Investing in Tomorrow

One of the things that prompted me to quit smoking years ago was my realization that the day would come when I would have to quit.

I stepped out of my denial and stopped doing something I knew wasn’t good for me.

That's pretty much how I feel about the state of our environment; I figure why should I wait for the nasty to happen when I could be proactive and make some changes today that will ease my adjustment to the inevitable?

We've had a few generations now of opting, out of ignorance or laziness, for waste rather than conservation, speed over good stewardship.

Our era of convenience carried a steep price and the planet has begun collecting on our debt. We burned a lot of fuel, quickly cultivated and consumed a lot of inexpensive food, and destroyed countless acres of ecosystems; the very systems we need to help cleanse our toxins.

I think we need to realign our perspective on cost and value.

Today’s organic tomato costs what a tomato would have cost my great-grandmother, long before we could mass/fast grow everything. Organic food is the real cost of responsible agriculture, and it's why we should be willing, whenever possible, to spend a bit more, short term, because the long-term benefit is well worth it.

And so I’ve realized another wish on my Energy Retrofit Master Plan – our tankless water heater.

Viewing our gas bill last month, I noticed an announcement from Reliance for a new lease product, the Rinnai On-Demand Water Heater. Robin made a call and a week later our old tank was taken away as the new system was installed. Hot Water on Demand (we sometimes call it instantaneous hot water) is a tankless system which heats water as you require it buy coiling cold water, through tubes, around a heat source. Our hot water consumption is already pretty low due to the fact that we generally wash our clothes in cold water and have an ultra-conserving front-loading washer, so the amount of gas we'll now be burning will be minimal (with this new generation of systems, there isn’t even a pilot light on when it’s not heating water).

Like our organic tomato, I expect we'll be paying more for our monthly rental fee (up to $31) and, though we can't tell the difference in our day-to-day life, I know it's the kind of change that makes a big difference for the future. To lesson the impact of the installation charge and new monthly fee, we will qualify for $200 in provincial and $200 in federal grant money as part of the Energy Efficiency Evaluation inspection we had last October.


I’m no longer afraid of the future since becoming an active participant in the change that will form it. We should all make our own positive choices today, because we know if we don’t, the choices will be made for us.

I know my grandparents would be proud.