Energy Conservation On The Road
Transportation accounts for more than 60% of the energy consumed in Hawai‘i. While air transportation uses the largest portion (nearly 40%), trucks, buses, and cars consume roughly 20%. According to the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation, the number of registered vehicles on O‘ahu alone has almost doubled in the past 20 years. So taking steps to use fuel more efficiently on the road is a great way to help shrink Hawaii’s carbon footprint, and stay green.
- Walk or bike when you aren’t in a hurry or have shorter distances to travel.
- Carpool, vanpool, or take the bus whenever you can.
- Keep your car or truck tuned up to maximize fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
- Make sure your tires are properly inflated, which can reduce your emissions by as much as 3%.
- Trade your gas guzzler for a fuel-efficient car, a hybrid, a flexible fuel vehicle, or a clean diesel vehicle (which would allow you to use bio-diesel).
- Buy a motorcycle or moped.
- Driving calmly and sensibly can improve your gas mileage by 33% at highway speeds and by 5% around town.
- Shed some weight. Leave your toys out of the car, because an extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your mileage by up to 2%.
- Avoid idling. Idling gets zero miles per gallon. The bigger your engine, the more gas you waste when idling.
- Go A/C free. Using air-conditioning dramatically reduces your mileage, especially in stop-and-go city traffic.
Earth Day 2010
Earth Day offers up activities and events for everyone, but to get the most out of your experience it’s important to choose an issue that means something on a personal level. Find your passion so you will stay green on Earth Day and Every Day.
Challenge: Habitat loss is the main reason so many species in the world become endangered. With nowhere to live, these animals can’t survive.
Pledge: Turn your backyard into an official Wildlife Habitat. Even the smallest garden can sustain local fauna, and you can implement sustainable gardening methods for an even greener green space.
Challenge: The steady decline in the world’s forests has had a huge impact on the Earth, from the release of carbon dioxide that encourages global warming to the loss of countless animal habitats.
Pledge: Planting trees is a great Earth Day tradition.
Challenge: The variety of animals, plants, insects, and sea life in the world isn’t just a coincidence. The biodiversity of life on the planet represents the health of the planet as a whole.
Pledge: Find a local land trust to volunteer with, and educate yourself as to what’s going on around you, what’s threatened, and what’s responsible for those threats.
Challenge: Global warming is the biggest issue facing our planet today, but it’s also one of the most controversial. Many people deny that it’s even happening, or blame it on the Earth’s natural biorhythms.
Pledge: Study up on the problem and prepare yourself to politely counteract the next person who tells you global warming is a lie.
Challenge: Along with saving water, it’s equally important to keep the water we do have clean. Litter, chemical waste, industrial run-off, and other improperly disposed of trash can harm sea life.
Pledge: Grab a pair of old sneakers and find (or start) a clean-up initiative at a local stream, river, or pond.
Challenge: If it’s true that you are what you eat, then you might want to take a second look at ingredients labels. Eating organic food from local farms and orchards is better for your body, the local economy, and the Earth.
Pledge: Volunteer to get your hands dirty at an organic farm in your neighborhood, planting fruits, vegetables, and herbs that you can enjoy.
Kauai Efficient Appliances
Appliances account for about 35% of your total electricity bill on Kauai, but you can reduce the amount of power they use by upgrading to new, energy efficient Energy Star models. Some of the new appliances work better, look better, and have more features yet consume half of the electricity of an older model. Switching from a 1990 refrigerator to a 2010 Energy Star model could save you about $200 per year. Or maybe you no longer need that old second refrigerator? The old beast probably costs you a fortune, particularly if you have it out in the hot carport or garage. In fact, upgrading your primary refrigerator to a larger, Energy Star refrigerator will be a savings over two smaller inefficient refrigerators.
When buying a new appliance, consider the energy efficiency of the item along with the sale price. This is like looking at the miles per gallon when buying a new car. The decision you make today will affect your electricity bill for years to come. The cost of energy efficient appliances is typically higher than standard models, but the money saved over time will more than cover the initial cost. To sweeten the deal, local energy companies often provide cash rebates for qualifying energy efficient appliances, including ceiling fans, clothes washers, dish washers, refrigerators, and room air conditioners.
Energy Star appliances are about 25% more efficient than average appliances. Read the Energy Guide labels to compare estimated annual operating costs between comparable models in order to select the most efficient appliance for your money. The Energy Guide labels are required on water heaters, refrigerators, freezers, clothes washers, dishwashers, and room air conditioners, and is only awarded to appliances that significantly exceed the minimum national standards.
Kauai Recycling and Composting
Composting is nature’s own way of recycling. It is the controlled decomposition of organic material such as leaves, twigs, grass clippings, and vegetable food waste. It also helps to keep the high volume of organic material out of landfills while turning it into a useful product. A recent waste study shows that over 30% of the household waste on Kaua’i is compostable organic waste.
With compost, you are creating rich humus for your lawn and garden, adding nutrients to your plants, and helping retain moisture in the soil. You are also introducing beneficial organisms to the soil. Microscopic organisms in compost help aerate the soil, break down organic material for plant use, and ward off plant disease. Composting offers a natural alternative to chemical fertilizers, making it good for the environment.
There are several methods for creating and maintaining a simple and effective home composting system. If you’re interested in a home composting bin, please call the County Recycling Office at 241-5120 to make an appointment to watch a 20 minute training video and pickup a free composting bin.
Examples of compost ingredients:
Carbon (brown dry organic matter)
- dried leaves
- shredded paper
- wood chips
- dried grass
Nitrogen (wet green organic matter)
- fruit peelings
- kitchen vegetable scraps
- coffee grounds
- fresh plants
For more information, visit the county’s Kauai recycling website.
Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative
The Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative pledges to obtain 70% of its total energy needs by 2030 – 40% from renewable electricity generation and the remaining 30% from energy efficiency. The big push to go green is natural for Hawaii, since it depends almost entirely on imported oil for its vehicles and power plants. The state imports over 50 million barrels of oil, and Hawaii residents already pay the highest pump prices and electricity rates in the country.
But, Hawaii is hoping to become the nation’s green energy capital. The policies stem from an agreement Hawaii signed with the Department of Energy in 2008. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in 2007 about 6.5% of Hawaii’s electricity came from renewable sources other than hydroelectric power. Hawaii’s small size and unique geography could prove advantageous in the race for energy independence. With just 1.3 million inhabitants, its energy consumption is small, and the islands have abundant solar, wind, geothermal, and wave resources.
The state this year began requiring that all new homes be built with solar water heaters. Hawaii is working to build a network of recharging stations to jump-start mass use of electric vehicles on the islands. Meanwhile, the state’s public utilities commission is devising a compensation system to encourage homeowners and businesses to go solar by paying them to generate green electricity. The state is looking into building a 30-mile undersea cable to link proposed wind farms on Lanai and Molokai into the electric grids on Oahu and Maui. A local company is working to provide air conditioning in downtown Honolulu buildings using chilly sea water pumped from three miles out in the ocean. And Hawaii’s own Gas Co. is using municipal solid waste and animal fat to make synthetic natural gas to supply energy to its customers.
Although Hawaii’s efforts to green itself won’t make much of a dent in the world’s total carbon emissions, environmentalists hope the state can prove what’s possible. The goal is to transform the nation’s most energy-dependent state into its cleanest and most sustainable by adopting policies and technologies that can serve as a model for the rest of the globe.
Nominate Best Of Green
Who do you think should be nominated for the Best of Green Awards at TreeHugger? Do you know of a green product, design, company, event, or concept that deserves recognition for the positive environmental change it has enacted? In the second annual Best of Green Awards, they are looking to bestow top honors on the people, places, and things that are helping move sustainability into the mainstream. Who should win the best pre-fab architecture, the best magazine that gives a damn, the best spa, the best biomimicry, the greenest clothing designs, the best electric scooter, the best green advocate, the best industrial design, the best biofuels?
Last year, more than 170 prizes were awarded in eight different themes. To make a nomination, pick from one of the eight general themes in which your suggestion belongs, enter the name of your nominee, and submit your form. Suggest as many nominees as you like (only one submission per nominee per person) through February 22.
Vote the greenest of green in:
Travel+Nature
Science+Tech
Culture+Celebrity
Design+Architecture
Cars+Transportation
Fashion+Beauty
Food+Health
Business+Politics
