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Tread Lightly, and Leave No Trace.

Tread Lightly
Tread Lightly
and
Leave No Trace.

I repeat this mantra every once in a while, especially when I've judged myself harshly for being wasteful, or for taking more than my share. I have to remember that living respectfully is not about punishment or doing without; for me it's about taking control and doing my best to responsibly enjoy one fair share, one equal portion, of our earth.

In my past, while apartment and condo living, I've been frustrated by my inability to live "lightly". I was determined to make it my ability when we moved to an environment more readily controlled.

Having settled into a house (recently discovered to be built in 1940), our 2007 Energy Efficiency Assessment came with a deadline of 18 months in which to complete whatever retrofits we could afford (in dollars and time), in order to qualify for government grant money.

As the completion deadline approached, I found myself obsessing about calculations - did we spend our money wisely, investing in the improvements which will give us the biggest rebate?; if I quickly weather-strip the back door, will I get $5 more for air-tightness? I had clearly forgotten the point, my own the big picture.
Tread Lightly
Tread Lightly
Further, when we had our tankless water heater installed, I was pretty much ready to plan the holiday we could afford with the $ $ savings it would generate (Molly Johnson, who hosts the weekend morning program on CBC Radio 2, just mentioned having spent her renovation grant money well ahead of (hopefully) receiving it).

Of course, it's not as simple as hooking up an energy meter to the heater and watching the dials spin in reverse, tallying the negative calculations needed to undo my life's energy gulping moments, all the while making me a better person and validating my decision to spend more money each month to rent this miraculous invention. Whew!
Perhaps a little too much to ask of a machine.

Although I had faith in the logic of instantaneous hot water, I needed reassurance; it was time to spreadsheet our gas bills! Both our furnace and the water heater run on gas so it was necessary to cross-reference average outside temperatures to factor in variances in the amount of gas used to heat the house;
So, in spite of the fact that we used more fuel heating the house (our programmable thermostat ensures consistency), our gas bill has still dropped, suggesting less gas used to heat our water. As a safeguard, I also checked our water consumption to ensure we weren't running the tap more, waiting for the water to heat, which wasn't the case;

So, we are definitely treading lighter than we were at the same time a year ago, while still living more luxuriously than most of our global neighbours.

As much as I am happily anticipating our grant money, having spent the money as Molly did, some months ago, I am also pleasantly aware that we've achieved the real reason for undertaking the retrofit; to Tread Lightly.



Just a note to put our water consumption into perspective, as I realize I've taken only a small step toward real conservation;

At 180 litres/day, we're under our regional average of 258 litres/day (a 1999 total, which I've extrapolated for 2009 in which it will exceed 262) and well under B.C.'s average of 550 litres/day (610 in adjusted numbers). However, globally we're certainly letting the tap drip; Africa is at 47 litres/person/day, Asia is 85 litres/person/day, UK is 334 litres/person/day, and, of course, US tops the list consuming 578 litres/person/day (all numbers from 1999 stats)

Now, to Leave No Trace ...