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Saul Griffith of Makani Power and Squid Labs presented on Energy Literacy to open this morning’s ETech 2008 events. Saul provided interesting data on how we could replace existing fossil fuel energy with things like solar power and wind energy. He even made it sound doable. Most interesting was a walk through Saul Griffith’s current energy consumption, how that fits into the global energy consumption, and how much energy he needs to cut in order to bring his overall energy consumption in check. He’s proposing decreasing his energy consumption from an estimated 25,000 Watts per year down to about 2,300 Watts. One of the biggest factors seems to be eating more vegetables and less meat, as meat is one of the biggest consumers of power in all our lives.
If we all want to reduce personal energy consumption over time, here are 7 ways to do it that go far beyond replacing bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and driving hybrid cars. Most of them are things we all say we want to do anyway.
Eat less and more healthily - If you currently live in the Western world, you likely eat too much. You also likely don’t eat healthy food regularly. Changing your diet to reduce intake of industrially produced meats and mass produced goods to locally grown organic foods makes a big impact on
Exercise more - This doesn’t mean getting on an electric treadmill and racking up the miles. You get more exercise by walking places or bicycling. The net win is this also drops your overall annual energy consumption.
Spend more time with your family - We all want to spend more time with family. By eating as a family unit at home, riding places in the same car instead of driving separate ways, and generally finding more common activities, you reduce the energy consumption of your waking hours.
Live closer together - Living closer together doesn’t mean opening a commune. Living near your family and friends actually has the benefit of reducing energy consumption because you’re not driving or flying.
Spend less time commuting - As a stay at home worker, I dread any morning where events in my life throw me into the morning commute. I don’t know how people face it on a daily basis. Finding ways to spend less time commuting, like convincing your boss to let you work from home, can have a huge impact on your personal energy consumption.
Less business travel - Unless you’re one of those rare people that enjoy living in hotels, you’d likely love the opportunity to travel less for your job. Use the technology we have available to replace face-to-face meetings with video conferencing, chatting, and other social tools for communication.
Purchase Higher Quality Products - Spending a few extra dollars for higher quality products can make a big difference in how long things last. The cost of manufacturing higher quality goods from an energy perspective is not dramatically higher than the cost to produce cheap goods. Extending product lifespan does make a huge impact, because it reduces total consumption.
Cleaner Air and Water - This is more of a byproduct of reduced energy consumption. Cleaner air and water improve quality of life, theoretically reduce CO2 in the air, reduce disease, and should net lower energy consumption.
How would you go about incorporating these 7 things in your daily life? Or are you already doing it?
