My roommate and I were surprised to find a letter a few days ago from Conway Corp saying that we were under-billed for the first three months of our service. Apparently this happened to other customers too. Once I got past the fact that we were going to owe more for our past usage, I began to look at the statement they sent us and noticed something rather encouraging. We did better in saving electricity than I first thought. Here is what we used each month:
May - 490 kWh
June - 700 kWh
July - 590 kWh

The cool thing about these numbers is the comparison of May to July. In May my roommate and I were very rarely in our apartment. When we were gone on trips we turned off the air conditioner and the lights so little electricity would be used. In July we only had a 100 kWh increase when the temperature was higher and we were in the apartment more. I think this shows how much we conserved when trying to be green.

Another important thing to note: Conway EcoFest 2009. This will take place on September 12 at Laurel Park. It looks like this is going to be a great event for people interested in sustainable options and celebrating a community's commitment to the environment. There are going to be different exhibitors, an Alleycat Bicycle Race, recycle relay race, and a lot more! The website has great information, but the EcoFest still needs some more help to be a huge success. Check out this link to find out how you can help out!

So I am back to school today, and over the weekend I was around the dorm when people were moving back in for the year. I was reminded of how much waste can come out of move-in day. UCA had several large dumpsters placed near dorms throughout the campus. I walked by one and saw tons of cardboard, plastic, and Styrofoam thrown in there. UCA had a great recycling program and I believe a lot of what as in that dumpster could have been recycled. On a more positive note, I noticed that on the backs of doors in one residence hall (I don't know about others) there was a friendly note reminded residents to use the recycling room located in their hall. I know that when I lived in the dorm, my roommate and I had two large bins - one for paper and one for plastic. We never really had aluminum recycling, though it was available. UCA and Conway do not accept glass for recycling, so we had to take our glass waste elsewhere. I am glad to see UCA stepping up and encouraging more students to recycle.

Over the weekend, I had the chance to visit two eco-friendly building projects in North Little Rock and Little Rock. In NLR, there are the City Grove Townhomes. These townhomes are LEED Gold certified and seem to be a great place to live. Several of the units have already been sold and they are working on building more townhomes and finishing the common areas. Check out the website to learn more about the eco-friendly design aspects. If you get a chance to tour the model home, there are signs in every part of the house explaining the different environmental design features.

The next we visited the Vertical Lofts in Little Rock. These are located across the street from the train station and Episcopal Collegiate. These townhomes are LEED Platinum certified. They have some really cool features and great views of downtown little rock. Look for them below! It is so nice to have both of these eco-friendly living options in our area.

When I opened my mailbox and saw that the utility bill was there I was nervous to open it see what our usage was. I would have been displeased to find we used more electricity in July compared to June when my roommate and I were not being green. But I had nothing to worry about! In June we used about 700 kWh. In July we only used 590 kWh. Turning off lights, turning up the temperature setting for the air conditioner, and using power strips to prevent "ghost power" really helped lower out electricity consumption. I don't know what a bare minimum of usage would be, but I don't necessarily think that is as important. I wanted to show that by taking a few small steps it is possible to see results even after one month. One quick note about comparing utility usage throughout the year. I compared June and July. However, it is probably more accurate to compare months from one year to the next. For example, to really see how much I reduced my power consumption I would need to compare July 2009 with July 2008. Since, I didn't live in my apartment at that time I am not able to do that. But it is something to keep in mind. Thanks to Ed Begley, Jr. for this great tip from his book, Living Like Ed (2008).

Now my thoughts on water consumption are a little more general right now because I don't have specific information on how much we used in June or July. But I do know that we did a few things to hopefully make a difference. We tried to take "navy showers." I have mentioned these before. I like taking them because they conserve water, but sometimes it can be difficult to convince myself it is a good thing to do in the early morning when I wake up. I don't know about anyone else, but a nice hot shower goes a long way in starting my day. In spite of that, I was able to bring myself to save water, electricity in heating water, and time by not taking long showers. In the kitchen we were careful to only run our dishwasher when it was full. Washing partial loads is a waste of water. If there was some dish or pot that I really needed, I would quickly wash it in the sink. The same thing goes for the laundry room - don't do partial loads! I also washed everything in cold water. I didn't have any shrinking or color problems with my clothes. Another idea is to use eco-friendly laundry soap. We bought a big bottle of soap from Seventh Generation. If I remember correctly it was about $15 for at least a gallon jug (there might have been more in it). This has lasted us well over a month and we are still using it. The soap is biodegradable and not harmful to the environment.

Finally, veganism. Some people might think I am crazy, but I have thoroughly enjoyed being vegan. I haven't been craving meat or cheese or eggs too much. I have been trying to figure out how I felt about my diet, and I think I have it. As long as I can find something to eat that really makes a meal I am perfectly fine with veganism. I have had to plan my meals more and cook for myself more. Not only do I get to make things exactly as I want, I also saved money from not eating out as much. When I did go out to eat, I would have to really focus on what I could have on a menu. For this reason, vegetarian fajitas at a Mexican restaurant with no cheese or sour cream became a favorite option. As for all of my friends and family, everyone was accommodating and helped me stick to it. The encouragement was very appreciated. One day when I was browsing different vegan products at Whole Foods in Little Rock, I found a line of cookies from the Alternative Baking Company, Inc. They had some great flavors like Phenomenal Pumpkin Spice and, of course, a great chocolate chip cookie. But what caught my attention almost more than the delicious cookie was a short sentence on the wrapper. In response to the question "Why Vegan?", is the following sentence: "No single food choice has a farther-reaching and more profoundly positive impact on our health, the environment, and all of life on Earth than choosing vegan." I couldn't have said it better myself! I am still vegan and I plan on keeping it up for a little while longer. The next challenge in this is going to be when school starts. I will be on campus more and cannot eat in the cafeteria. I am trying to find a good eco-friendly light-weight lunch container so I can carry my lunch to campus with me. I don't want to waste plastic and paper bags on my lunch. I will let you know what I find.

I had a blast keeping this blog this summer and doing my little experiment. I hope some people start being a little more green, or find the encouragement to keep being green. I plan on keeping this blog going throughout the rest of my honors thesis project. I have some great plans for this year, and I am excited to share them with everyone. Keep reading!

So I reached the end of the month. I am probably going to make my "end of the month" post two separate entries. I am waiting on my statement from the utility company and I want that to compare to last month. Some general thoughts about the month: I enjoyed July more than the previous month because I was able to lower my environmental impact. My dad told me a while ago that I should not feel guilty for not recycling, but I still did. This month, though, I thoroughly enjoyed not putting each and every piece of recycling in the trash. My roommate and I probably emptied our recycling bin three times. Even with both of us being sick, we only had two kitchen-size trash bags. Another reason why we didn't have much trash is that we kept all of our food scraps in a plastic container in the freezer. My roommate's mom takes our scraps for her compost bin. So pretty much, the only thing in our trash can was anything that was not plastic, aluminum, (clean) paper, (clean)cardboard, glass, hazardous materials (batteries), and compost/raw food waste. This was a noticeable difference compared to June when everything was trash.

Another quick thought about this month. I cut the number of miles I drove almost in half this month. In June I drove about 1600 miles. In July I only drove around 900 miles. This also means I only had to put gas in my car 4 times. I saved about $40 in fuel costs. Again, I consistently practiced fuel saving driving habits. I drove between 60 to 65 miles per hour on the interstate and slowly accelerated after stoplights and stop sign. I also tended to coast when possible. Turning my car off when waiting for someone in a store also helped save gas. It was more difficult for me to conserve fuel than to recycle, which came very naturally for me. It became very apparent to me how fast-paced our culture is in the US. I felt like I was driving so slow when driving 65mpg, but only because people were passing me going 75-80mph. Does anyone remember when the speed limit was 55? Maybe that wasn't a bad idea.

Ok, up next I need to talk about electricity, water, and veganism!