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Edited on Wed Jan-14-04 04:12 PM by jobycom
My car rating and my house size drove it up, but it doesn't ask about things like recycled product use, consumerism, etc. I do well there. And I make decisions at work that dramatically reduce their paper use, which is a lot. And living in a smaller house doesn't automatically mean a smaller footprint. My house is well insulated, and when I've made alterations or additions to it, I've done so using reclaimed materials, energy efficient products (they do take that into account), or other material-reducing methods. I recently expanded my house (actually still in progress). I built onto an existing concrete porch slab so I didn't cover more ground, I used windows and wood from Habitat for Humanities (saved a lot that way, too, though it was harder to fit together), used materials off my own house where I had to remove siding and such. I used very little additional wood, reused a lot of nails, reused insulation, all from the original house. I designed the windows and skylights to make use of winter sun, and to be shaded by trees during the summer. And I left the exposed slab as the floor, so I saved carpet or wood flooring use. I even used paint that was left over from other projects, and even left over from the previous owner. I mixed a lot of small amounts of paint together. It produced a nice color, too.
Even on furniture and shelving, I'm using salvaged stuff, mostly. I painted old pieces of furniture rather than buy new. For my shelves, I bought old 9" closet doors from HH, and am going to use them. I bought a matress made of recycled plastic materials. I've made a great effort at every step to have as little impact as possible, even weighing decisions like whether to buy new non-toxic paint or use the old paints we had to avoid waste.
Even on my car, which is my weakest length, I've chosen to keep an older car rather than buy a new one before I need it. That hurts my mileage (especially since I want to buy a hybrid), but it prevents another car from trickling down to the landfill. Of my last five cars (counting my wife's), two we've kept for over 220,000 miles, and two more had over 130,000. I did sell one with only 92,000, but it was ten years old, so I got use out of it.
I'm not really trying to defend myself here, so much as point out that a person's impact on the world depends on a lot of factors not listed, and there are a lot of decisions you can make aside from those listed in the very few questions in that survey which can help.
Sorry to go on for so long. Now, get back to work.
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