No Impact Experiment: Transportation

The assignment was to make a list of all the places we were going today and how we usually get there, and then to think about which alternatives could be used instead.

The first part was easy.  We had two destinations today: our CSA during the day, and a rehearsal in the evening.  Then, things got ticklish... Our CSA used to be on a bus route.  That portion of the route was discontinued a while ago because of budget cuts. 

However, I probably wouldn't have used the bus for today's CSA outing, regardless.   The seven miles took two busses and about an hour to traverse.  We would either have had to leave the house very early, or not arrived at the farm until mid-morning.  Then, on the trip home, the arrival time of the first bus would have been uncertain.  The stop closest to the CSA was towards the end of the route, and you never knew whether the bus would be early or late getting there.  That meant needing to leave a huge window of time at the stop, just in case.  That was all doable for an adult with reading material at the ready.  When that adult has two children in tow, whose tolerance for unpredictable bus schedules is fairly low after putting in a few hours of volunteer time, the wait time by the side of the road, and the long travel timerelative to the distance made the bus a lot less attractive.

Similarly, public transportation was not an option for our evening rehearsal.  There are simply no stops within reasonable walking distance.  So, into the car it is on Tuesday nights.  However, we do have a +1 for the trip, because we pick up another participant along the way, and carpool for the last few miles there and back.

My regular commute, on the other hand, is all by foot and public transportation!  On days when there's not a long connection time between travel segments, my time needed is comparable to driving by car.  Among the benefits: I can read during my trip; I don't need to spend any time searching for a parking space; and the bus driver shoulders the stress of rush-hour driving, not me.

On tap for tomorrow: food!

No Impact Experiment: Consumption

Today's challenge was to think about doing more with less and about buying less stuff.  The less buying part was, thankfully, not that hard -- we actually do quite well in that department.  The vast majority of our purchases each week are for food.  And, because I've got my mind set on trying my hand at making kimchi, cabbage and ginger are on my must-have grocery item list right now.  (If you have a recipe to recommend, please share it in the comments!) 

I must confess that I do have my eye out for new-to-me pants (I've worn through the knees of the ones I have, and while I've patched them, the pants are really only in wear-for-gardening condition), and for shoes to replace the ones whose soles have unrepairable holes.  On rainy days, I appreciate having dry toes.

We spent a good part of today's (warm and sunny, and did I mention warm?) afternoon gathering leaves, adding them to the compost piles, and moistening them with the water I drained from the rain barrels to prepare them for the winter.  The delicious compost we'll have by this time next year will eliminate my need to buy any compost.  So, +1 in the no-consumption column!

However, I've got a -1 in fuel consumption for today, and on most Sundays.  Even though we have a church within walking distance -- and we do walk to it when we go there -- we drive about 40 miles round-trip to attend a different one.  This is one of those trade-off situations: how do we decide between the value we get from participating in the farther-away congregation and the environmental and financial cost of the travel there and back?  At least for now, we have chosen in favor of the congregation.

On tap for tomorrow: trash!

I'm carbon-cleansing with the No Impact Project next week

The next installment of the No Impact Project begins on Sunday, and I'm giving it a whirl. Consumption, trash, transportation, food, energy, water, giving back, and eco-Sabbath are the mileposts along the way.

Will you join me?