How we are doing it

We basically started being more thoughtful about things, that's the biggest impact.

Electricity

Getting our kids involved in doing things like turning off the lights has helped too. Turning off lights, not using AC much at all in the summer, changing all the bulb to CFs, turning electronics all the way off rather than leaving them on stand by. WRT to light bulbs, in the 1st floor of our house, we have 12 recessed floods alone, as well as 12 other light bulbs.

Heating Fuel

New 2-stage furnace. not sure how much that's affected things as just got it in October.

Water

Flushing less, In the summer hardly used our blow up pool and took advantage of public pools. Many fewer baths due to the girls joining a swim team and taking showers at the pool!

Waste

Increasing composting and recycling, trying to reduce/re-use and not just recycle. I think starting to compost was huge. Our garbage went down dramatically. We went from about 1/2 to 3/4 of a 30 gal can to way less than 1.4 and sometimes none. Also, Pam makes trips to Cambridge recycling center most Saturdays with a load of recyclables that the city takes, but will not pick up.

Hot tips

It's no big deal to reuse plastic ziplock baggies. I just rinse them out, hang them to dry, and they can be reused over and over. (Not feasible if something other than a dry solid was in the bag!)

If you are going to compost, it's worth while to invest $10 - in some worms to get you started. Check on your city/town's website before buying things like compost bins - they usually have them much cheaper than home depot. Rain barrels - get as many as you can.

Pretty basic but world-changing if you actually do it: REDUCE comes way before RECYCLE.

Favorites

Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan

Author Karen Logan, an environmentalist, reveals the secrets of using simple, ordinary ingredients like baking soda, soap, lemon juice, essential oils and salt to make effective, safe and inexpensive household cleaners. The author also provides sobering information on the dangers of common household cleaners - probably the ones you have in your cabinet right now.

# persons in household	4

Baseline CO2
Elecricity	7,802
Natural Gas/Oil	9,734
Auto Travel	11,545
Air Travel	13,689
Waste	2,080
Meat	2,340
Total	47,190

Total, travel	25,234
Total, home energy	17,536
Total, waste & meat	4,420


Contest Year CO2
Elecricity	7,083
Natural Gas/Oil	7,504
Auto Travel	8,590
Air Travel	368
Waste	1,465
Meat	2,262
Total	27,271

Total, travel	8,958
Total, home energy	14,587
Total, waste & meat	3,727

Starting/Ending CO2
Starting CO2 per person	11,797
Ending CO2 per person	6,818

Total CO2 Reductions
pounds per person	4,980
%	42%

CO2 Reductions, travel
pounds per person	4,069
%	65%

CO2 Reductions, home energy
pounds per person	737
%	17%

CO2 Reductions, waste & meat
pounds per person	173
%	16%

Rank (based on % total CO2 reduction)	3

Rank (based on lowest per person CO2)	5