Overview of the lifestyle project

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Overview of the lifestyle project
Select two of the five areas listed on the
Lifestyle Project introduction sheet (green sheet
in folder or on Blackboard). The goal is for you
to discover some aspects of your lifestyle which
you could change to move closer to
sustainability. Select two areas for which you
feel you could pay attention and make some
no-cost or low-cost changes. If you dont want
to examine an area, or feel you wont be able to
do it well, or dont want to, or cant, change in
that area thats a good reason for selecting
another area. Example if you are on a
restricted diet for health reasons.
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Electricity Identify ways in which you use
electricity (e.g., lights, TV, computer,
refrigerator, microwave). Think about how long
each thing is used is it plugged in or turned on
constantly? Do you turn it on/off how long is
it on? Look for wattage information on the light
or appliance. To find consumption by things that
are on at different levels of use
(entertainment center which draws power even when
off) use the Kill-A-Watt meter to measure power
(Watts) under different conditions, such as On
and Off but plugged in. Or, you could measure
kWh over a time span.
3
Electricity Decide which things you want to
investigate and what you will record in your log.
Example, a lamp Desk lamp three 60 Watt
incandescent bulbs Saturday 3 hours Sunday
14 hours (forgot to turn off!) Monday 5 hours
Tuesday 6 hours. Total for four-day baseline
28 hours.
The total energy used is 5.04 kWh. The total CO2
emitted is 7.7 lbs, which is the carbon in 31
charcoal briquettes. So, the average energy used
per day is 1.26 kWh and the average emissions for
the lamp is 7.74 briquettes/day, or 2829
briquettes/year.
4
Electricity You could do a TV or other
variable-use appliance in two ways 1 Say a TV
uses 150 W when on 20 W when off but plugged in.
TV is always plugged in. TV is on Saturday 5
hours Sunday 6 hours Monday 2 hours
Tuesday 3 hours. On time for four-day baseline
16 hours. So, TV is plugged in but off (4 x
24) 16 80 hrs.
TV on
TV off
The total CO2 emitted is the carbon in 25
charcoal briquettes. The average emissions for
the TV is 6.25 briquettes/day, or 2281
briquettes/year.
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Electricity 2 Say an entertainment center (TV,
DVR, game controller, etc.) is plugged into a
single power strip and things are turned on off
in complicated ways. If you measure the energy
used by the power strip for a longer time period,
say 36 hours, and find that the energy used is
3.18 kWh
The total CO2 emitted is the carbon in 20
charcoal briquettes over 1½ days. The average
emissions for the entertainment center are 13.33
briquettes/day, or 4867 briquettes/year.
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• Other considerations about electricity to address
  in your journal
• How much does electricity cost per kWh? How
  much money do you spend on your logged
  electricity use in a year?
• Consider your options for reducing energy and
  CO2 what do they cost? Which ones would
  actually save you money in the long-run?
• What kinds of low-cost or no-cost lifestyle
  changes could you make? How difficult are they
  to do? Do you have to allot extra time to do
  things?
• Does it give you a sense of satisfaction to
  reduce your CO2 emissions? Why or why not?
• Consider the human and environmental costs of
  coal mining and coal combustion to make
  electricity (e.g., Kilowatt Ours). How do these
  factors contribute to your satisfaction or
  dissatisfaction with your reduction efforts?

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Driving your car If you approximately know your
cars fuel efficiency (miles per gallon), then
you need to record the distance you drive. For
example, in your log you might record your fuel
efficiency, 24 mpg, and distance Saturday 102
miles Sunday 110 miles Monday 25 miles
Tuesday 18 miles, for a total of 255 miles.
You drove 255 miles, used about 10.6 gallons of
gas, and emitted about 206 lbs of CO2, equal to
about 8.3 bags of charcoal briquettes. Your CO2
emissions are equal to about is 2.08 bags of
briquettes/day, or about 208 briquettes since a
bag of briquettes contains about 100
briquettes Your emissions are 757 bags of
briquettes/year or 75,700 briquettes/year.
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Driving your car A more accurate way of keeping
track is to fill your gas tank, drive for a
period of time, and then refill to determine how
much gas you used. For example, you fill your
tank and then drive 215 miles over four days. To
refill your tank you have to add 8.68 gallons.
You drove 215 miles with 8.68 gallons, so your
fuel efficiency is 24.8 mpg. The average
gasoline usage is 2.2 gallons/day, and the CO2
emitted is 42.1 lbs/day, which is the carbon in
174 charcoal briquettes. You use 803 gallons
each year. Emissions are 63,510 briquettes/year.
A bag of briquettes contains about 100
briquettes, so the total is 635 bags of
briquettes/year.
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• Other considerations about driving to address in
  your journal
• How much does gasoline cost per gallon? How
  much money do you spend on your logged gas use in
  a year?
• Consider your options for reducing energy and
  CO2 what do they cost? Which ones would
  actually save you money in the long-run?
  Consider auto maintenance (tire pressure, etc.),
  driving habits (avoiding fast starts and high
  highway speeds), and reducing trips and miles by
  rescheduling and by substituting lower-carbon
  transportation such as biking or walking.
• What kinds of low-cost or no-cost lifestyle
  changes could you make? How difficult are they
  to do? How much more planning or extra time is
  needed?
• Does it give you a sense of satisfaction to
  reduce your CO2 emissions? Why or why not?
• Consider the human and environmental costs of
  oil drilling and gasoline combustion (e.g., Crude
  Impact). How do these factors contribute to your
  satisfaction or dissatisfaction with your
  reduction efforts?

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• Consuming water
• It is most complete and convenient to use the
  water calculator as a model.
• (http//www.waterfootprint.org/?pagecal/waterfoot
  printcalculator_indv_ext).
• Important point Select United States from the
  list near the top of the page.
• It is most simple to enter all applicable info
  for the Food consumption and Indoor
  categories for each day.
• When needed, find weekly quantities by converting
  the daily quantities in your log. For example,
  if on a particular day you eat 0.25 pounds of
  meat, first multiply be 0.4535 to convert to kg
  (0.4535 x 0.25 0.113 kg/day) then multiply by
  7 to find the weekly quantity (7 0.113 0.79
  kg/wk). Enter 0.79 in the calculator. If you
  eat two eggs that day, enter 14 eggs per week.
  If you did one load of laundry that day, enter 7
  loads per week.
• If daily quantities are needed just enter them.
  For example, if you drank 3 cups of coffee on a
  particular day, enter 3 in the calculator.

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• Consuming water
• After you submit your information the calculator
  will return the amount of water you use each year
  in the various categories in units of cubic
  meters. To find gallons, multiply by 264. For
  example, if the calculator says you use 275 cubic
  meters per year, thats (264 x 275 ) 72,600
  gallons/year.
• Since the information you entered was for one
  day, divide by 365 to find a daily quantity 199
  gallons/day.
• Average your daily values in each category. For
  example, if the water footprint of your meat
  consumption was Saturday 199 gallons Sunday
  144 gallons Monday 160 gallons Tuesday 173
  gallons, then the average water use related to
  meat consumption is 169 gallons/day.
• To find annual values multiply by 365 For
  example, 365 x 169 61,685 gallons/year for meat.

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• Other considerations about water use to address
  in your journal
• How much does water cost per gallon? This is
  especially important if some of your water
  consumption is in bottled form.
• Consider your options for reducing water use
  what do they cost? Which ones would actually
  save you money in the long-run?
• What kinds of low-cost or no-cost lifestyle
  changes could you make? How difficult are they
  to do? How much more planning or extra time is
  needed?
• Does it give you a sense of satisfaction to
  reduce your water consumption? Why or why not?
• Consider how the ease of using water here, and
  in the U.S. in general, might affect people in
  other places and impact sustainability (e.g., The
  Ecological Footprint). How do these factors
  contribute to your satisfaction or
  dissatisfaction with your reduction efforts?

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• Consuming food
• The slide shows on Food characteristics and
  Food-energy connections in the Lifestyle folder
  on Blackboard are essential to get ideas about
  how to categorize your food consumption.
• I suggest that for each meal or each snack you
  keep track of how many servings or portions are
• A whole food (eaten as purchased (e.g., apple) or
  cooked at home (e.g., a steak or potatoes)
• Plant product (from leaves or seeds)
• Meat
• Animal product (e.g., milk, cheese, eggs)
• Fast food (lots of processing, transportation,
  and added ingredients)
• Processed food (can, jar, bottle or package with
  an ingredients list) how many ingredients you
  dont recognize the presence of high fructose
  corn syrup
• Organic food (look for certification)
• Local food

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Log your information in a table so you can see
patterns and keep track of changes. Heres a
possible table
From the table you can estimate the number of
items you eat in each category and assess your
food choices. For example, Michael Pollan would
say that the more you have in Whole foods,
Plants, Local food, and Organic Food, and
the fewer you have in Meat, Processed food,
and Fast food, the better off the world is.
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• Other considerations about food consumption to
  address in your journal
• How much does food of different types cost?
• Is there a difference in food quality or taste?
  Which foods are better for you?
• Consider your options for changing food
  consumption patterns what do they cost? Which
  ones would actually save you money in the
  long-run?
• What kinds of low-cost or no-cost lifestyle
  changes could you make? How difficult are they
  to do? Could you eat less food? How much more
  planning or extra time is needed to cook?
• Does it give you a sense of satisfaction to
  change your food consumption patterns? Why or
  why not?
• Foods may have long energy chains (e.g., Toast)
  how could your food consumption choices affect
  these?

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Disposing of waste Log each item you dispose,
whether it goes into the general waste stream
(trash or rubbish) or whether its recycled.
If recycled, note material (glass, metal can,
plastic container, paper). Log items by type or
use. For example, food (orange peels, half-eaten
meals, moldy yogurt from the fridge) and
food-related trash (containers, wrappers, boxes,
napkins, cups, straws, plastic utensils, etc.)
could be two types. Waste that results from
packaging, say the box and foam peanuts from a
mail-order purchase or the plastic bag you get at
a store, could be another type. Clothes that you
want to discard could be another type. Log your
information in a table so you can see patterns
and keep track of changes. Heres a possible
table
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• Other considerations about waste disposal to
  address in your journal
• How can you remember 1) to not throw waste on
  the ground and 2) to not throw trash or
  recyclables in the wrong container?
• Which choices can you make that 1) avoid
  creating waste 2) create less waste 3) create
  recyclable waste rather than trash 4) allow for
  re-use when appropriate (e.g., re-using the same
  water bottle several times, or donating used
  clothes) 5) replacing throw-away items with
  re-usable ones.
• Does it give you a sense of satisfaction to
  change your waste disposal patterns? Why or why
  not?
• Waste may have long energy chains just like
  food. How could your waste disposal choices
  affect the energy you are responsible for?