cradle” product, producing no waste (more on that later).  Few, if any, products meet this level of environmental sustainability, although it is the ideal that us eco designers seek and environmentalists dream about.

The next level is what most consider to be a good green product. The manufacturers make a concerted, holistic effort toward sustainability while recognizing that negative impacts do still exist, and doing what they can to mitigate those negative impacts.

Then there’s products with green attributes. The manufacturers of these products may not assess the entire life cycle of the product to minimize environmental impacts, but the products still have a green advantage due to their inherent qualities. 

Finally, greenwashed products are marketed as green using exaggerated, deceptive or inaccurate eco claims. Many of these products do have green attributes, but they may be accompanied with undisclosed negative attributes.

With the prevalence of greenwashing and the lack of green standards for many types of products, it’s definitely a case of buyer beware. However, with a bit of life cycle thinking, clues as to the red flags of greenwashing, and help from existing certification programs, it’s possible to navigate toward the best eco option for your project. 

Photo by OakleyOriginals.

A label of “green” can make a product more valuable, but this information can also be manipulated by marketers.  

Green attributes

A product might qualify as “green” if it…

1. Uses salvaged or recycled material
2. Utilizes agricultural waste or rapidly renewable materials
3. Is extracted and/or manufactured locally
4. Uses less material or is exceptionally durable
5. Is natural or minimally processed
6. Conserves water and other natural resources
7. Conserves electricity
8. Reduces pollution & waste, avoids toxic emissions
9. Contributes to indoor air quality (IAQ)
10. Incorporates other environmental quality considerations (e.g. natural light)
11. Supports community
12. Follows the principles of fair trade

But is it necessarily “green” if it possesses one or more of these attributes? As these aren’t ordered in priority or evenly weighted, the answer could be yes. Of course, different people have different priorities. Also, a product could strongly incorporate one green attribute, and yet be environmentally damaging in other ways. What if the product still performs better environmentally than others on the market?

Photo by tskdesign.

In 1987, the Bruntland Commission defined sustainable development as follows:

“Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

A common concept in discussing sustainability is that of the seventh generation, attributed to the Great Law (or Constitution) of the Iroquois Nation*, and often quoted as follows:

“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”

What if every one of our actions was made with the thought of future generations – especially those beyond our own lifetime? What would change? What would we need to know?

While there are many unanswered questions yet about the impact of our actions, this is nonetheless the heart of sustainable design, trying to get through the maze of information to minimize the impact on future generations.

*Note:  While this “seventh generation” quote is frequently attributed to the Constitution of the Iroquois Nation, my quick Google search of the actual Constitution text yielded this: “

Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground — the unborn of the future Nation.” 

Can anyone shed more light on this?

Most common examples are bamboo (see bamboo flooring and bamboo textiles posts), and cork.  Flax, used in linoleum flooring, is also rapidly renewable.  New products are continually coming onto the market, using such agricultural products as wheat (e.g., wheat board), straw, sunflower seed hulls, and sorghum stalks.  Cotton is also considered rapidly renewable.  Although not from a plant, wool is sometimes also included in this list. 

The idea is that these products have short enough harvest cycles that using them is not depleting finite raw materials, as using petroleum based products would be, or even renewables like wood which still take considerably longer to replenish. 

While I would encourage people to seek products made from rapidly renewable materials, it is important to remember that it is only one of many sustainable characteristics, and it doesn’t address issues of agricultural production, namely chemical use, water use, monoculture, natural resource or food crop destruction for construction purposes, product transportation, and end of life.  On the other hand, some agricultural waste products that would otherwise have been burned in the fields are now being put to good use in products (such as wheat straw, sorghum stalks and sunflower seed hulls).  Cork is a particularly interesting example as the groves of cork trees tend to support biodiversity, and the harvesting (removal of the bark) is necessary for the plant to survive.

Here’s a couple of good articles (with a US bias) on products options and issues of rapidly renewable materials:

• “Rapidly Renewable Materials’ Comples Calculus” by B.J. Novitski
• “Growing Demand: The Green-Building Industry Seeks Rapidly Renewable Materials” by Jeff Stephens

Bright greens believe “sustainable innovation is the best path to lasting prosperity” and that prosperity and well-being must be part of the green solution. ”Innovation, design, urban revitalization and entrepreneurial zeal” are the tools of bright greens.  The Greener By Design conference that was recently held in San Francisco is a great example of bright greens.

Light greens believe that “lifestyle/behavioral/consumer change” are key.  Ideal Bite is a good example - trying to get people to make small steps to change thinking and behavior.  Steffan adds: “Light green environmentalism, as a call for individuals to change, has helped spread the idea that concern for sustainability is cool. On the other hand, it is the target of much of the “green fatigue” we’re now seeing.”

Dark greens believe in ”the need to pull back from consumerism (sometimes even from industrialization itself) and emphasize local solutions, short supply chains and direct connection to the land.” Steffen gives the example of Transition Communities and I would add Dick Strawbridge and the TV show It’s Not Easy Being Green. Dark greens “offer a lot of insight about bioregionalism, reinhabitation, and taking direct control over one’s life and surroundings” but, he adds, can also be “doomers.”

I can’t say I found that I really fit into one particular category, but I did find I could relate to all three and that my thinking could move around within these three categories.  Steffan also adds the category of Gray- basically those in denial of the need for any change to protect the environment.  “No, that’s definitely not me!” I thought, and that’s true for the most part, but then I started realizing that there are times in my life when I do deny the environmental impact of my actions.  Hmmm…

What about you?

Photo by iLoveButter.

As the Energy Savings Trust website says, “How refreshing – a campaign that wants you to do less, not more!”

The website has lots of great information and resources (I particularly like their “How it is recycled?” pages) and they are challenging everyone to make a pledge to start wasting less. 

After my recent posts, I decided it would be fitting to pledge to “recycle bottles and cans while I’m out and about.”  Along with more typically suggestions, they also have pledges such as ”choose peat-free compost” and “go waste free for a day.”

Looking for home recycling solutions? Check out Homerecycling.co.uk, which I found through their site.  You can also find a complete guide to all the recycling symbols, as well as the fabulous Oliver Heath in a video on recycling.

Recycle Now is run by WRAP (Waste and Resource Action Programme), which is apparently funded by DEFRA.

Buying wood with an FSC label means getting assurance that the wood comes from a sustainably managed source.

The FSC website says:

“FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not for profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests.  It provides standard setting, trademark assurance and accreditation services for companies and organizations interested in responsible forestry.  Products carrying the FSC label are independently certified to assure consumers that they come from forests that are managed to meet the social, economic and ecological needs of present and future generations.

Only FSC

• prohibits conversion of natural forests or other habitat around the world
• prohibits the use of highly hazardous pesticides around the world
• prohibits the cultivation of genetically modified trees (GMOs)
• respects the right of indigenous peoples around the world
• controls each certified operation at least once a year – and if they are found not to comply, the certificate is withdrawn”