Here you will find a tally of our collective resource use reduction efforts; an attempt to present some of those reductons in interpretable, quantifiable terms; and some related information and links to sources with still more information.

Turn out lights -- 2760

Turn off computer/CD player -- 676

Turn thermostat down -- 579

Use alternative transportation -- 401

Re-use bag -- 279

Recycle can or bottle -- 847

Use back side of paper -- 618

Use cloth bag for groceries -- 52

Use a "come back" cup -- 197

Buy organic produce/meat -- 120

Eat or buy locally grown food -- 72

Flush only when necessary -- 614

Hang clothes to dry -- 34

Run washers when full -- 201

Use hand tool rather than power tool -- 80

Take stairs not elevator -- 800

Shop at a thrift store -- 23

Compost -- 61

Limit water use -- 65 + 1 + 9 + 17 + 1

Recycle paper -- 42

Vegetarian meal -- 28

97 people participated in 2008, which is similar to 2004, in which 94 folks participated, and 2005, in which 96 people participated, so results can be compared between years; I'll show you that comparison in class.

Note that this year, local food and organic food were probably confounded, so some of the organic entries were probably organic AND local…

Quantifying a few of these actions:
(1) Turn out a light that would otherwise have been left on. If we assume 75 watt bulbs, and that each was turned off for an hour during which it would otherwise have been left on, we come up with 207,000 watts or 207 kwh. My family tends to use ~ 400 kwh per month, so the savings were equal to 52 % of my family's energy use for that month, or enough to power the total electricity needs of my house for about 16 days (or, over a year, for 196 days - more than 6.5 months!!)
(2) Use alternative transportation when driving alone was an option: 401 instances. If we assume that the average trip would have been 5 miles and the vehicle got 25 miles per gallon, we've saved about 80 gallons of gas in this week. Over a year, this would amount to 4,160 gallons. Saving these miles also reduced CO2 emissions. If one figures 30 # of CO2 per gallon of gasoline burned (which is the usual conversion) this yearly savings is 124,800 pounds of CO2 (> 62 tons).
(3) Use the backside of a piece of paper: 618 instances. Assuming that the tallies represent single sheets of paper (a conservative estimate), this would be about five reams of paper per month (a ream is 500 sheets). This would, over a year, be 60 reams, or a stack that is almost 10 feet high.
(4) Flush toilet only when it is necessary: 614 instances. If we assume one wait per flush (rather than letting the accumulation get larger) and assume that all were 1.6 gallon toilets (unlikely - probably some were higher volume toilets), then we come up with ~ 982 gallons (about 20 50-gallon drums) per week or 51,065 gallons per year!

This class reported a large number of additional savings (other than those that were pre-printed on your tally sheets): did dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher; shower instead of taking bath, take shorter or cooler showers or "tandem" showers; recycle paper, plastic, batteries, used oil, etc; reduce soap use or use environmentally friendly cleaning products; use cloth napkins and dish towels or handkerchiefs instead of paper; turn off water while brushing teeth or doing dishes or use low-flow shower head; cancel catalogs; compost leftovers or yard waste; use or change to compact fluorescent lights; buy bulk products and purchase them in re-used containers; use extra clothes or blankets instead of heat (thermostats to 55 degees F!); unplug appliances; reuse packaging; shop at local businesses; weatherize or insulate your house; close extra doors - or heat a room instead of the house; run instead of using treadmill; use sunlight instead of electric lights; recycle outdoor trash; refrigerate water instead of running it until cold; read instead of watcvh TV; play cards instead of play station....

Miscellaneous related tidbits and web links:

See below for more information on resource use reduction -- there are some useful tips and web sites for those who want more information. In addition, there are some links to sites that deal with food and sustainability in the section of web notes that treats alternative agriculture.

About re-using bags for shopping; Using a long-term bag (e.g., cloth) is really the best answer to the question you often get at the checkout stand, "Paper or plastic?" The answer to that question should, from an environmental perspective, be "Neither." Plastic (polyethylene bags) takes about 40% less energy to produce than is required to make paper bags (considering the entire stream from forest to paper bag in the store) and plastic also takes up less room in landfills than does paper. However, paper will decompose in landfills, unlike plastic, and in many communities, paper bags can be recycled through curbside collection.

Peripherally related to the item about running washers only when full: perhaps surprisingly, some studies suggest that dishwashers can use ~ 50% as much energy and 17% as much water as does typical handwashing of dishes! This is true only when the machines are run full, using a relatively low water temperature, and when the energy saving "no heat, air dry" option is selected. See http://www.landtechnik.unibonn.de/ifl_research/ifl_research_projects.php?sec=HT
for more details.

Re. hanging clothes to dry rather than using a clothes dryer, dryers DO use a LOT of energy -- 6 - 10% of US residential energy use, on average (Sierra Sept/Oct '07). For tips on how to save energy both washing and drying clothes, see www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/laundry.html

SITES WITH LOCALLY USEFUL INFORMATION:

Corvallis transit (bus system) - note that you can ride the bus free in Corvallis - just show your OSU ID card! This site gives schedule and route information -
http://www.ci.corvallis.or.us/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=467&Itemid=410

A Pacific Northwest site that helps people match up with carpools - whether for one trip or routine commutes: http://www.carpoolmatchnw.org/

Corvallis disposal (landfill, recycling, swap store, composting and more): http://corvallis.disposal.com/

(A related note: as of 2004, only 45% of aluminum cans used in the US were recycled, despite the fact that recycling one can saves enough electricity to run a laptop computer for ~ 10 hours! These cans are 100% recyclable, recycling uses 90 % less energy than is used to make the can starting from ore, and the average recycled can's aluminum is back on the shelf within 60 days in the US. In lesser developed countries, rates of aluminum recycling are generally much higher than in the US - there poverty and high scrap metal values combine to make such cans valued as the precious resource they really are! This accords with the saying, "Garbage is only called garbage until enough people want it.") The US national average recycling rate (i.e., the total recovery of materials) across all types of materials is about 32%, which is lower than the rate found for most other industrialized nations in Europe, and in Japan (Frontiers in Eco and Env March '07)

Pacific Power - information on Blue Sky and other energy conservation programs [and information on energy efficient appliances]: http://www.pacificpower.net

(A related note: while here in the PNW we imagine that we are wealthy in alternative fuels, such as hydroelectric power - and we are, compared to many regions of the country - we still get 40% of our electricity from fossil fuels - and in Corvallis, ~ 69% of our electricity is based on burning coal, which is a relatively "dirty" fossil fuel….)

Information on solar power in the Corvallis community - and wider information as well: http://www.solarcreek.org

SITES WITH INFORMATION ABOUT OSU AND OTHER UNIVERSITY'S SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:

The College Sustainabiity Report Card, performed by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, assesses the sustainability of the 200 public and private universities with the largest endowments in the US and Canada. OSU was ranked in the top 25 for 2008. You can see the report at http://www.endowmentinstitute.org/sustainability/

See http://oregonstate.edu/sustainability/ for information on specific initiatives underway or planned for the future at OSU.

Sierra magazine, in its Nov/Dec 2007 issue had a story describing what is considers to be the top 10 colleges in the US in terms of sustainability, which also included novel ideas being tried at a host of other schools around the country. I don't have a link to this article, but do have a hard copy that you could borrow, ifyou'd like!

SITES WITH INFORMATION ABOUT PARTICULAR TYPES OF ENERGY USE REDUCTION:

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (These yield as much light as regular incandescents, but for only 20 - 25% as much energy - and they last up to 10X longer than incandescents; these features combined mean a fast pay-back period for the initially more expensive purchase. You can determine whether light out put will be the same as that delivered by your former incandescent bulbs by comparing lumens - not watts [ an 18 watt compact replaces a 75 watt incandescent, for example].) See the following sites for more information:

General info: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=cfls.basic_cfl_search
(This site also has information on other kinds of appliances.)

To choose bulbs: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=632&campaign=mts

To calculate energy savings that would result from switching to compact fluorescents:
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=602&campaign=mts

To learn about the importance of disposing of compact fluorescents properly, because they contain small amouts of mercury (and about the reduction in total mercury emissions associated with their use, even though they do contain this element) see http://www.environmentaldefense.org/bulbsandmercury

To choose computers based on energy efficiency:

http://www.epeat.net/

Information on various energy alternatives and energy use reduction actions and programs:

http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/index.htm

Information on home insulation -- determine the optimum insulation value for homes in your geographic area by visiting the US Dept. of Energy's map and chart at http://www1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/insulation.html

In this vein, a few miscellaneous tidbits:

SITE WITH INFORMATION ABOUT DRIVING BEHAVIOUR AND ITS EFFECT ON MILEAGE (AND EMISSIONS)

A few good tidbits:
- Keep your automobile tires fully inflated - if they are underinflated by only 4 pounds, this diminishes your mileage by ~ 0.5 mpg! (You can note this effect when you're riding a bike with low tires too….).
-If your car will be idling for more than 10 seconds, it pays to turn it off - takes less gas to turn off and on than would be consumed after that 10 seconds.
- Every mile per hour that you drive over 55 mph you lose ~ 2% in mileage!
- Every extra 100 pounds you carry in your vehicle costs ~ 0.5 mpg -- so unload all that dirty laundry that's in your trunk!
-Roof racks increase aerodynamic drag, so remove them when not in use
-If each of us walked, biked, or took the bus just one work day per week instead of driving all days, we'd decrease fuel use (and emissions) by 20%

See the Car Talk guys site for more: http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/fueleconomy/

SITES THAT ALLOW YOU TO CALCULATE YOUR "FOOTPRINT" IN TERMS OF ENERGY AND RESOURCE USE - OR THAT OFFER APPROXIMATE VALUES FOR CO2 EMISSIONS DECREASES ASSOCIATED WITH VARIOUS ACTIVITIES:

http://www.myfootprint.org

http://eartheasy.com/article_canada_challenge.htm

http://www.undoit.org/undoit_20steps.cfm (I don't like their use of the term "undo it" re greenhouse gases; "do less of it" would be more appropriate, in my view…)

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment -- a list of 50 simple things we can all do to avert the dangers of climate change

SITE WITH MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION ABOUT CONSUMPTION AND RESOURCE REDUCTION

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3952

To return to the master Table of Contents for this BI 301 home page, click "CONTENTS" and for reminders on how to move about within and among these documents, click "NAVIGATE".

Page maintained by Patricia Muir at Oregon State University. Last updated Feb 5, 2008.