Australia

What Americans Can Learn From How the Rest of the World Saves Energy

Aaron Crowe — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 10:36:42 +0000

Most Americans aren't as devoted as Ed Begley, Jr. to conserving energy that they'll ride a bike to create energy to run a toaster. But travel abroad to Europe, Australia, or any other developed country, and you'll see that much of the rest of the world is serious about saving energy and the world's resources.

The United States is known for doing a poor job at being energy efficient. In a report about a dozen countries with the biggest economies, the United States' energy efficiency efforts were only ahead of Brazil, Canada, and Russia, according to the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, or ACEEE. The United Kingdom ranked first, followed by Germany, Italy, Japan, and France.

While not everyone can live near an efficient public transportation system, such as Sydney's rail service, or can afford to rebuild their home with solar power, there are some things that much of the rest of the world does that Americans either don't do, or if they do, don't do in great numbers. Here are a few. (See also: 5 Ways to Save Water, Energy, Money, and the World All in One Afternoon)

Use Clotheslines

While these are a common way in America to avoid running wet clothes in a dryer, they don't seem to be as common as they are in Europe or elsewhere. Clothes dryers are often small in other parts of the world — to save money and space — and thus encourage people to hang clothes out to dry.

Pay Higher Gas Prices

While not as cheap as Venezuela, gasoline in America is relatively cheap when compared to other countries. A $4 gallon in the U.S. can cost double in Europe, due partly to higher taxes. Paying more for gas can have two positive results: You'll either walk or take public transportation to get anywhere, or it will make buying a car with better gas mileage look like a deal. If a U.S. company can make cars for Europe that get 62 miles per gallon, it can do the same for Americans.

Make Buying Solar Power Easy

On a recent trip to Australia, I noticed a mom-and-pop store on a corner selling home solar power kits. It wasn't a huge warehouse with miles of supplies, and it didn't have professional looking signs, just a simple window sign offering solar panels for the home. While Home Depot once sold do-it-yourself solar panels (that were geared more toward contractors than DIYers), installation and sales is often done in the U.S. by professionals who sell to the masses. You don't see small stores on American street corners selling solar power kits.

Practice Rain Water Collection

Collecting rain water and saving it for watering plants or pumping it inside a home to flush toilets or wash clothes is a great idea in dry climates, but can also be used in the U.S. as a way to save water. Large tanks that hold at least 10,000 gallons are common outside Australian homes.

Automatically Turn Off Lights

While staying in a hotel for a week on a recent trip overseas, each time I wanted any of the lights on in the suite, I had to put the door card key into a slot just inside the door that would let the power turn on. It required me to be in the room to turn on any lights, and all of the lights turned off when I removed the card key and left the room. It was a simple way to turn off every light without having to remember to do it or go around to every light and switch it off. About a month later I stayed at a hotel in America. While I didn't expect to find the same device, there was nothing to prevent me from leaving every light on before going out for the evening.

Use Smaller Refrigerators

Everything is bigger in America: homes, cars, kitchens, bedrooms, and even everyday appliances such as dryers and refrigerators. Whether it's because their homes are smaller or they like to shop more often for fresh groceries, Europeans typically have smaller refrigerators. After air conditioners, refrigerators are the second-biggest users of electricity.

Beyond tougher regulations and fewer resources, the rest of the world may also have a leg up on America in saving energy because they live in smaller communities and smaller populations. America is such an expansive land that even with 314 million people, there's room to stretch out and forget about the millions of people you share the country with. Europe has more than double the population, but it's split among many countries, giving a feeling of intimacy in a smaller geographic area and possibly the incentive not to waste energy because you care about taking care of your neighbors.

During my trip to Australia this summer, I noticed a small benefit of going to a city park in Brisbane, a park similar to one you might find in America. Free gas grills are available for the public to use at these city parks, with a nearby sign asking users to clean up after themselves and keep the grills clean for the next user.

I never saw a dirty grill while there, leaving me to conjecture that no one wanted to leave a mess for the next person to clean. Americans may keep public barbecues clean for the next user in some parts of the country, but I haven't seen it happen where I've been. It's not that Americans don't care for others, but that taking the little steps to take care of the environment because it will help you and your neighbor isn't as common in the U.S. as it is elsewhere. It's a small step to leave something in the same (or better) condition than you found it. It's only an example, but cleaning up after yourself at a public park can carry over to energy consumption and other aspects of life.

This article is from Aaron Crowe of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Saving the Planet - One Drop at a Time

Nora Dunn — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:46:41 +0000

More and more catastrophic storms. Global warming. Droughts and floods. It seems that we have entered an era of extremes in planet earth’s saga.

With global environmental issues becoming bigger and harder to ignore, there are things we all can work on to help do our part. You may argue that we should stop making “the little guy” pay and change their habits when it is really the big corporations who exponentially consume that should be held to a higher standard.

But truly – if we are to continue to foster a planet for future generations to enjoy, we have to start somewhere. Being an example and teaching our children how to conserve resources is the first step to getting the “big guys” to listen; some of our children will eventually be in those positions of power and influence to enforce greater changes than we could ever imagine. All we have to do is give them the proper building blocks.

I am currently traveling through Australia, a country that has suffered terrible drought for over a decade now. So here in Oz, water conservation is not a nice thing to do for the environment; it is a necessity.

Here are a few ways you can save the planet, one drop at a time:

2 Minute Showers

You heard me: two minutes. Public showers at some campgrounds in Australia actually have timers. If you aren’t done in the allotted time, you will be one soapy dude for the rest of the day.

At home, you don’t necessarily have to complete your shower in two minutes. But see if you can run the water for just two minutes by turning it on and off as needed. Myscha wrote a great article about how to get the greatest use out of the least amount of water while sudsing up.

Brushing Teeth

I’m sure it goes without saying, but if you aren’t tuned in yet, let’s get with the program! Turn off the water while you are brushing your teeth, okay? It involves no sacrifice other than the laborious action of turning a tap on and off a few more times.

Washing Dishes

For anybody who has camped and had to haul their dishwashing water from a nearby river or tap or wash using a sink that’s way too small, you are already a good chunk of the way towards washing your dishes in a water-friendly way. Every kitchen is set up differently for washing dishes, so techniques for how to get those plates clean while using the least amount of water will vary.

One technique I have found useful is to fill the sink with rinse water (not too much!), and rinse dishes creatively instead of running the tap to do so. Use glasses and bowls to scoop up the water and pour it over the awkward dishes, killing two birds (or rather, rinsing two dishes) in one shot. And at the end, if your rinse water isn’t too grimy, leave it in the sink to soak your next set of dirty dishes.

For those with dish washers, seriously consider cutting down or eliminating your usage. It is a pig on both power and water, while ultimately being totally unnecessary for survival. At the very least, only use it when it is absolutely fully packed. Even then…

Watering Your Garden

Using a hose to water your garden is the perfect way to waste a ton of water. Instead, try using a bucket and scoop. You will concentrate your watering efforts on exactly the plants and spots that need watering, and you’ll get better exercise hauling the bucket. In Australia, this is how even some commercial growers water their produce; so you can too.

If you are an avid floral gardener (and thus not able to consume the product of your watering efforts as with a veggie patch), consider the types of plants you are landscaping with. If you live in a dry climate and plant with a water-hungry plant, you are doing no favors to anybody and satisfying no more than your own sense of aesthetics. Try instead learning about drought-bed techniques, and planting things that do well even in dry conditions.

For those with a new property and a small patch of lawn, try not laying sod down at all. There are lots of grass-free landscaping techniques that are very attractive, virtually maintenance free, and dry as a bone.

If It’s Yellow, Let It Mellow

Do you have to flush the toilet every time you pee? Arguably, no. Ladies: don’t use a half a roll of toilet paper (one or two squares will do – this is also environmentally friendly) to wipe, and you can get lots of extra mileage out of a toilet flush without clogging the pipes.

Catch the drips

Most taps drip, even if very slowly. Think about all the taps you have; outside taps for hoses are the biggest culprits. Bathtubs are close followers. Catch those drips! It may not be aesthetically appealing to have a bowl or bucket under the tap, but at least perfectly potable water won’t be wasted.

Get Creative

Every time you turn on the tap, think about how you can either reduce your usage, or get some extra mileage out of it by reusing it. Some people water their gardens with their gray water (from washing dishes with biodegradable soap). Others install water-saving taps and pressure reducers. By calculating how every single drop of water gets used, you can actually turn water conservation into a creative exercise that is stimulating and even enjoyable! Present it as a challenge for the whole family to participate in. Put the right slant on it, and saving the planet – one drop at a time – can create a more sustainable world for us to live in, and actually be fun too.

This article is from Nora Dunn of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

When’s a good time to buy Australian wine? Now. And hurry.

Ed O'Reilly — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:52:42 +0000

When I first moved to Australia I noticed 2 things about the wine: there was a lot to choose from, and it costs twice as much (if not more) than the exact same Australian wine brands I’d bought back in NY. The selection is mostly a great variety from Australian and New Zealand vineyards, and the price is largely due to taxes. Thankfully, because of a glut in production, there was good wine to be found at a more reasonable price in cleanskins .

But now it looks like the days of the $7 bottle of wine are drying up.

Last week, I spent a few days in the Southern Highlands, where I tasted some excellent wine at the Blue Metal Vineyard. There, I talked to Chris about their wines and the state of how the years of hot, dry weather has affected both the quality and quantity of Australian wine, and also what the coming year will be like.

The drought has badly affected, among many things, the wine grape harvest, and there is speculation that the 2008 yield could be less than half the normal volume. This, naturally, puts vineyards in a position to better control (i.e raise) prices. But besides the expected price hike, it means that those tasty cleanskins will be unavailable.

“I like to think about the life of wine. How it's a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it's an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I'd opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity.”
- From “Sideways ”

According to the Australian government, cleanskins are not available for export, so for my Australian mates: stock up now, while the cleanskins are still on the shelves. And for my International friends: you might want to grab a few Aussie favorites from your local bottle shop and hang on to them, as prices are expected to soar.

And despite the disappointing news about the 2008 wines, Chris assured me that Blue Metal won’t be raising their prices. Good on ya, Chris!

This article is from Ed O'Reilly of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Local Flavor

Ed O'Reilly — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 01:36:28 +0000

It was time again to stock up on some things, and so this past weekend I went to my usual places: the fish market in Pyrmont (where one employee asked me how work was going since the last time I saw him), the bakery in Coogee (where the owner told me how the surf was that day) and a stop for a long black at one of the many sidewalk cafes with a great view of the ocean in Bronte. There, I talked to a couple sitting next to me about some places in NYC they might want to visit on their upcoming trip to America. I wrote down the address of a couple of my old favorite haunts and they were off with, “Cheers, mate!”

On Sunday, I took a short ride over to the farmer’s market on the grounds of Fox Studios for some locally-grown produce (gotta get there early), then went into Chinatown for some loose Gunpowder green tea.

Sound like a lot of running around for just a few simple items? Not really. I get out for a couple hours, the distances aren’t really an issue, the scenery can’t be beat and I save a little money on what I buy.

But more importantly, I mix and mingle.

The value lies not in what you buy, or how much it costs; the true value is in simply reconnecting with other people.

Here in Australia, “small” merchants have not been run out of business by large, impersonal corporate franchises and “super-stores”. On the contrary: the small, privately-owned shops thrive, most people tend to buy local and – as a bonus – people get to know each other.

The atmosphere of a true village is alive and well with the ubiquitous cafes, intimate regional restaurants and independently-owned shops and markets offering everything you’d find in a supermarket or mall – but includes the opportunity for a more interpersonal experience.

This article is from Ed O'Reilly of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: