A Visual Demonstration of Why LED Lights Save You Money

Incandescent light bulbs are terribly inefficient at turning electricity into light, wasting most of the energy they use as heat. Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) waste very little energy as heat, meaning they'll rapidly pay back their higher cost & much more by saving you money on your electricity bill.

I got a demonstration of their efficiency after this weekend's snow & ice thanks to a string of LED Christmas lights still up on my fence. While incandescent Christmas lights quickly melt a cone into the snow & ice around them, I plugged in the LEDs and hours later, they were still frozen firmly in place:

Online vs. In-Person: Which Holiday Shopping Choice is Greener?

According to a 2009 study by Carnegie Mellon University, getting it done online cuts your shopping carbon footprint by 35%.

This Thanksgiving, Do You Really Need That 4th Slice of Cheesecake?

The Green Miles is driving up to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving with my family. Don't worry, I'm carpooling in my re-used '99 Saturn (35mpg highway).

I'm sure I don't need to tell you to buy local and organic when you can. But let me give you one question to chew on: Do you really need to eat that much on Thursday and buy that much on Friday? Is the crazy level of consumption making you happy or do you just feel obligated?

At my family's Thanksgiving dinner, there will be approximately 20 cakes, pies and plates of cookies for the 20 people. Why? Because everyone brings a dessert. Why? Because that's just what everyone's done forever and now if you don't bring a dessert you get some sort of Catholic guilt. Then at the end of the night, everyone tries to get out of taking home 12,000 calories worth of cheesecake they don't really want but will feel obligated to try to eat before it all goes bad.

In this case (as in so many cases), going green isn't about depriving yourself -- it's about making everyone happier. This year, I'll be stopping by Cardoza's in Fairhaven to grab some organic wine and local beer. Mom will be happy we're making contributions to the feast, the guests will be happy to have some good drink options, and I'll be happy that the leftovers can be enjoyed at our hosts' leisure without going bad.

Then on Friday, everyone gets up at the crack of dawn to go shopping. While a few people like my cousin Bernadette have their purchases mapped out and expertly take full advantage of the bargains, many just wander out because buying lots of stuff on the day after Thanksgiving is The American Way. They return with shopping bags and unpack them in a daze, like they're honestly not sure what's in there.

Look, if gorging on 8,000 calories and blowing money on random junk you may or may not use really makes you happy, go for it. Spend your Saturday gorging on leftovers and going back for round 2 of shopping. But I can't help but think most people go overboard just because they think they're supposed to.

My little bit of challenging the conventional wisdom: Sipping instead of scarfing. What's yours?

The Green Mom Outdoes The Green Miles

The Green Miles gave up wrapping paper this Christmas. Instead, I used gift bags or re-used gift bags I'd saved from last year.

It saved time on wrapping and money on paper, but was also more environmentally-friendly. Considering how much dye, laminate, glitter, etc. go into its production, wrapping paper is often times not recyclable. And even if it is, how many recipients will actually recycle it?

But The Green Mom one-upped me this year. She gave me my Christmas presents in a reusable bag from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Excellent idea!

Quick Post-Holiday Tip

From Virginia Young Democrats Environmental Caucus Chair Hannah Wiegard:

If you're in the market to replace some strings of X-mas lights, opt for LED. They carry an Energy Star label and can save up to 88% on electricity. And they'll all be on sale half price at this time of the season.

Excellent point! I'm off to stalk the aisles of CVS for sales.

Ask The Green Miles: Real Christmas Tree vs. Fake Tree?

I don't encourage getting a live tree with roots still attached and trying to re-plant it. Getting a tree to survive a transplant is hard enough, but the cold outdoors-warm house-cold outdoors shock is more than most evergreens can handle.

Some related links:

• Arlington Christmas tree recycling info
• National list of organic Christmas tree farms
• Grist's Ask Umbra on the real vs. fake question

You can see more of my videos and subscribe at my YouTube page.


Note: Always call ahead to live Christmas tree farms, you never know when they'll take a year off from selling trees to let the young ones grow.

Recycling Your Christmas Tree

Make plans now to recycle your Christmas tree after the holidays! Arlington County makes it easy for residents of single-family homes. Unfortunately residents of townhouses, apartments, and condos are in for a schlep:

Christmas Tree Collection will be from January 7 - 18, 2008 on your regular refuse day. Since trees will be ground into wood mulch, please remove the tree stand, lights, and decorations. Please do not place the tree in a plastic bag. [...]

Residents that do not have curbside recycling service, such as those living in townhouses, apartments, or condominiums, may also bring their Christmas trees to the Solid Waste Bureau during the Christmas tree collection season. Please call 703-228-6570 to schedule an appointment between 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Solid Waste Bureau is located at the Arlington Trades Center, 4300 S. 29th St. Residents will need to show proof of residence in Arlington, such as a driver's license. Trees may also be dropped off the first Saturday of each month at the Trades Center without an appointment. Please call 703-228-6570 to make an appointment or for additional information.

Making Your Holidays Low-Stuff and Low-Stress

In pulling together my tips for a green holiday season, I'm trying to keep in mind something that tempers my usual environmental fervor: Between traveling and shopping, the holidays are a pain to begin with. No one wants to be told they have to bend over backwards to be green on top of everything else.

That's why you'll find disagreement among environmentalists on how far to push people over the holidays. Some seek gradual change, others want a complete redefinition of our consumerist Christmas.

The one thing we all agree on is that you should try to give less stuff. Does anyone out there feel the burning desire for more stuff? Too much room in your closets? Not nearly enough junk lying around?

Here's just one example. Lumping sweaters, sweatshirts, and pullovers together, The Green Miles has 34 sweaters. 34! I could wear a different one every day for a month and still not wear them all. 27 of them were gifts. That collection has built up despite donating at least five perfectly good ones to the needy every year. Yet what can I expect to get 8 more of this year?

My family hasn't done very well at finding a happy medium. My dad and his friends have gone to one extreme, forgoing exchanging gifts altogether. I tried to get my mom's side of the family to not get me stuff but instead give me something I would appreciate and enjoy even more -- cookies. It worked for one year (also known as My Favorite Christmas ever) but the next year my mom chastised me for being so bossy about what my relatives could give me and it's been back to sweaters ever since.

It's with those experiences in mind that I'm a little skeptical when websites like Grist advise you to give carbon offsets as gifts. And when it comes to green gifts like the nice green box from GreenSender.com, I wonder if there's much of an audience for that. If the recipients are greenies, wouldn't they already have a reusable grocery bag? And if they're not greenies, might they feel it's a little unfestive and borderline preachy for you to give them a CFL?

So I'll start my green holiday advice with ...

GIFTS
Think about alternatives to giving stuff -- experiences, like a gift certificate to a local restaurant or theater, or consumables, like organic wine. If you know someone wants stuff, think about how to make the gift greener -- clothing made with organic cotton, or adding rechargeable batteries to that gift of a digital camera. Treehugger offers the best, most comprehensive, easiest-to-read green holiday gift guide.

TRAVEL
If you have options on how to get to your destination, you'll have the lowest carbon footprint if you take the train. The next best options would be to take the bus, ride-share or drive. The worst option for the environment is to fly -- even worse than driving alone. Flying not only burns the most fuel, it delivers the emissions directly to higher levels of the atmosphere where they can do more damage.

TREE
Buy a locally-grown tree, cutting it down yourself if you can. It will make even the most metrosexual man or Carrie Bradshaw clone feel like a lumberjack. WashingtonPost.com offers a list of Virginia tree farms. This year I looked into getting a living tree and re-planting it after Christmas, but from what I've read, it's not only a major hassle, the tree doesn't stand much of a chance of survival after re-planting.

LIGHTS
Buy LED lights. They're about the same price as standard lights and will use 80-90% less electricity, saving you the cost of the lights their first year alone. For outdoor lighting, you can get solar-powered LEDs that don't even need to be plugged in.

WRAPPING
Use and reuse gift bags when you can. Look for wrapping paper make from 100% recycled content. You have my admiration and respect if you're one of those people who can carefully unwrap a present and reuse the paper on another gift, but as long as you make sure the used paper gets recycled, you're safely in the green.

HOLIDAY CARDS
Again, try to buy cards made with 100% recycled paper. As you receive cards, be sure the envelopes go into recycling; after the holidays, recycle the cards.

PARTIES
Go local and/or organic whenever you can. Avoid disposables whenever you can. If you know you won't have enough dishware for all your guests, ask a friend or neighbor if you can borrow some for the night.

HANUKKAH
... is almost over, but next year, you could consider organic Matzah.