Waste-Free Lunch: Days 3 and 4

Yesterday, I went to work with Jeff, since I was starting class. We had turkey wraps, pretzels, and fruit, with water to drink. Today, I'm having left-over beef pot pie again.

Waste-Free Lunch: Day 2

This morning I was running late and was sorely tempted to pull a frozen microwaveable meal out of the freezer, as I normally do. But since I'd made the pledge, I resigned myself to making a sandwich. Then I remembered that there was left-over beef pot pie in the fridge! I grabbed a spoon and a cloth napkin, and put a bunch of bpp in a container and brought it to work. It reheated in the microwave very well.

I haven't eaten my apple yet. I think there might be a worm in it. :P

Waste-Free Lunch: Day 1

Following a pledge on CarbonRally, Jeff and I are starting Waste-Free Lunches this week. I bought some fabric and made some napkins this weekend. Also, we bought some extra flatware. We're taking everything Rubbermaid containers, and drinking water from cups. Okay, the water from a cup is normal for me, but I don't think it's an everyday thing for Jeff.

Today's lunch:
Turkey sandwich with provolone, brown mustard, and lettuce
Carrot sticks
Triscuts
Apple

Okay, I had the apple around 9 this morning.

Seeing the Light: Update Update

So the CFL lights are "instant on", as advertised on the box. But they do take a bit to warm up, and after said warming up, they're actually brighter than the 60 Watt incandescents!

Seeing the Light: Update

We finally changed out the bulbs in the office for CFL. The light is just a little more yellow, and it's not as bright as the 60 Watt bulbs we were using. I'm wondering if we'd gotten a name brand of bulbs if the light would be better.

Seeing the Light

We've done several little things over the last week:

1) Bought energy saving light bulbs. They were on sale with a coupon for $4 off of a 2-pack, which made them 50 cents each. Now we just need to start switching them in for the incandescent bulbs.

2) Unpluging our cell phone chargers when not in use. Apparently these things draw power even when the phone isn't plugged in. I'm not sure how they do that, because I didn't think it was a closed circuit, but anyway... We're also unplugging the Dust Buster when not charging. I only use it about once a week, so not only is it drawing power to recharge a battery that's not empty, but it's also running through charge cycles on the battery, which will shorten its life.

3) I signed up for Catalog Choice. On your behalf, they contact companies that send you catalogs and request that they stop. My address has been sold (grrr), and so I was able to stop four catalogs that I don't want, and reduce the number of times per year I receive some that I do want.

Another New Website!

I've just stumbled upon CarbonRally, where you can make a pledge, then it tracks everyone else who's made those pledges, and you can see the impact it's having across the country! You can join a team (I'm with The Daily Green team, because that's how I found the site), but perhaps I'll start my own -- Team BGG or something. Check it out! It's pretty cool!

TheDailyGreen's News Feed

New Website!

From The Daily Green, I just found a new website that lets you calculate your Earth Impact and carbon footprint. Then, it lets you check those other little things you do and reduces your score accordingly. Apparently, you can track your progress over time, and it offers suggestions as to how to reduce your impact. It starts with the easiest things to do, then advances. Check it out!

Here's my initial score. I was able to reduce it to 183 after marking the "pledges" that I already do.

And I found this information from EarthLab's site:
"By replacing the five most frequently used lights in your home with ENERGY STAR qualified lighting, you can save more than $60 each year in energy costs. If every US household replaced their five highest-use fixtures, or the bulbs in them, with ENERGY STAR qualified models, the change would prevent the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the annual emissions from more than 8 million cars." -- so that's my next task!