Brian Grant

This weekend, I insulated my hot water pipes and hot water heater. I am already noticing the difference when I go to rinse or wash dishes, using less purge to get warm water. The longer term benefits will be checked next month.

So the water challenge to eliminate use of plastic bottles has been more difficult than I thought, but I have been able to stay on track. Our work area has had a potable water outage due to replacing the main water pump and drilling an alternate well so we always have access to water during pump maintenance. During the outage, they had to ship in water for consumption - of course some of it was in plastic bottles! The company did try to reduce by having water dispensers in lieu of individual bottles, so I could still fill my own reusable water bottle, and the dispensers used refillable jugs which were cycled back through the water distributor. It made me realize how hard it must be for people with no clean source of water, to reduce use of plastic bottles when that may be the only container and source of water they have. Transforming water sources throughout developing areas into drinkable condition is definitely something worth supporting.

I consider myself and family to be environmentally conscious. We have reduced our energy needs by over 25% by simply paying attention to lights on in areas of the house that are not occupied, turning off electronics when not in use, using the most energy efficient heating systems available for each area of the house, and changing to energy efficient bulbs where light fixture will allow. We recycle everything we can, even building materials, scrap metal from broken chairs and other items no longer useful. We limit our water use by turning off the sprinkler system when there are sufficient rains. The Eco-Challenge tasks opened my eyes to other things I can do to have an even smaller footprint. Good luck with your challenges everyone!