apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

On of the big theories in green thinking is that "every little bit counts." Rather than just give up on environmentalism because you can't make your home into a solar-powered lair, you're encouraged to pursue green living by making small changes everyday, like unplugging your electronics when they're not in use. But a quote in a recent NYTimes.com article from a University of Cambridge physics professor got us thinking...

At the risk of sounding like Martha, we'll say this: Going green is generally touted as a good thing. Turning off lights when you leave a room or setting your thermostat to a cooler setting while you're at work are low-effort, low-risk habits that pay off with high results. How about turning off streetlights that light dark sidewalks when somebody's not using them? It seems a little more difficult and lots more risky, doesn't it? Still, one German town is giving it a shot with cell-phone triggered streetlights...

One of the easiest ways to save energy—for your planet and your wallet—is to cut power completely to those gizmos that use "standby power" even when they're turned off. Look at your DVD player. Do you see a little red light or the time shining back at you even though it's "off"? Probably yes. While the amount of energy is tiny, you are paying fractions of a penny to keep that little red light on.
Power strips are good for cutting power to a media center or desk setup all at once, but sometimes it's inconvenient to reach behind to where you've hidden all those wires just to flip that switch. Plus, what if you don't want to cut power to everything? How you you let your laptop charge while still cutting your iPod dock? Here's an idea...

Many people don't realize that many of our favorite cyber-spaces have real-life homes, which means that running websites has a real-world environmental footprint. Files are stored on servers, viewed by personal computers, and connected via networks. To operate these components, electricity must be consumed. And to generate much of that electricity, fossil fuels like coal and natural gas are usually being burned. To put it into perspective, performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research revealed in the London Times Online (they would be just the news source to compare CO2 emissions to tea-kettle boiling)...

posted originally from: Unplggd

If there's a lack of solar powered homes out there in the world, it's not for a lack of desire. We took an informal survey (of eight friends at the bar the other night) about if you would install solar panels to power your house if they were more readily available and less expensive. Seven said yes, and one said 'Move! I'm watching the #*%&@$ game!' But until Ikea comes through on their concept of Sollärppän solar panels, we'll just have to dream about it. But its good to know that by the time we can afford an overhaul of our home energy system, this stellar solar panel patio table might be on the market...

posted originally from: Unplggd

The latest version of the Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics (they do one every year) lets us know which electronics manufacturers are being kind to the earth and which ones could care less. Things that make you fall into that second shameful group are using environmentally unfriendly materials, power guzzling batteries and producing masses of non-biodegradable electronic waste. As you can see from the Greenpeace green-O-meter, Nintendo is by far the biggest offender, while Nokia sits pretty on top of their clean, green world...

posted originally from: Unplggd

Don't you wish saving the world was easy? Don't you wish you could just push a button and drastically reduce your energy consumption? Well, you can. One push of this Captain Planet-themed button activates special software which powers down as much of your PC as possible (without turning it off completely), drastically cutting the power consumption. (Even down to a tiny 1.8 Watts.)

posted originally from: Unplggd

We know, we know... isn't all paper erasable if you use a pencil? That's true, of course, but the innovation in Xerox's new erasable paper is that messages printed onto the paper will fade off of the sheet in 24 hours, allowing the paper to be re-used. Perfect for memos or temporary notices, but not so perfect in a few other situations...

posted originally from: Unplggd