Energy
Energy conservation
Although some are worse than others, all energy sources have environmental impacts. So whether our energy comes from community-owned renewable sources or corporate-controlled fossil fuels, the planet is better off if we use less of it. While the most effective strategies to reduce energy consumption involve policy change at the government level, we also include some actions that can be taken at a household level.
Energy conservation Actions
Use passive (non-electric) renewable energy.
Use passive (non-electric) renewable energy.
One strategy being pursued to address the climate crisis has been to shift from fossil fuels to electric power as the energy source for common activities. But electric power has environmental costs, too, even when renewable energy is used to create it. Consider using human power and passive renewable energy instead.
Take action
- There are many ways to produce hot water using solar energy. Mother Earth News' article How to Build a Passive Solar Water Heater describes five simple, inexpensive heaters for home use. LowImpact.org's book Solar Hot Water: Choosing, Fitting and Using a System, provides a detailed overview of the topic, whether you choose to build a system yourself or hire a plumber and use off-the-shelf components.
- Solar Cookers International has been working for decades to design and promote passive solar cooking, especially in the "less developed" parts of the world. They provide solar cooker construction plans for many kinds of cookers, including a portable one made from cardboard and aluminum foil.
- Preserving food by canning or freezing usually requires fossil-fuel or electrical energy, but there are other ways to preserve food that are just as effective. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has put together a comprehensive overview of preservation methods for various foods. You can also build your own solar fruit dehydrator with these plans from North Dakota State University.
- Learn about various non-electric tools and techniques for satisfying basic needs from the Atelier Non-Electric in Japan. The text is in Japanese, but many of the design images are self-explanatory.
- Low-Tech Magazine contains a wealth of thought-provoking articles, from discussions of "obsolete technologies" to the possibilities of low-tech solutions to modern problems: a great way to encourage out-of-the-box thinking.
- Often the best solutions are the simplest. Rather than use electricity and fossil fuels to dry clothes, hang them on a clothesline. Rather than building fleets of electric-powered vehicles, promote walking and bicycling. Find other ways to satisfy genuine needs without using mechanical, fuel-based or electric means, and rethink technology with the help of No-Tech Magazine.
Get inspired
- In Can Decreix, a degrowth community outside the French town of Cerbère, the embrace of simple technologies is a joyful way of life. The use of solar ovens and cookers is standard practice, and their many self-designed tools include a pedal-powered washing machine. Website in French and English.
- Maya Pedal is a Guatemalan nonprofit that turns donated bikes into water pumps, grinders, threshers, tile makers, nut shellers, blenders, trailers and more. They also recondition bikes for their traditional use as transportation. In English or Spanish.
Practice simple living.
Practice simple living.
The cumulative environmental costs of industrial consumer products – from mine to landfill – are astronomical. One of the best ways to reduce our impact is to step away from the destructive pressures of consumerism by consciously choosing to live with less.
Take Action
- Learn how to "live more on less" with this action plan from The Simplicity Institute, which has many more materials on simple living and resistance to consumerism.
- Find non-consumerist ways to celebrate holidays – from Christmas to Passover to birthdays – on NewDream.org.
- Learn about the benefits of downshifting – breaking the work-and-spend cycle – from LowImpact.org.
- To fight consumerism and help build a “hyper-local gift economy”, find or start a local group of the Buy Nothing Project. Also check out the book by the project’s founders, The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan.
Get inspired
- Read about 7 Invisible Benefits of Living Simply in this essay by Courtney Carver.
- For the sheer fun of it, check out these videos from Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. There's a serious side as well, including direct action against major corporations and banks that profit from unbridled consumerism.
Start a "Going Carbon Neutral" campaign for your town.
Start a "Going Carbon Neutral" campaign for your town.
Town-wide "Going Carbon Neutral" campaigns not only push for reduced energy usage and carbon emissions, they also strengthen community. The small town of Ashton Hayes in the UK launched the concept by conducting an audit of the town's energy use, which helped determine which changes would reduce carbon emissions the most. To change their collective behavior, residents launched campaigns and projects – all with a light, festive, guilt-free approach and without government involvement. Since then, many other towns around the world have launched similar campaigns. Learn how to join them here.
Take action
- Launch your own campaign with Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral's guide A Practical Toolkit for Communities Aiming for Carbon Neutrality.
- Learn another perspective on launching a campaign with this guide from the Canadian town of Eden Mills, So You Want to Go Carbon Neutral: It Takes a Village.
- Develop a solid energy strategy for your town covering conservation, electricity, heating, and transportation with Local Energy Scotland's Community-led local energy plan toolkit.
Get inspired
- A participant in Ashton Hayes found that the campaign not only enabled her family to cut their household energy use in half, it also led them to use green construction methods, start a garden, get to know their neighbors better, and participate more in community life. Read about it in The Guardian article My village is going carbon neutral.
- Eden Mills Going Carbon Neutral in Canada focuses on retrofitting buildings, planting trees, and celebrating all behavior shifts, large and small.
Lower your home energy use.
Lower your home energy use.
While we must urgently reduce the energy consumption of the economy overall, we can also take immediate steps at home to reduce the amount of energy required to meet the same ends through energy conservation and avoidance.
Take action
- Get started with Tips for energy saving at home by the Centre for Appropriate Technology in Wales.
- Unplug electric-powered devices that are not in use. Many of these – from coffee makers to computers – draw power even when they are "off". The NRDC report Home Idle Load gives hard numbers about phantom energy, and suggests ways to reduce it through changes in both individual behavior and public policy. Note: this kind of action does not address the energy and resource costs entailed in manufacturing and using these devices.
- Purchase an inexpensive plug-in monitor to become aware of your electricity usage and find out where you can make the biggest reductions. Many tool-lending libraries will lend you one of these devices for free.
- LowImpact.org shows not only how we can save energy, but also discusses how society can prevent energy efficiency gains from being captured by increased total consumption.
- The downloadable 80-page booklet Home Energy Projects was written for residents of the southern US state of Alabama, but those in other climates will still find useful information and instructions on insulating, weatherstripping, ductwork, ventilation and more.
- Build It Solar's Renewable Energy Site for Do-It-Yourselfers has links to a wide range of energy conservation ideas that go well beyond the usual – like making your own indoor storm windows and insulating curtains, and how to recover heat from drain water.
Get inspired
- Read what Post Carbon Fellow Richard Heinberg has done over the past 20 years to reduce his own household energy consumption – what has worked, what hasn't, and what still needs to be done.
Policy
- NRDC's report Home Idle Load gives hard numbers about "phantom load" of plugged in but unused electronics, and includes a number of policy recommendations, from mandated energy efficiency standards to incentives to reduce energy use.
- Government policy on energy conservation tends to focus on making existing systems more efficient, while giving relatively little attention to energy avoidance. For example, rebates and other incentives are often provided to encourage the purchase of more efficient clothes dryers, but a far better (and cheaper) alternative would be to provide every citizen with free clotheslines and drying racks so that there's less need for energy-consuming clothes dryers, no matter how efficient. But government policymakers are generally wedded to growth-based economic thinking, leading them to promote further consumption in the name of "conservation".
Resources
- Thinking Outside the Grid, by Local Futures’ Managing Programs Director Steve Gorelick, describes how living off the grid can lead to a heightened awareness that energy is not limitless.
- What is ‘Energy Denial’? by Don Fitz dives into “the 15 unstated myths of clean, renewable energy”.
- Variety, Survival, and the Revenge of the Luddites by Damaris Zehner celebrates the role of low-tech skills and tools in resilient societies.
- The article Home Energy Awareness by Chuck Wright offers a primer to understanding household energy sources, usage, and conservation.