Green Spring Cleaning - March's Sustainable Living Tip

You can clean your house from top to bottom without harmful chemicals. The key to a healthy house is keeping it warm and dry in the winter, and cool and dry in the summer. Keeping your relative humidity around 40% is ideal. That level of moisture in the air feels comfortable, but still allows counters, dishes and clothes to air dry. Mold and germs thrive in humid conditions, but none can grow on dry surfaces.

In the winter, your indoor air relative humidity often drops far below 40%. In that case, hanging laundry to dry indoors helps put more moisture in the air. You save money and energy, and make your home more comfortable!

In the summer, your relative humidity can rise above 40%. Running fans in your kitchen and bathroom is a good way to exhaust excess moisture before it leads to mold and mildew problems.

It's important to think not just about the water you're adding to your indoor air, but also what else you're putting into it. Any cleaners that contain petroleum-based fragrances are compromising your indoor air quality and increasing the chances your family will suffer from respiratory disease. Likewise, bleaches and ammonia add unnecessary chemicals to your indoor air and can damage cells in your lungs.

The best "chemical" in your cleaning arsenal is plain water. Plant-based surfactants and acids can help water do a better job of dissolving and rinsing away dirt and grime.

Your decisions about which cleaning chemicals to use have consequences far beyond your own home, especially if you are on a municipal sewer system. The dyes and foaming agents that look pretty in your sink don't look so nice in the Androscoggin River. But even if you are on a septic system, it's important to think about what goes down your drain. Anything that kills germs in your house will also kill the beneficial bacteria that break down your waste. Rather than trying to kill every bacteria in your home (an impossible task), concentrate on removing the dirt, grime and water they need to grow.

One final consideration to bear in mind when buying cleaning supplies is unnecessary packaging. How many 16 ounce spray bottles do you really need? Buying in bulk saves money, cuts down on trips to the store, and keeps literally tons of plastic out of the waste stream. Remember, refills not landfills!

Reusable Gift Wrap - December's Sustainable Living Tip

Dress up your gifts in reusable raiment. It's a simple, easy way to "give green" this season. Here are some ideas and inspiration to get you started.

Reuse. Common items can make interesting and practical gift wrap:

• dinner napkins
• reusable shopping bags
• bandanas
• scarves
• hats
• towels
• fabric squares cut from old clothes
• hair scrunchies (for tying up)

Furoshiki. Try using a simple square piece of cloth (called "furoshiki" in Japanese) to wrap just about anything. Like origami paper folding, furoshiki gift wrapping is an art. Learn more about this tradition here:

• Furoshiki techniques

Make Your Own Gift Bags. Add an extra element of originality to your gifts with homemade gift bags. Here's a blog showing you how to make these in a snap:

• Make Your Own Holiday Gift Bags

Track-a-Sack. If you'd like to encourage a friend or family member to try using a reusable gift bag, consider giving them a gift in a "Track-a-Sack" WrapSack. The sight of an overflowing trash bin the day after Christmas inspired The WrapSack founders to start selling reusable gift wrap bags. But they knew that just because something can be reused doesn't mean it will be. So they invented a way to track the progress of each bag as it is re-gifted. In their words, tracking gifts bags is "not just to protect our planet but also to see the journeys they take and hope that those journeys will bring people together so that there is just a little more peace on earth."

We sell Wrap Sacks in our store, available in a variety of sizes and patterns. In addition, we also offer reusable greeting card covers to eliminate the waste of paper envelopes.

Decorate Recycled Paper. While most people will be happy to receive and give gifts in reusable wrapping, others just won't get it. For them, consider rescuing and decorating paper from the recycling bin to use for gift wrap.

Children's Art. If you have school-aged children, you probably have a larger supply of drawings and paintings than display space on your refrigerator or walls. Your child's artistic excess makes great wrapping paper, especially for gifts given to their proud grand parents and teachers.

Plain Brown Paper. You can make classic and classy plain brown wrapping paper from paper shopping bags turned inside out. This paper provides a sturdy protective covering, and has the added advantage of being easy to compost. I'm often asked by concerned gardeners and home owners whether they can successfully and safely compost colorful holiday wrapping paper due to the coatings on the paper, residues from the bleaching process, and chemicals in the inks. While I personally shred and compost all types of paper, including wrapping paper, uncoated unbleached plain brown paper is the best for composting.

More Ideas. For more information and inspiration, check out the stories of these people who have gone to extremes to live with less garbage:

• The Clean Bin Project
• No Impact Man
  
• Green Garbage Project
• The Zero Waste Home
• Fake Plastic Fish
  

Tip: Beat the Tax Credit Deadline

November's Sustainable Living Tip

Take advantage of the federal tax credits for energy efficiency. Purchase and install specific products, such as energy-efficient windows, insulation, doors, roofs, and heating and cooling equipment, to receive a federal tax credit for 30% of the cost, up to $1,500.  Improvements must be "placed in service" in an existing home between January 1, 2009, through December 31, 2010.

 

Facts about Consumer Energy Tax Incentives

1. The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 extended many consumer tax incentives originally introduced in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and amended in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
2. A tax credit is generally more valuable than an equivalent tax deduction because a tax credit reduces tax dollar-for-dollar, while a deduction only removes a percentage of the tax that is owed. Consumers can itemize purchases on their federal income tax form, which will lower the total amount of tax they owe the government.
   
3. If you purchase an energy-efficient product or renewable energy system for your home, you may be eligible for a federal tax credit. For details, visit the Energy Star web site, Federal Tax Credits for Consumer Energy Efficiency.
   
4. Consumers who install solar energy systems (including solar water heating and solar electric systems), small wind systems, geothermal heat pumps, and residential fuel cell and microturbine systems can receive a 30% tax credit for systems placed in service before December 31, 2016; the previous tax credit cap no longer applies.
   
5. Individuals and businesses who buy or lease a new hybrid gas-electric car or truck are eligible for an income tax credit for vehicles "placed in service" starting January 1, 2006, and purchased on or before December 31, 2010. The amount of the credit depends on the fuel economy, the weight of the vehicle, and whether the tax credit has been or is being phased out. Hybrid vehicles that use less gasoline than the average vehicle of similar weight and that meet an emissions standard qualify for the credit.
6. The hybrid vehicle credit will be phased out for each manufacturer once that company has sold 60,000 eligible vehicles. At that point, the tax credit for each company's vehicles will be gradually reduced over the course of 15 months. See the IRS's Summary of the Credit for Qualified Hybrid Vehicles for information on the status of specific vehicle eligibility.
   
7. Alternative-fuel vehicles, diesel vehicles with advanced lean-burn technologies, and fuel-cell vehicles are also eligible for tax credits. See the IRS summary of credits available for Alternative Motor Vehicles.
8. The Recovery Act modifies the credit for qualified plug-in electric drive vehicles purchased after Dec. 31, 2009. The minimum amount of the credit for qualified plug-in electric drive vehicles is $2,500 and the credit tops out at $7,500, depending on the battery capacity. To qualify, vehicles must be newly purchased, have four or more wheels, have a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 14,000 lbs, and draw propulsion using a battery with at least four kilowatt hours that can be recharged from an external source of electricity.  The full amount of the credit will be reduced with respect to a manufacturer's vehicles after the manufacturer has sold at least 200,000 vehicles.  The credit will then phase out over a year.
9. The Recovery Act also provided a tax credit for plug-in electric drive conversion kits. The credit is equal to 10% of the cost of converting a vehicle to a qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicle and placed in service after Feb. 17, 2009. The maximum amount of the credit is $4,000. The credit does not apply to conversions made after Dec. 31, 2011. A taxpayer may claim this credit even if the taxpayer claimed a hybrid vehicle credit for the same vehicle in an earlier year.
10. The Recovery Act law also creates a special tax credit for two types of plug-in vehicles: certain low-speed electric vehicles and 2- or 3-wheeled vehicles. The amount of the credit is 10% of the cost of the vehicle, up to a maximum credit of $2,500 for purchases made after Feb. 17, 2009, and before Jan. 1, 2012.  To qualify, a vehicle must be either a low speed vehicle propelled by an electric motor that draws electricity from a battery with a capacity of 4 kilowatt hours or more, or be a 2- or 3-wheeled vehicle propelled by an electric motor that draws electricity from a battery with the capacity of 2.5 kilowatt hours. A taxpayer may not claim this credit if the plug-in electric drive vehicle credit is allowable.

Tip: Compost Fall Leaves

October's Sustainable Living Tip

Collect your leaves for making great compost. For quick results, make a pile at least three feet tall and three feet in diameter, add a compost activator, water thoroughly, and turn every few days. Another option is to allow your leaves to dry in the sun, then collect and store them under cover or in garbage cans for use throughout the year. Dry leaves are a good source of "browns" to add to your kitchen "greens."

 

Facts about Cold Weather Composting

1. To make compost, you W-A-N-T four things: water, air, nutrients and temperature.
2. Now that fall has arrived, outdoor temperatures start to fall below the range that supports composting. You can still collect materials, but the composting action will slow down the colder it gets.
3. Making a big pile of leaves helps keep the temperature in the center of the pile high enough to complete the composting process before winter comes.
4. The trick to successfully composting fall leaves is to ensure that you remember to provide the water, air and nutrients needed, in addition to building a large enough pile that will retain heat.
5. Water is essential to making compost. You'll need to water your pile of leaves to get things started, and you may need to add water every few days. Building a pile in the sun will help with heat, but will require extra water. Building the pile in the shade will retain more moisture, but doesn't take advantage of the sun's energy for heating things up. Some people like to build their pile in the sun and cover the top with black plastic. This keeps some moisture in and also collects heat to keep those microbes toasty.
   
6. Periodically turning your pile will allow air to circulate. Aerobic microbes require oxygen to do their work. In the absence of oxygen, anaerobic microbes take over. If that happens, be prepared for odors. Ensure an adequate supply of oxygen for your microbes by turning your pile every few days. And if odors do develop, remember the best remedy is fresh air.
7. A pile of leaves by themselves won't compost as quickly as a pile of leaves with some added nutrients. Compost activators supply the missing nutrients--mainly nitrogen. Other sources of nitrogen include manure and kitchen scraps. If your leaf pile doesn't seem to be "cooking," try adding water and an activator to speed things up. But once temperatures fall too low, if your pile isn't cooking you may just have to wait for warmer weather.
   
8. Besides building a big compost pile, you have other good options for using your leaves. Shredding them and using them as mulch around bushes and trees, or on garden beds, is a simple and sustainable approach. After all, your trees are expecting their leaves to feed their roots for next year.
9. Another option is to store your leaves to use when you take your kitchen compost out. Whenever you empty your compost pail from your kitchen, it's a great idea to cover your scraps with dried leaves. Now is the time to collect those leaves for use the rest of the year.
10. If you shred your leaves they'll take up a lot less space, and break down into compost quicker when you add them to your compost pile. You don't have to buy a shredder; a weed wacker in a garbage can works well. Just remember to wear eye protection and be prepared to get covered in little leafy bits.
11. We're often asked whether you can continue to add things to your compost pile in the winter. The answer is yes! Just don't expect much to happen. On the positive side, you don't have to worry about odors once things start freezing. That means you don't have to be as concerned about adding browns to your pile. Late fall and winter is the time of year when you can "dump and run" with your kitchen compost pail and get away with it. The rest of the year, it's a better idea to cover your kitchen scraps with a layer of "browns" (shredded leaves or sawdust or the like).
    
12. If you're the type that doesn't want to just wait until spring for your compost, consider bringing your composting action inside. Worm bins are a fun choice. You can use leaves as the top dressing in your worm bins. Simply bury your food scraps under the leaves and let worms eat your garbage. In a few months, your hard-working pet worms will turn both your scraps and your leaves into beautiful castings.
13. If you start your garden from seeds, you really ought to try worm castings for your seedlings. My favorite mix is half and half worm castings and coconut fiber (also called "coir"). Many people consider coir to be more sustainable than peat moss. Some peat bogs are being harvested faster than the peat forms. Coir, on the other hand, grows on coconut trees--it's the stringy stuff in the coconut husk. Plus, if you think about it, every coconut is just a big seed.  The coir is designed to help that seed grow. So it makes sense to use coir for seedlings.
    
14. A great spot for a worm bin is down in the cellar next to your boiler. Worms like it dark and dank. You can provide a good home to some deserving invertebrates and save yourself the hassle of taking your kitchen scraps outside this winter by keeping a worm bin.
    
15. Now is the best time to start a worm bin to produce castings in time to use for your spring seedlings. It's never too early to be planning for next year's garden!

Tip: Clean and Efficient Heating

September's Sustainable Living Tip

Take advantage of state and federal incentives to improve your home's heating efficiency, then start  switching away from fossil fuel to heat your home. Solar supplemented by electricity is the most sustainable heating system, and it's easy to get started.

 

Facts about Clean and Efficient Heating

1. Conventional houses waste 90% or more of the energy they use for space heating, compared to houses built to the Passive House standard.
2. The Passive House standard is the industry leader in energy efficiency, having been successfully pioneered in Europe and now reaching Maine.
3. Federal and state incentives are available to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes, including up to $4,500 through Efficiency Maine's Home Energy Savings Program.
4. The key to achieving the dramatic improvements in home heating efficiency necessary to reach the Passive House standard is to air seal the building envelope and provide fresh air ventilation using a heat recovery ventilator.
5. Another important aspect of Passive House design is to use passive solar gain, which can be achieved through windows and solar air space heaters that ensure solar energy can enter the home during the day, but prevent heat from leaking back out at night.
   
6. Houses built to the Passive House standard in Maine will maintain a temperature of at least 10 degrees C (50 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout winter when their ventilation and heating systems are turned off. You can leave these houses unheated in the winter without risk of freezing. Passive House heating systems are needed only for comfort.
   
7. While it is challenging to retrofit many existing homes to Passive House standards, the principle of controlling air flow can be applied to every home to improve its heating performance.
8. A professional energy audit is the first step to qualify for state funding under the Home Energy Savings Program.
9. A good energy audit will help you understand how your home uses energy, so you can prioritize your energy upgrades.
10. A blower door test, which uses a big fan to suck air out of your house, is one of the best ways to identify air leaks and to check that home energy work has been done properly.
11. An infrared scan, using a camera that measures surface temperatures, is another important diagnostic tool that allows you and your contractors to see where energy leaves your house.
12. In most existing homes, it is not cost effective to control all air leaks; enough air will flow uncontrolled in and out of the structure to maintain healthy indoor air quality.
13. But if you are able to control air leaks to the point where a blower door test shows fewer than 0.3 air changes per hour during the heating season, then you should install a heat recovery or energy recovery ventilator.
14. Heat recovery ventilators exhaust stale outdoor air and bring in fresh outdoor air in a way that transfers heat from the outgoing air to the incoming air. This helps maintain a higher indoor air temperature, but can lower indoor relative humidity because outdoor air is usually dryer than indoor air.
15. Energy recovery ventilators perform the same function as heat recovery ventilators, but also help transfer humidity to maintain not only a higher indoor air temperature but also a higher indoor air relative humidity.
    
16. If a ventilator fails, windows can be opened to provide fresh air.
17. As homes are "tightened up" by sealing places where cold air enters and warm air leaves, it becomes more important to consider ways to maintain indoor air quality.
18. It is a good idea to choose paints, finishes, and cleaning products that do not emit noxious fumes. A surprising number of household products contain petroleum-based fragrances that irritate human respiratory systems.
19. As you improve your home's energy performance, you increase the affordable options for heating your home.
    
20. A conventional 2,500 square foot home in Maine that is not well insulated would require a heating system rated between 30,000 and 40,000 watts. This is equivalent to about 24 electric space heaters.
21. Doubling the efficiency of this home would allow it to be heated with 12 space heaters; raising it to Passive House standards would allow the entire house to be heated with just three electric space heaters which would typically be integrated with the ventilation system.
22. Solar space heaters are a way to turn conventional homes into passive solar homes. These units can be installed on a southern wall or roof. Without the need for electricity or plumbing, they circulate air from inside your home, through a heat collector, and back into your home, effectively harnessing the free energy that is delivered to your home every sunny winter day.
    
23. In the long term, our society must make the transition away from burning all types of fossil fuel, including propane and natural gas.
    
24. Although a fraction of our electricity here in Maine is generated by burning fossil fuel, much of it is already sourced from clean renewable sources.
25. In the future, we can generate all of our electricity from clean and renewable sources here in Maine.
26. If you want to help jump start the conversion of our economy to a sustainable clean energy future, you can install a grid-tied renewable energy system. The most reliable systems use solar photovoltaic panels. The electricity you generate will flow into the grid, displacing the need to generate electricity from non-renewable resources.
    
27. With current technology, it is much easier to stop burning fossil fuel for home heating than to stop burning fossil fuel for transportation, so it makes sense to start our society's transition to clean energy by changing the way we heat our buildings.
28. One of the advantages to using electricity for home heating, from the perspective of the overall sustainability of our society, is that the delivery system for electricity is largely in place. Since most homes already use electricity for lighting and appliances, we are committed to maintaining this infrastructure.
29. Building a new distribution system for natural gas throughout Maine is an unsustainable and unnecessary expense. Private and public funds will be tied up in this venture that could be better put to use increasing the heating performance of our housing stock and improving the reliability of our electric grid.
30. Delivering cord wood or pellets throughout Maine places a huge burden on our roads.
    
31. Although work is being done to develop renewable sources of solid and liquid fuels, these energy strategies do not lend themselves as easily to distributed production as electricity generation.
32. Most homes and businesses in Maine with a sunny roof can be used to generate electricity; few residential and commercial properties are suitable for fuel production.
33. The heating systems of the past were based on wood; the systems of the present require fossil fuel; those of the future will likely be solar electric.
34. If you are building a new house, you can be part of the solution for a clean energy future by choosing to build to the Passive House standard.
    
35. If you plan to live in an existing house, you can still help bring about a clean energy future by improving your home's heating performance, installing a solar space heater, and switching your home to electric heat room by room.

Go Solar

June's Sustainable Living Tip

Go solar for abundant clean energy. You can start with simple steps like growing a kitchen garden -- the closer to home your food is grown, the less dirty fossil fuel required. Or you can make the switch to heat and power your home completely by clean solar energy. The sunlight falling on just one acre in Portland could support all the energy needs of one hundred and sixty Maine families.

Facts about Solar Energy

1. By some calculations, the typical meal eaten in Maine requires more than its own weight in fossil fuel for transportation, storage, packaging and synthetic fertilizer. Growing your own food or supporting local organic farmers is a delicious way to "go solar," relying more on the sun than oil for your personal energy.
2. Every year each acre in Portland, Maine, receives over 24,000 gigajoules (GJ) of solar energy. This is 160 times greater than the total annual energy (heating, electricity and transportation) needed by an average family living in Maine.
3. The average Maine family burns 900 gallons of heating oil in a 78% efficient boiler, using about 100 GJ of energy for space heating and hot water annually. That energy can be collected every year by about 21 square meters -- about half the size of a two-car garage -- of solar thermal collectors operating at 80% efficiency.
4. Solar thermal collectors collect the sun's heat. Then fans blow air or pumps circulate liquid to bring this heat inside where it can be used for space heating or hot water.
   
5. The average sized Maine home (200 square meters) built to super-efficient standards would require less than 11 GJ for space heating per year. This would require just 2 square meters -- a little bigger than the hood of a Volvo station wagon -- of solar thermal collectors.
6. The average family in Maine uses about 20 GJ of electricity annually (around 500 kilowatt hours per month). That energy can be collected every year by about 17 square meters -- about 10 feet by 18 feet -- of photovoltaic solar panels operating at 20% efficiency.
7. Photovoltaic (PV) panels directly convert sunlight to electricity. This electricity can then be fed into regular house current, or can be stored in batteries. Maine has a "net metering" law which allows homeowners to "spin their meters backwards" when sending excess electricity to the grid.
   
8. If a family could reduce its monthly electricity consumption to 350 kilowatt hours per month (for example, by replacing an inefficient refrigerator and using clothes drying racks instead of an electric dryer), their annual electricity needs could be met by just 12 square meters of PV panels -- about 10 by 13 feet.
9. The average family in Maine burns 1,300 gallons of gasoline in vehicles that are about 20% efficient at converting fuel to motion, using about 31.5 GJ of energy for personal transportation annually. Most of the energy released by burning gasoline in an internal combustion engine is wasted as heat.
10. It is difficult to use solar energy to produce liquid fuels (such as ethanol) that can replace gasoline. Serious concerns have been raised about the sustainability of growing corn as an ethanol feedstock.
11. If a family could purchase an electric car, which could be easily recharged with electricity generated by solar power, 26 square meters of PV panels -- about 10 feet by 28 feet -- could satisfy their annual transportation needs.
12. Switching from internal combustion engines to electric motors in our cars will allow us to switch from gasoline to solar power for our transportation needs. The batteries in our electric vehicles will allow us to store solar power for use when it is needed. The first all-electric, mass-market cars are expected to be widely available in the United States starting in 2012.
    
13. More solar energy reaches Maine in four hours than our entire state economy uses in a year.
14. Enough solar energy falls on just the 23,450 miles of public road in Maine to power an economy that uses three and a half times as much energy as our state's does. We could stop using all other sources of energy except solar and still have plenty of capacity to grow our economy.
15. More than half of the electricity generated in Maine already comes from renewable energy sources -- primarily hydropower and wood -- that are forms of stored solar power.
16. Per square meter, over one thousand four hundred times more energy is available per year by directly collecting solar energy than by harvesting firewood. In other words, cord wood is approximately 0.07% efficient at storing solar energy. One acre of solar thermal collectors is the energy equivalent of a 1,400 acre wood lot .
    
17. Super insulated water tanks, such as the Marathon hot water heater, can store solar energy for up to two weeks. This allows solar hot water systems to provide hot water at night and during weeks of inclement weather.
    
18. Solar panels capture more energy than is used to manufacture them. Depending on the manufacturing process and how much solar energy is available for the panel to collect, it takes between one and six years for the panel to "pay back" the amount of energy used to create it. Since panels last for up to twenty years, almost every solar panel in use is providing a net energy benefit over its lifetime. Solar panels are now providing the energy to make more solar panels.
19. Wind power derives from solar energy because winds are primarily due to uneven heating of the earth's surface.
20. Although there is much less solar energy available in the winter in Maine than in the summer, the winds in certain locations are stronger in winter. Wind power, hydropower and tidal power can complement solar power by being available at night, in winter, and during overcast periods.
21. In general, solar power is much more reliable than wind power and much easier to install on a wide variety of existing buildings without adverse visual and noise impact. Wind power, on the other hand, lends itself to economies of scale and is generally a cheaper way to generate large amounts of electricity intermittently at specific places, particularly offshore and along ridges.
22. Solar power is easy to incorporate into consumer electronics. Our store sells solar-powered clocks, radios, flashlights and battery chargers. These are fun and easy ways to try out solar power on a small and affordable scale.

Be Prepared

May's Sustainable Living Tip

Be prepared. Create an emergency kit, make a plan, and stay informed. Start with a short-term plan for yourself and your family, but don't stop there. What is the long-term plan for your community and our society to avoid unnecessary emergencies and survive unavoidable ones?

Facts about Emergency Preparedness

1. The US Department of Homeland Security asks you to be prepared to survive on your own for three days in the event of a serious emergency.
2. You can find a list of supplies to include in your basic emergency kit at www.ready.gov.
3. One of the most important items to have on hand is at least three gallons of clean, drinkable water per person in your family.
4. If you would like a free, 5 gallon HDPE #2 plastic container with a handle and spigot, please call us at 729-4050 or email us at newsletter@fwhorch.com to arrange for pick up at our store. We have empty containers that held non-toxic, plant-based dish and laundry soap from Earth Friendly Products. When thoroughly rinsed and filled with tap water from a municipal supply, these containers are suitable for storing water for emergency use. If you use well water, most authorities recommend adding two drops of liquid chlorine bleach to help prevent microbial contamination.
   
5. Your kit should also contain non-perishable food, a first aid kit, and a wrench or pliers to turn off utilities.
   
6. For dependable light, you may want a shake flashlight that is water proof and does not require batteries.
7. To hear emergency broadcasts and weather reports, you may want a hand crank radio.
8. Beyond the basics, you should prepare a list of essential items, like prescription medicines or eye glasses, that are unique to your needs.
9. Along with your kit, make a plan of what to do during an emergency. Identify an out-of-town contact that all members of your family can call in case you become separated. Decide on a meeting place if you need to leave your home.
   
10. Once you've assembled your emergency kit and have a short-term emergency plan, think about ways you can help avoid unnecessary emergencies in your home, community and the world.
11. Minimize localized flooding by installing rain barrels and rain gardens to divert water from storm drains. This also helps prevent pollution from being washed into our lakes and streams.
    
12. Ensure greater food security by planting a row for the hungry in your home garden. Vegetables with good storage life are best, such as beets, cabbage, carrots, turnips, and winter squash.
    
13. Help avoid power outages by reducing your electricity consumption. During times of high demand, avoid running your electric clothes dryer (use a drying rack instead), toaster, air conditioner or space heaters.
14. Prevent frozen pipes in your home by insulating pipes near exterior walls, or by moving plumbing runs to central locations during a renovation. Remember, your home freezes from the top down and from the outside in. Pay particular attention to sealing leaks that may allow cold air to circulate around a pipe.
15. Consider installing a solar space heater for emergency or unattended heat. Solar space heaters require no fuel or electricity, just sunlight to help maintain warm indoor temperatures in homes, schools and businesses that are well insulated. They can be installed on a south-facing wall or a roof.
    
16. Make a long-term plan to transition away from fossil fuels. Coal, oil and gas are already unnecessary for home heating; you can heat with solar, wood or electricity instead. Save up for a plug-in electric car, which you likely will be able to buy here in the United States by 2012.
17. According to the Energy Information Administration, Maine, along with much of the U.S. Northeast, is vulnerable to distillate fuel oil shortages and price spikes during winter months. Maine’s per capita petroleum consumption is high due to the widespread use of fuel oil for home heating during the long, cold winters. About four-fifths of Maine households use fuel oil as their primary energy source for home heating, a higher share than in any other State.
    
18. In July 2000 the President directed the U.S. Department of Energy to establish the Northeast Heating Oil Reserve. The Reserve gives Northeast consumers adequate supplies for about 10 days, the time required for ships to carry heating oil from the Gulf of Mexico to New York Harbor. The Reserve's storage terminals are located in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and Groton and New Haven, Connecticut.
19. Maine has no fossil fuel reserves but has substantial renewable energy potential. Maine generates a larger share of its electricity from nonhydroelectric renewable resources than any other State.
20. Renewable sources, mainly wood and wood waste and hydroelectric, account for almost half of Maine’s net electricity generation. Maine’s residential electricity use is low compared with the rest of the Nation, in part because demand for air-conditioning is low during the cool summer months and because few households use electricity as their primary energy source for home heating.
21. If we start harnessing clean renewable energy for our needs, maybe future headlines about offshore disasters would read like this one posted in jest online: "Large Air Spill at Offshore Wind Farm. No Loss of Life or Environmental Threats Reported. Some Claim to Enjoy the Extra Breeze."

From Tax Day to Earth Day

April's Sustainable Living Tip

April 15 is tax day and April 22 is Earth Day. Take advantage of government programs like Energy Star and Efficiency Maine, putting your tax dollars to work to help save the planet.

Facts about Planet-Saving Government Programs

1. Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy that is intended to help us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.
2. The Energy Star label was established to reduce pollution caused by wasted energy, and to make it easy for consumers to buy more efficient products without sacrificing performance, features, and comfort.
   
3. A product with an Energy Star label should meet strict specifications established by the EPA: the product category must contribute significant energy savings nationwide, products must meet consumer expectations for performance, a higher purchase price must be offset by lower operating costs, energy consumption and product performance must be measurable and verified with testing, and an Energy Star label must effectively differentiate more efficient products from less efficient ones.
4. In addition to helping you find Energy Star products like light bulbs and kitchen appliances, the Energy Star web site includes sections on Home Improvement, New Homes and Buildings & Plants.
   
5. If you purchase an energy-efficient product or renewable energy system for your home, you may be eligible for a 30% federal tax credit.
   
6. Some, but not all, Energy Star qualified products qualify for a federal tax credit. Energy Star distinguishes energy efficient products which, although they may cost more to purchase than inefficient models, will pay you back in lower energy bills within a reasonable amount of time, without a tax credit.
   
7. The State of Maine will implement a mail-in rebate program that will help residents replace older, inefficient water heaters and home heating and cooling equipment with new, efficient Energy Star qualified models. The program is tentatively scheduled to begin in May 2010, and will run until funds are depleted. Federal funding for this program is $1,263,000.
   
8. On March 5, 2010, the Government Accountability Office issued a report titled, "Covert Testing Shows the Energy Star Program Certification Process Is Vulnerable to Fraud and Abuse."
9. In light of these findings, EPA is taking the following steps, effective immediately:
   products may no longer be labeled by manufacturers until a lab report is submitted to and approved by EPA, EPA’s automated review process has been suspended, and new Energy Star partners will no longer be granted access to the Energy Star mark upon joining the program. Going forward, the Energy Star mark will be made available to partners only after a qualifying product is submitted and approved.
   
10. Efficiency Maine is a statewide effort to promote the more efficient use of electricity, help Maine residents and businesses reduce energy costs, and improve Maine's environment.
    
11. The Efficiency Maine Home Energy Savings Program offers incentives up to $3,000 to homeowners at all income levels for pre-approved energy-efficiency upgrades done by participating contractors. The program is funded by a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“Stimulus” dollars). Both our March and April sustainable living workshops here at the store have been on the topic of how to qualify for this program.
    
12. Thanks to an award of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, Efficiency Maine will offer a Residential Heating / Cooling Appliance Replacement Program to start April 15, 2010. The Program will offer incentives for the replacement of existing Central Air Conditioners, Gas and Oil Boilers, Gas and Oil Furnaces, Air Source Heat Pumps, Electric Heat Pump Water Heaters, and Gas Tankless Water Heaters. Because funding for the Program is limited, a reservation system, based on signed contracts for installation by a licensed heating technical will be required. Additional information will be available the week of April 11, 2010, from Efficiency Maine.
    
13. Replace an old air conditioner, dehumidifier, clothes washer, refrigerator or freezer with selected Energy Star appliances and you could receive rebates of up to $75 through the Efficiency Maine Appliance Rebate Program. Obtain a mail-in rebate form from a retailer at purchase time to submit with a copy of your receipt.
14. Efficiency Maine's Residential Lighting Program enlists the participation of and works closely with manufacturers and lighting retailers to encourage them to produce and sell energy efficient lighting products to the residents of Maine. Our store, for example, is currently offering a $1 per CFL bulb instant rebate.
15. Our store also participates in the Efficiency Maine CFL Recycling Program. You can bring burned out CFLs to our store for proper recycling at no cost to you.
16. Maine has a net metering law that entitles customers to a billing credit for generating electricity for the grid using fuel cells, tidal power, solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, biomass, generators fueled by municipal solid waste in conjunction with recycling, and high-efficiency combined heat and power (CHP) systems. If you are connected to a public electricity grid and your system produces more energy in a billing period than you use, you receive credit at the retail rate for the excess. (In effect, your meter "runs backwards".)
17. Maine is one of a handful of states, including California, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, that have authorized neighborhood net metering. This allows groups of customers to take advantage of net metering from a single renewable energy facility owned jointly (e.g., residents of a neighborhood served by a community-owned wind turbine).
18. Neighborhood net metering allows customers who would not otherwise be able to take advantage of net metering to do so, such as homeowners whose roofs are too shaded to permit installation of solar panels. Neighborhood net metering can also permit aggregation of load to facilitate larger systems which exhibit economies of scale.
19. Net metering requires a subsidy from other customers because the participating customers are paid a retail rate for the power they sell to the electric company. This power displaces power that the electric company could buy at a wholesale rate. The subsidy tends to be regressive, since the customers who install renewable energy systems and benefit from net metering are usually better off than the average electric company customer.

Plan a Kitchen Garden

March's Sustainable Living Tip

Plan a kitchen garden to grow fresh, organic food to feed your family and share with neighbors. Roger Doiron, founder of Kitchen Gardeners International, reported that in one year on 1/25th of an acre in suburban Scarborough, Maine, his family grew 834 pounds of organic food worth more than $2,000.

Kitchen Gardening Facts

1. If you're new to kitchen gardening, a great little book to get you started is Grow Your Own Food Made Easy.
   
2. You can connect with a community of 20,000 kitchen gardeners from over 100 countries through Kitchen Gardeners International, a non-profit organization founded in Maine. It's free to register for their web site and email list.
   
3. Free gardening advice is available year round from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
   
4. In addition to providing information and publications, University of Maine Cooperative Extension offers a Master Gardener Volunteer horticultural education program to all interested Maine residents.
   
5. You don't need a large garden to grow good food. You can sow seeds in containers for lettuce, greens and fresh herbs, or even put plants on a sunny window sill indoors. For best results, give your plants 16 hours of light each day, using a fluorescent lamp as necessary.
   
6. Memorial Day is the traditional date to start planting outdoors in New England. However, the last frost date has been occurring earlier, and your microclimate (exposure to sun and wind) may allow you to plant sooner.
7. As soon as the ground can be worked in early spring, you can plant seeds for endives, lettuce, peas, radishes, and turnips. In case of a late killing frost, protect seedlings by covering them with a plastic milk jug or soda bottle cut in half. For a quick overview and a timing chart for what to plant when in Maine, see Vegetable Gardening: Are You in a Box?
   
8. You can extend your season with hoop houses (bars bent over garden rows covered with clear plastic) or cold frames (boxes covered in glass or clear plastic). These work especially well over raised beds, which allow the soil to warm up more quickly.
   
9. Essential ingredients for kitchen garden success are healthy soil, full sun (or grow lights) and adequate water.
   
10. It can take years to build healthy soil. You can buy an inexpensive home test kit to check your soil's pH, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, or you can carefully observe which plants are already growing well. You may want to get started by buying a load of good loamy soil and finished compost.
11. An effective and easy way to convert a patch of grass to a garden is to put down cardboard and then bring in new soil on top of the cardboard to form a raised bed. The cardboard will prevent grass and weeds from coming up, then slowly decompose in place. There's no need to till, dig up or pull out grass if you can put new soil on top of it.
    
12. Every year you'll need to feed your soil with composted organic material. Your plants may need fertilizer as well. It's best to use organic fertilizers that contain micronutrients as well as the three macronutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium). Compared to synthetic fertilizers which provide immediate results, a slow-release natural fertilizer will deliver long-term benefits and is less likely to dissolve in water and run off to pollute local rivers and lakes.
    
13. It's easy to make your own compost from kitchen scraps. There's no better way to handle food waste than to turn it into healthy garden soil!
    
14. Don't be afraid to grow more food than your family can eat. According to the USDA, 10% of Maine households (141,000 people) are "food insecure." You can help alleviate this problem by planting an extra row of produce each year and donating the surplus to local soup kitchens and food pantries. Now is a good time to contact them and find out what fresh vegetables they want that you could grow.
15. The "Plant A Row for the Hungry" program for Maine is open to all interested gardeners and is coordinated through University of Maine Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Volunteer program. For more information contact Barbara Murphy at 743-6329, 1-800-287-1482 (toll free in Maine) or e-mail, bmurphy@umext.maine.edu.
    
16. If your yard doesn't have a sunny spot for a traditional garden, think about planting in containers on your porch, patio or along sidewalks. A fun way to grow tomatoes and strawberries is in an "upside down" planter that you can hang from a balcony or post. Not only is it easier to pick fruit this way, but when plants are up off the ground it's easier to control insects and slugs without resorting to toxic chemicals.
17. A rain barrel is a great way to keep water on hand, especially for watering pots and containers. Put your barrel up on blocks so you can fill a watering can from the spigot at the bottom of the barrel.
    
18. Growing plants from seeds is rewarding and affordable. Choosing open pollinated varieties instead of hybrids allows you to save seeds that will breed true. You may find it more interesting to grow rare and heirloom varieties than conventional mass-market hybrids. Plus, you'll be helping to preserve the diversity of our food supply.
19. Genetically modified organisms (GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds are a controversial new practice. Genes from unrelated species, typically bacteria, are spliced into the plant genome. Among other things, this allows scientists to design plants that produce insecticidal toxins in their tissues, reducing the need to spray pesticides. In effect, a field of genetically engineered plants becomes a pesticide factory. This puts selective pressure on local insect populations, resulting in resistant strains of pests that can no longer be controlled by conventional pesticide use. GMO and GE seeds with patented genes are an intriguing new prospect for investors in seed companies, because they allow companies to earn larger profits and constantly introduce new types of seeds that express new types of pesticides as existing pesticides become ineffective. While this approach provides clear financial benefit to large corporations with the capital to develop and market genetically engineered seeds, it provides little or no benefit to gardeners or society as a whole. When you buy seeds or plants, carefully consider whether you want to support businesses that are exploiting this technology.
20. Controlling insects, weeds and disease without the use of synthetic chemicals or genetic engineering requires knowledge, common sense, and close inspection. Consult books or gardeners in your community to learn which plants to put together to thwart insects and fungi. Rotate your crops to break the cycle of disease transmission. Mulch to smother weeds after they emerge. Provide the sun, soil and water your plants need to be healthy.
21. Above all, enjoy the satisfaction of eating and sharing fresh, delicious, and nutritious food you have grown yourself!

DIY Energy Audit

February's Sustainable Living Tip

Use cold weather to your advantage by conducting your own home energy audit. When the temperature drops, spend some time feeling around doors, windows and exterior walls for cold air entering your home. Keep a checklist of areas you have inspected and problems you've found.

Do-It-Yourself Home Energy Audit

1. On a sunny day, go outside and note which way is south. Check to make sure that trees and bushes on the southern side are not overgrown; you want as much sunlight reaching your house as possible. Remove screens in southern-facing windows that receive sun. This will allow more sunlight into your home. Make sure drapes on southern windows are open during the day and closed at night.
   
2. If there is snow on your roof, observe the melt pattern. Note whether you have ice dams forming along the edge of your roof. Ideally snow should melt from the edge of the roof up. If snow is melting higher up on your roof but remaining around the edges, you are losing heat through your attic.
3. Observe how water comes off your roof. Rain and snow melt should be directed away from your foundation.
4. If you have storm windows, check to make sure that they are closed and tight. Note any needed repairs.
5. If you have a dryer vent, check it to make sure it closes to prevent cold air from back drafting into your house. Also check for lint build up and clean it out if needed.
   
6. Check every exterior door to your home for weatherstripping. From the inside with the door closed, feel around the entire perimeter of the door for drafts. Make a note to replace weatherstripping or door sweeps if necessary.
7. Examine windows for drafts. Consider building interior storm windows for those that feel cold.
8. If you have a basement, check the exterior wall for holes and drafts. Look for a gap between the foundation wall (usually rock, brick or concrete) and the sill plate (the piece of wood on top of the foundation wall). This gap should be caulked or foamed. If you can see the space over the foundation wall between floor joists, make sure each of these boxes contain the proper type of insulation. They should be filled with rigid insulation, foam, cotton batting or bagged fiberglass. They should not be filled with loose fiberglass; it allows too much airflow. Make a note to foam around any pipes that penetrate the foundation wall. If you have a bulkhead door, it should be insulated and weatherstripped. If you have any basement windows, make sure that they are all closed and latched.
9. If your boiler or water heater is in an unheated basement, crawl space or garage, make sure that all pipes are wrapped in insulation.
10. If your basement is unheated, check for insulation in the basement ceiling. A vapor barrier should be on top of the insulation, toward the heated space. If the vapor barrier is on the bottom (on the cold side, toward the basement), make a note to fix it. Vapor barriers should always go on the warm side of the insulation.
11. If your basement is heated, make sure that the basement walls are insulated.
12. In the heated parts of your house, check exterior wall electrical boxes and light switches for drafts. Install gaskets to prevent air from blowing through these openings.
13. Feel for drafts along baseboards. Use clear caulk to seal any gaps between the floor and the wall.
14. Make sure that all thermostats are set to the correct temperature. Consider installing programmable thermostats that will automatically turn down the temperature when you are at work or sleeping. You can usually set back your thermostat to 55 degrees without discomfort or risk.
15. If you have a fireplace, check to make sure your flue is completely closed. Consider using a chimney pillow to seal it off when not in use.
16. If you have an attic hatch, make sure it is insulated and securely latches against weatherstripping to prevent warm moist air from entering your attic.
17. Look for light fixtures, especially recessed lighting, that may allow warm air to leak into your attic. All holes in your ceiling should be caulked if possible.
18. If you have any combustion appliances in your house, including a boiler or a gas stove, consider installing a carbon monoxide monitor in your bedroom. This will alert you to unhealthy concentrations of CO, which is a by-product of combustion.
19. Make sure you have working fans in your kitchen and bathrooms to vent moisture to the outdoors. It is important to exhaust moisture from cooking and showers to the outside. Otherwise, this moisture may be trapped in your walls or ceiling and cause mold problems. You want your home to be warm and dry (relative humidity below 60 percent).
20. If you can access your attic, check to make sure that you have a vapor barrier under the insulation (toward the warmth). If you have fiberglass insulation, the vapor barrier is the kraft paper. It should be on the bottom of the insulation, toward the heated part of your house.
21. Look for areas where air is flowing into your attic. If you have fiberglass insulation, you can often see dust in the fiberglass where air is blowing up from below. Caulk or foam as many of these air leaks as possible. Common problems include holes cut for electrical and plumbing work. These holes should be sealed with caulk, rubber gaskets or foam.
    
22. Check that you have at least 16 inches of insulation in your attic. If you have less than this, consider blowing in cellulose on top of your existing insulation.

Think Locally to Act Globally

January's Sustainable Living Tip

You've heard the adage, "Think Globally, Act Locally." But there are a surprising number of global problems that can be solved if more of us paid closer attention to little, local details. Imagine the global impact if everyone adopted the following New Year's resolutions!

New Year Resolutions: Think Locally to Act Globally

1. Vote for green electricity. If you are a CMP or Bangor Hydro customer in Maine, you can choose which electricity suppliers get paid to generate power for the grid. Until recently, you had the opportunity to choose a 100% green power option. Under this plan, clean power generators get the contract to supply the grid and receive payment from you. If everyone signed up for green power, clean power providers would have the money and the mandate to build new power plants (using renewable water, wind and solar energy), and dirty coal, nuclear, and natural gas power plants would be forced out of business. Now that the market in Maine is no longer offering a clean power option, using your vote in local elections may be the best strategy to clean up our power grid.
   
2. Switch off the lights when you leave a room. There are more than 500,000 households in Maine. If every household in Maine happens to leave just one 100-watt light bulb turned on unnecessarily, that requires 50 MW of power -- which is more power than the entire Mars Hill wind farm produces. As we build wind farms and install solar panels to make the transition to clean power, let's be sure we're using it for something worthwhile!
3. Hang dry your laundry. Do a load of laundry, set up a wooden drying rack by the wood stove, and dry your clothes without using a penny's worth of electricity. Even if you don't have a wood stove, clothes dry quickly indoors in winter because the relative humidity is low. When the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant was supplying our grid, its entire output (2,700 MW) would just about equal the demand if every household in Maine used an electric clothes dryer at the same time. Imagine that, we can dry our clothes with a nuclear power plant, or with the free energy already in our homes!
4. Swap out disposable batteries for rechargeable ones. Each rechargeable battery can be recharged up to 1,000 times. Not only will you save money, but you'll also keep lots of unnecessary garbage out of our landfills and incinerators. And when your rechargeable battery no longer holds a charge, bring it to a proper recycling location. Here in Brunswick, Curtis Memorial Library is a convenient downtown location that accepts rechargeable batteries for recycling. Unfortunately, disposable batteries are not collected for recycling. Believe it or not, our local public works department recommends you throw disposable batteries in the trash -- there's no other way to dispose of them!
5. Compost everything that rots, including paper waste. Have you ever seen a mound of one million paper towels? If you've ever been to your local landfill, like the one here in Brunswick, chances are you have. About 40% of the waste sent to landfills and incinerators in the United Sates is paper. It could all be sustainably used to build fertile soil in backyard composters. After all, paper was once part of a living thing; given the right opportunity it could live again. Facial tissue, paper napkins, and paper towels are often overlooked as compostables, but they are easy and safe to compost in backyard compost bins. If you are concerned about chemicals in the paper leaching into your soil, buy paper products with the Green Seal certification. Certified products use less toxic bleaching and dyeing methods. Or consider buying unbleached paper products. They are a little rougher (bleaching whitens and softens wood fibers) but a lot easier on the planet.
6. Walk more. Simple things, like parking in the first spot you find instead of driving and idling an extra thirty seconds to find a spot closer to the door, really add up. There are almost 200 million registered drivers in the United States. If each of us shaved just one minute off our driving time each week, that totals almost 175 million hours of engine time per year. With an average fuel economy of about 25 miles per gallon, the average car in America burns about two gallons of fuel per hour. So everyone in the US resolved to drive one less minute per week, we could save 350 million gallons of gas per year. At $2 gallon that's only an extra $700 million dollars in our pockets. But if gas goes back to $4 per gallon that's $1.4 billion dollars per year. A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about some real money.
7. Grow some of your own food. Probably the easiest place to start is with sprouts or salad greens. If you buy lettuce in the grocery store in winter in Maine, chances are good that it has traveled hundreds and perhaps thousands of miles to reach you. A large percentage of fresh greens sold in the Northeast in January are grown in California and Mexico. Assuming it costs you $1 per pound to ship things from California to Maine, you could send two heads of lettuce or 372,000 lettuce seeds. In other words, for $4 you could send eight heads of lettuce or you could send enough seeds to grow more than a million heads of lettuce -- enough for every single person in Maine. Beyond the cost savings, growing your own food is a great way to ensure you're eating fresh, healthy and organically-grown produce.
8. Bring your own bag. Choosing paper bags ranks right up there with recycling as one of the "environmental myths" that curmudgeons delight in debunking. Try a web search for "paper or plastic" and you'll find hundreds of thousands of news articles and blog posts discussing the issue. The reason this question gets so much press is the ubiquity of bags in our modern lifestyle. According to one source, over 4 trillion (4,000,000,000,000) plastic bags are manufactured each year. Bags (or more precisely, small fragments of plastic bags) are now covering virtually the entire surface of our planet -- to the extent that ocean phytoplankton have to compete for sunlight with floating plastic detritus that won't break down for another 1,000 years. Americans are now using on average about 19 disposable bags per week -- about three every day. Here's an experiment to try at home: guess how many bags you use each week, then find out by saving every single disposable bag (both paper and plastic) over the course of seven days. Then try bringing your own bags -- little nylon stuff sacks are especially handy -- to see how few disposable bags you really need. Even those who scoff at the idea of recycling understand that reusing a bag to eliminate the need for a disposable bag really does make a difference. Even if each bag saved is just a penny earned, saving them all adds up to 40 billion dollars every year.

Keep Composting Kitchen Scraps

December's Sustainable Living Tip

Set up an indoor composting system to make it easy to compost kitchen scraps all winter long. With the right tools and a little thought, you can keep food waste from going to waste all year long--even in the dead of winter.

Cold Weather Composting Facts

1. According to the US Department of Agriculture, Americans throw away more than 25 percent of the food we prepare, about 96 billion pounds per year.
2. As a nation, we spend about $1 billion per year to dispose of our food waste.
   
3. Less than three percent of our food waste is diverted from the solid waste stream; each year we send 31 million tons of food waste to landfills and incinerators.
4. The three largest solid waste streams are yard waste, paper waste and food waste. All three could be diverted from the solid waste stream and composted instead. Turning garbage into compost would replenish our soils instead of polluting our water and air.
   
5. A goal of composting 100% of your food and paper waste all year round is reasonable as long as you have an outdoor area for storing materials. Indoor options can process quite a bit of material, but you'll probably find from time to time that you have some waste that needs to go outside.
   
6. You can add food scraps to an outdoor composter all winter. Scraps will freeze during cold weather and begin decomposing in the spring. You can also store kitchen scraps in five-gallon buckets for the winter. Some people find it convenient to have buckets on their porch or in their garage, saving them the hassle of getting to their composter in the snow. Just leave a little room at the top to allow material in the bucket to freeze. In the spring, once the path is clear, you can dump your buckets in your compost pile.
7. Insulated outdoor composters can extend your composting season. The tumbling Jora composer, for example, features dual chambers and several inches of insulation for hotter composting. Not only does this heat-trapping design allow for composting later in the fall and earlier in the spring, but it also makes it possible to compost meat and fish which are problematic at low temperatures.
   
8. Having a compost pail in the kitchen is a handy way to store food scraps for a few days, allowing you to plan your treks to your outdoor composter. Look for pails with activated charcoal filters in the lid to eliminate odors.
9. Many people find that a compost pail in the kitchen and their regular compost pile in the yard is all they need to keep composting all winter long. They simply put on their boots and beat a path to the composter.
10. Other people prefer to set up a system for handling food waste indoors. Bokashi buckets, worm bins and automatic composters are three popular options.
    
11. A bokashi bucket lets you collect and store food scraps for several weeks inside. These buckets feature a tight seal and promote anaerobic decomposition of food scraps. Once the bokashi bucket is full, you can transfer the contents to an outdoor composter, or in warmer weather bury the material directly into garden soil, where it completes the decomposition process.
12. You sprinkle bokashi, a dry powder containing dormant microbes, on each layer of waste you add to the bucket. This will innoculate your food scraps with fermenting microbes, preventing unpleasant odors from developing. When opened, a bokashi bucket has a distinctive pickled smell. There should be no odor at all when the bucket is closed.
13. Every so often, drain liquid from your bokashi bucket. This liquid can be diluted and used for watering plants, or it can be poured down your drain. Bokashi liquid can be especially beneficial if you are on a septic, since the microbes living in your bokashi bucket are the same types as those found in a healthy septic system.
    
14. Worm bins are another convenient method for composting indoors. Composting worms completely digest food scraps, producing solid castings which can be used as a soil enrichment for houseplants, lawns or gardens.
    
15. Plastic totes make convenient worm bins. If you make your own, be sure to provide a reservoir for liquid and a way to drain the bin. Tray systems like the Can O Worms are a step up from home-made worm bins, making it much easier to harvest the castings when the worms have finished eating all your food scraps. Holes in each tray allow worms to crawl up to find fresh food in the upper trays, leaving the trays on the bottom full of castings.
16. As with a bokashi bucket, drain liquid from your worm bin every so often. This "worm tea" makes a great liquid fertilizer when diluted with ten parts water to one part worm tea.
    
17. Meat, cheese, and highly acidic foods like pineapple and lemon rinds can cause problems in small worm bins. These food wastes are best handled indoors by bokashi buckets or outdoors in enclosed compost bins like the Jora composter. In general, the larger the worm bin or compost pile, the more variety of materials you can successfully compost. Vegetables, fruits that are not acidic, coffee grounds, and tissue paper are the easiest materials to compost in worm bins. Shredded paper or leaves should be added as a top layer and replaced as necessary.
    
18. Automatic composting machines such as the NatureMill work like waterless garbage disposals. Simply plug them in, toss in kitchen scraps and sawdust pellets, then let them heat and aerate the mixture to produce finished compost every two weeks.
19. NatureMills feature a thick layer of insulation and a small heater, so they can work equally well in heated and unheated spaces. The kitchen may be the most convenient location in terms of adding material to the unit, but a basement or garage may be more convenient in terms of space availability.
20. NatureMills use about 17 watts of electricity, about the same as four strands of energy-efficient LED holiday lights and much less than one strand of inefficient incandescent holiday lights.
21. Besides keeping unnecessary materials out of our landfills and incinerators, winter composting is a great way to get ready for gardening season. Worm castings in particular are great to have on hand when starting seeds. If you plan to start your own seedlings, you can't beat a mix of equal parts potting soil and worm castings to give your plants a healthy start on life.
22. Between four and five gallons of wet kitchen waste produce about one gallon of dry compost in my experience. Assuming you produce one gallon of kitchen scraps every three days, composting for six months would turn 60 gallons of garbage into about 12 gallons of compost. Once you start composting and using compost on your yard and garden, you'll discover that you can always use more. To produce one yard of dry compost, you'd need to start with at least 5,600 pounds of wet kitchen scraps!

More Heat, Less Waste

November's Sustainable Living Tip

Turning down your thermostat during the heating season is the easiest way to save energy. Lowering your setting by one degree for eight hours every night will save one percent on your heating load. For the average Maine household, that will conserve 25 gallons of fuel oil over the season, keeping 550 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere!

But once you've taken the easy step of lowering your thermostats, what else can you do to save energy? Read on for our "greatest hits" list of the most effective ways to enjoy more heat with less waste.

"Greatest Hits" More Heat, Less Waste Ideas

1. If you have an oil boiler or furnace, clean and tune it up every heating season. Watch your technician inspect and clean your boiler once, and you'll have a good understanding of why this is necessary every year!
   
2. If you have a natural gas or propane system, have it inspected annually. These fuels burn more cleanly than heating oil, so you won't have the same loss in efficiency over the course of a heating season. But have a trained professional inspect your system to make sure it is in proper working order nonetheless.
3. Close your flue. A chimney that is open directly to your house, such as in a working fireplace (not a wood stove), is your largest single source of heat loss. Whenever you don't have a fire in your fireplace, the tighter you can close your flue, the better.
4. Cover your windows (part 1). Windows intentionally let energy into your home (in the form of light), but they also unintentionally let energy out. Between September and March, the night is longer than the day here in Maine. If you have curtains or blinds, close them whenever sunlight is not coming in.
5. Cover your windows (part 2). Installing storm windows with good weatherstripping will greatly improve the insulating value of your windows. In older homes, one of the easiest approaches is to install custom-made interior storm windows. These can be made to fit snugly, preventing wind from blowing around loose double hung windows. Install them in the winter, then remove them in warmer weather. Storm windows improve comfort as well as saving energy: they stop cold drafts and they cut down on noise. Interior storm windows are especially helpful in older apartment buildings in urban environments.
6. Cover your windows (part 3). Pay special attention to your indoor humidity levels in rooms where you install insulating drapes or interior storm windows. Your window glass will become much colder, potentially leading to condensation issues. If condensation is a problem, exterior storm windows are a better solution. They will keep your window glass warmer, reducing the condensation problem. Remember, condensation forms when warm moist air reaches a cold surface.
7. Seal your attic hatch. If you have a hatch or door to your unheated attic, make sure it closes securely and has weatherstripping all around it to prevent warm air from escaping up into your attic. For ceiling hatches, a good design is to install weatherstripping around the edge of the hatch and use latches to press the hatch closed on the weatherstripping. Warm air that gets into your attic and reaches the underside of your roof decking will melt snow on your roof, leading to ice dams. Keep warm air out of your attic!
   
8. Seal your foundation walls, windows and doors. If you have a bulkhead door, make sure it has weatherstripping around it. Cold air that seeps in below your house will get sucked up into your home. A tube of caulk and spray foam will go a long way toward preventing frozen pipes, cutting down on cold drafts, and lowering your heating bills.
9. Wrap your ducts and hot water pipes. If you have air ducts or hot water pipes in an unheated part of your home (such as your basement or garage), make sure they are wrapped securely in insulation all the way from the heating source to the destination.
10. Add a mud room. Every house in Maine needs a room for taking off muddy boots! Enclosing a porch so that it acts as an "air lock" will keep cold air from pouring into your home whenever someone comes or goes. It will also cut down on the drafts coming in and around your door all winter long, since wind won't be blowing directly against your exterior door. If you can't add a mud room, an exterior storm door with proper weatherstripping is a good alternative.
11. Hang dry your clothes. You're probably aware that an electric clothes dryer is one of the most power-hungry appliances you can use. But did you ever consider how much air an automatic dryer sucks out of your home? It's about equivalent to leaving a kitchen window wide open. When an automatic dryer runs, it blows hot air out of your home. Cold outside air finds its way in to replace the air that the dryer is sending out. A better alternative is to invest in a high efficiency washing machine that spin dries clothes, then hanging them to finish drying overnight on a wooden drying rack. Drying clothes indoors works especially well during the winter because indoor air humidity levels are low.
12. Clean your screens. Fall is a great time to take down the screens in your windows on the southern side of your house. Clean them and put them away for the winter. Unless you plan on opening your windows, the screens are useless and simply shade sunlight that would otherwise be helping heat up your home. While you're at it, clean your windows, too. You won't notice a huge difference on your heating bill, but every little bit helps! You might also prune branches or bushes that are shading your southern exposure.
13. Look for leaks. As the weather turns colder, air flows more quickly through any gaps in your exterior walls or ceilings. It's easy to feel for cold air leaking in on lower floors, but sometimes more challenging to find how hot air is leaking out upstairs. Just remember that cold air comes in downstairs, and hot air leaves upstairs. If you feel cold air blowing in under a door or around a light switch on an exterior wall, you know that an equal amount of hot air is being squeezed out of your house somewhere else. Spider webs are a good tip off for places where air is leaving. Spiders like to build webs where they will catch dinner, so they look for places where air currents send small insects. Once you find a leak, a bit of caulk is often all that's needed to fix it. If you have access to your attic, you may find that your electricians and plumbers cut holes for their handiwork. These holes are probably letting warm air up into your attic, which can lead to ice dams. You can safely use spray foam to seal gaps around any plumbing or modern electrical wire in good repair. If you find frayed wires or knob and tube wiring (i.e. two wires running through ceramic tubes and wrapped around ceramic knobs), you'd be well advised to call an electrician to replace it. (Knob and tube wiring is safe if properly installed, but often is not properly installed. Hire a professional to inspect it to find out.)
14. See how low you can go. Save energy and money by lowering your thermostat even more. The lower you go, and the longer you stay low, the more you save. If you don't believe it, try experimenting yourself. Most households can safely (i.e. without freezing pipes) turn down their thermostats to 55 degrees at night and during the day when no one is home. You might be able to go even lower. Just make sure everyone in your household is ready for the experience before you touch that thermostat!

Carbon Free Heating

October's Sustainable Living Tip

Instead of burning fossil fuel or wood, use "carbon free" solar energy and clean electricity to heat your home and protect our climate. Start by signing up for clean electricity. Aggressively set back your oil boiler's thermostat. Then stay toasty warm with electric or solar space heaters.

More Facts About "Carbon Free" Heating

1. Burning oil, propane, kerosene, natural gas or wood emits carbon dioxide gas into our atmosphere. Scientists believe that this pollution is accumulating and destabilizing our global climate.
2. You can switch your CMP or Bangor Hydro bill to "clean" electricity that is generated from hydropower dams or wind farms by signing up with Maine Renewable Energy in three easy steps online.
3. Clean electricity is generated from naturally-renewing energy sources without consuming any fuel or producing any air pollution.
4. Maine has abundant and inexhaustible supplies of clean power: water, waves, wind and sun. The more people who sign up for clean electricity, the more capital is available to harness these renewable sources. Paying for clean electricity is investing in the energy future of our state.
   
5. Once you have switched your electricity account to clean electricity, you can use electric heaters for comfort and safety without contributing to climate change, air pollution or resource depletion.
6. If you have an oil boiler, you can easily minimize the amount of heating oil you burn this winter by turning down your thermostat and using electric space heaters instead.
7. Heating with electricity does more to protect our climate and air quality than heating with wood. Burning wood, no matter how efficiently, pumps carbon dioxide and other pollutants into our atmosphere. Trees naturally capture carbon dioxide from the air and store carbon in their tissues; when you cut them down and burn them you release that carbon back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide.
8. Allowing trees to grow allows them to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Until trees reach their maximum stature, they reduce the level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere by storing carbon in their tissues. Trees "clean up" green house gases and help to stabilize our climate. A white oak, for example, can provide 200 years of "carbon cleaning" service if allowed to live its natural lifespan.
   
9. The best use of harvested wood, from the perspective of climate protection, is for furniture or buildings. This keeps the carbon "locked up." Burning wood or allowing it to rot releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
   
10. Whether you live with or without electricity, you can easily and safely heat your home and other buildings with a solar space heater.
11. Solar space heaters are direct air heaters that do not require plumbing or electricity.
12. Solar space heaters are much more affordable than solar domestic hot water systems or solar photovoltaic electric systems. A 1.5 kilowatt solar space heater costs about $2,000 and provides decades of reliable service with no fuel costs.
    
13. A solar space heater can be installed on a sunny southern-facing wall or roof.
14. Solar space heaters blow warm air into your building when the sun shines. A thermal mass, such as a brick interior wall, tile floor, or water barrels strategically placed, absorbs heat during sunny days and releases it at night.
15. Combining solar space heaters, electric space heaters, and good building practices permanently lowers heating costs. Switching fuels (for example, replacing "expensive" electric heat with "cheap" oil heat) only saves money temporarily while the relative price of the energy sources remains constant.
    
16. Eliminating combustion heat (i.e. anything that burns any type of fuel) allows homes to be more snug and safer.
17. Electric space heaters and solar space heaters do not require vents. They do not consume oxygen and do not produce carbon monoxide gas. They do not require the delivery or storage of fuel or wood.
18. You can minimize the risk of pipes freezing by replacing hydronic (water) baseboard heat with electric heat. In a typical hydronic baseboard heating system, pipes filled with water are located around the periphery of the building. If the power fails, the electric pumps used to circulate water through these pipes no longer work. If the temperature drops enough, the pipes burst as the water inside them freezes. Electric heaters are not filled with water. They can tolerate below-freezing temperatures without damage.
19. During the energy crisis of the 1970s, many all-electric homes were built. Unfortunately, many of these homes were not properly weatherized and insulated, so the owners incurred unnecessarily high heating bills. Proper weatherization and insulation can cut heating bills in half.
    
20. If the 80% of Mainers who burn #2 heating oil would switch their electricity accounts to "Maine Clean Power" and replace their oil-fired boilers with electric heaters, we would have an extra $1.5 billion circulating domestically in Maine's economy and we would keep 12 billion pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year.

Weatherize

September's Sustainable Living Tip

"Weatherize" your home by sealing air leaks, controlling moisture and adding insulation. You'll enhance your health and comfort, while saving money and the planet!

More Facts About Weatherization

1. "Weatherizing" a home means making it more comfortable and efficient in both winter and summer by preventing unwanted air leaks, eliminating excessive moisture, and controlling heat flow.
2. Most households spend more on heating and cooling their house than any other use of energy.
3. A typical house that burns fuel for heating releases almost twice as much air pollution annually as a typical car. (By contrast, homes that heat with clean green electricity emit no air pollution.)
   
4. The "mileage" (i.e. energy efficiency) of a home that burns heating oil is called its K-factor, measured in degree days per gallon. The higher the K-factor, the better.
5. Older homes often have a K-factor below 5. Newer homes can achieve K-factors above 10. If you take automatic delivery of heating oil, your bill should list your K-factor. (This is how your oil company determines how often to come fill your tank.)
6. Keep track of your home's K-factor to see whether the weatherization measures you're taking are getting results.
   
7. The best way to start weatherizing a home is to use weather stripping, caulk or spray foam to seal air leaks around doors, windows, sills, electrical outlets, and vent pipes. These are easy projects that a home owner or a handy man can do.
8. Seals around windows and doors eventually wear out, so inspect every year to identify weatherstripping that needs replacing.
9. Sealing air leaks along the walls in an unheated basement is especially important to avoid freezing pipes. Older homes have gaps where the wood sill meets the stone or concrete foundation. The most effective way to seal these is to use a spray foam gun kit instead of wasteful disposable spray cans.
10. Forty percent of all air leaks occur in the attic. Be careful when sealing leaks around chimneys; if you don't understand your local fire code hire a certified weatherization technician to handle air sealing your attic.
11. Control moisture in kitchens and bathrooms by installing fans that exhaust to the outside.
    
12. Check your attic and walls to see if yours is among the 65% of homes that need more insulation. You should have about 16 inches of insulation in your attic.
    
13. The best place to add insulation is in your attic, but do this after you've sealed air leaks. If you hire an insulation company, ask them about air sealing. They should list specific steps they'll take to seal air leaks. If they don't, consider hiring someone else.
    
14. Oak Ridge National Laboratory recommends insulating an existing home in Maine's climate to the following standards: attic R-49 (about 16 inches of cellulose), walls R-13, floors R-30, and basement and crawlspace walls R-25.
15. If your basement is unheated, either insulate the floor above it, or the walls. Be sure to seal air leaks first before installing batt insulation, or use a spray foam that will simultaneously seal air leaks and insulate.
16. All windows at night, and north-facing windows all the time, suffer a net loss of heat via radiation. To minimize heat loss, install storm windows (either exterior or interior) and close drapes or blinds whenever possible.
17. Because heating systems are most efficient when properly sized, and are properly sized according to the heat loss characteristics of the building they heat, you'll save the most money and energy if you reduce your heat loss through insulating and air sealing before replacing your heating system.
18. If you heat with oil, gas or wood, ensure that your flue is providing a proper draw to exhaust combustion fumes. Fresh air must be available for combustion to occur safely; many heating systems draw their combustion air from the heated living space and exhaust it outdoors. (In other words, they suck cold air into your home.)
19. Solar and electric space heaters are simpler, safer and cleaner than boilers or furnaces. Since they do not burn anything, they do not draw in cold air. If you can switch to clean electric heat, you can dramatically improve your environmental profile and live comfortably in a very energy efficient home.
    
20. Very tightly air sealed homes should install passive ventilation or heat recovery ventilators to provide fresh air.
21. Tightly sealed homes should use safe cleaners, paints and adhesives that don't diminish indoor air quality.
22. Properly designed super-insulated passive solar homes in Maine's climate do not need central heating systems because sunlight provides the baseline heat. Electric space heaters supplement the sun's energy.
    
23. The U.S. Department of Energy's EnergySmart Home Scale (E-Scale) is a way to rate a home's energy performance. The typical new home is a 100 on the E-Scale, whereas the typical existing home is a 130 (i.e. uses 30% more energy). An Energy Star home is an 85 on the scale.
24. By installing solar panels, wind turbines and other renewable energy systems, a home can generate its own energy, thereby lowering its score on the E-Scale.
    
25. One industry observer predicts that by 2050, 67% of new housing starts will have an E-Scale score of 0 or better (i.e. produce as much or more energy than they use).

Pack a Lunch, Save a Lot

Get into the habit of packing a lunch in reusable lunchware. You'll save money, eat healthier, and help clean up our landscape.

More Facts About Packed Lunches

1. A recent article in Forbes magazine listed packing your own lunch as the number one way to save money at your job, with an estimated annual savings of $780.
2. Packing your own lunch makes it easier for you to eat a healthy mid-day meal because you can control your portion size, include a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, and avoid processed foods.
3. If everyone used reusable lunchware, we could keep billions of disposable cups, utensils and wrappers from littering our landscape and clogging our landfills.
4. Eating lunch within walking distance helps reduce traffic congestion at one of the busiest times of day. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, more car trips are taken per hour during lunch time (noon to 1 pm) than during the morning commute hours (7 am - 9 am).
5. The United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service provides several recommendations for "bag" lunches: pack just the amount of perishable food that can be eaten for lunch so you won't have to worry about the safety of leftovers, include a frozen gel pack or frozen drink to keep food cold, pack your lunch in an insulated lunch box, or pack items that don't require refrigeration, such as whole fruits and vegetables, hard cheese, peanut butter and jelly, breads, and crackers.
6. Rigid containers, such as stainless steel tins, keep everything from getting smooshed, making it easy to enjoy a healthy salad and fresh fruit every day.
7. Ramit Sethi, the author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, suggests starting by deciding how many times each week you will pack your lunch, and how many times you will eat out. That way, you can plan ahead so you aren't stressed out every morning trying to put together a lunch for the day.
8. Having two or three sets of reusable lunchware makes your life easier because you don't have to worry about washing your lunchware every single day. If you forget or get too busy to wash things one evening, you'll still have a clean set ready to use the next day. (You will eventually have to wash them all, though!)
9. If you're really pressed for time in the mornings, pack up your lunch the night before and put it in the fridge. Until you get into the habit of taking your lunch with you, a reminder note on your door ("Don't forget lunch is in the fridge!") might be a good idea.
10. Packing your own tap water in a stainless steel bottle is by most accounts the cheapest and healthiest option for drinking. (Buy a water filter if you're concerned about chlorine or other contaminants in your tap water.) You risk cracking a metal bottle if you put it in the freezer, but you can fill it with ice cubes to help keep your food cool. By lunch time, the ice will have melted and your water will be ready to drink.
11. Signing up for a community supported agriculture (CSA) share, or visiting a farmers market, is a great way to buy fresh local food in season for a week's worth of lunches.
12. One reason people don't bring their own lunches to work is that they don't want to miss out on going out to eat with their colleagues. If you can change the culture of your workplace, people can bring their lunches and eat them together. Lunch time is important for socializing and networking; in a "green" workplace, you can bring your own lunch and eat it, too, without being left out of the group.
13. A "naked" lunch rule will help you make sure you really are saving money, eating healthier, and keeping our landscape clean. Ideally, everything you pack in your lunch will be "naked", i.e. it won't be in its own individual wrapper. For example, whole fruits and vegetables, sandwiches, and your water or other beverage will go "naked" into your reusable lunchware. Anything that comes in its own plastic, paper or foil wrapper is likely to be more expensive, less nutritious, and (thanks to the extra wrapper) more wasteful than a naked alternative.
14. Don't forget to bring home your peels, pits, paper napkins and any left overs. It all makes great compost!

Home-Grown Fertilizer

July's Sustainable Living Tip

Make your own fertilizer from kitchen scraps with a worm bin. Simply feed your worms shredded paper and food waste, then harvest liquid worm tea and solid worm castings. Spray worm tea directly on the leaves of your plants or dilute it one part tea to ten parts water for use every other week when watering. Use worm castings as a top dressing for your soil, or mix one to one with potting soil when starting seeds.

More Facts About Fertilizer

1. Packaged fertilizer is labeled according to the major plant nutrients it provides: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K).
   
2. Fertilizers may also provide the secondary nutrients calcium, sulfur and magnesium.
3. Beyond the major and secondary nutrients, plants also need micronutrients including boron, chlorine, manganese, iron, zinc, copper, molybdenum and selenium.
4. Home-made fertilizers such as worm castings include not just the major and secondary nutrients, but a wide array of micronutrients.
5. The key to healthy plants is healthy soil. You lose nutrients from your soil each year when you harvest crops. Adding about an inch of compost every year to your soil replenishes the organic matter and many of the nutrients needed to sustain plant growth.
6. Although our planet's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen (more than 78%), it is in a highly stable form that is difficult for plants to use. Nitrogen must be converted (or "fixed") to ammonia before plants can use the nitrogen to create DNA and proteins.
   
7. The nitrogen in synthetic fertilizers is often fixed using natural gas. In the Haber-Bosch process, nitrogen gas from the air (N2) is combined with hydrogen from natural gas to form ammonia (NH3). This ammonia is then oxidized to create various types of synthetic fertilizers.
8. Each year between 3 and 5% of the world's supply of natural gas is consumed to produce synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.
9. Nitrogen fixation can also occur naturally without the need for natural gas.
   
10. Natural sources of nitrogen fixation include bacteria and plants in the legume family (clover, beans, alfalfa, lupines and peanuts) that have formed symbiosis with bacteria that fix nitrogen. Cultivating natural nitrogen fixation reduces or eliminates the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.
11. Until the 1950s, farmers typically purchased fertilizers tailored to their soil needs from small manufacturers within a 100-mile radius.
    
12. In the 1960s, concentrated phosphates began replacing natural phosphate rock as a result of efforts by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Land Grant Colleges to promote higher analysis fertilizers. The idea was to deliver more phosphate to farmers at lower cost, resulting in the centralization of production of phosphate fertilizer.
    
13. By 2005, Florida produced 75% of the phosphate rock mined in the United States, all of which was converted to phosphoric acid to facilitate the production of concentrated phosphate fertilizers.
14. Unlike nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium do not seem capable of being fixed from atmospheric sources. Instead, these elements cycle through a biological process that requires direct replenishment to the soil. Composting yard and kitchen scraps is a sustainable method of returning these vital nutrients to your garden soil.