Last week Kathleen Shecter witnessed a crime scene.  There was no blood or dead body.  The crime was a crime against her community and future generations.  Kathleen saw an older man power washing his driveway.

“Unless it’s a murder scene and you are the chief suspect and therefore washing away evidence against you,” Kathleen joked, “there is no reason to wash a dirty driveway.”

Only 1% of all the water on Earth is usable.  The rest is salt water or frozen.  The average family of 4 uses 400 gallons of water a day.  That is about the same as taking 10 baths.

The nation’s water supplies and distribution systems are increasingly stressed by the public demand for water.  A recent government survey showed at least 36 states are anticipating water shortages by 2013.  By using water more efficiently, we can help preserve water supplies for future generations.

Kathleen, who is my green guru, offers the following helpful suggestions on simple ways to decrease water consumption on a daily basis: 

1.  Install a low flow showerhead for each bathroom. Most showerheads use twice the water needed for a thorough shower.  Every day 3 billion gallons of water flow through showerheads in the United States. 

2.  Turn water off when brushing teeth. Why do we feel the need to leave it running?  Water savings: 8 gallons per day.

3.  Use the “old” water from pet bowls to water plants. Hey, the plants don’t care!

4.  Make sure every load of laundry is a full one.  Don’t wash partial loads.  Water savings: 15 gallons. 

5.  Don’t rinse dishes.  Just scrape the food off and then load.  Run only full loads.  Water savings:  2 gallons of water per day. 

6.  Use run off water.  When I rinse produce in my salad spinner I remove the basket, dump the water into my watering can for later plant watering or dump it into plants right then. And then I spin. 

7.  Don’t wash your car at home.  I wash my car at one of those self-wash places that recycle the water. It goes down a drain in the carport and gets recycled. No washing the car in the driveway for me.  Water savings:  25 gallons.

8.  Don’t power wash sidewalks, driveways, or decks. The number of gallons of water used in those high pressure gadgets is alarming. Instead I get out the stiff bristle broom, some good biodegradable soap and scrub with a bucket of water. Then you can use the regular hose to rinse. Hey, who needs the gym? Great upper body workout, and the calories burned……wow!  Water savings: 22 gallons per week. 

9.  Don’t use the toilet as a “trash can”.  This can save you 1.6 gallons daily.  Be sure the toilet you DO have is low flush one. They use half the water for each flush. If you can’t afford to replace (though it pays for itself in the long run), put a brick in the tank.  Does the same thing, low-tech.  Water savings:  8 gallons at 4 flushes daily.

10.  Don’t water the lawn or other landscaping at the peak of the day.  I see so many sprinklers going off at noon! Water before 6am or after 8pm when the temperature is cooler. Be sure all sprinklers are in working order and that you aren’t watering the sidewalk! If it’s running down the gutter you are wasting water (and your money - be prepared for a rise in your water bill - it’s coming.)  Water savings: 20 gallons per day.

This week for our Monday mitzvah join me in taking the 10 Gallon Challenge and shave 10 gallons off of your daily water consumption. What other ways have you found to save water?  

“Now I used to think that I was cool
Running around on fossil fuel
Until I saw what I was doin’
Was driving down the road to ruin.”

From the song ‘Traffic Jam’ by James Taylor

I drove too much this weekend. I took about 8 separate trips to run errands that could have been consolidated into one had I done a little planning. Not to mention a glorious drive to the beach at Half Moon Bay. I don’t feel guilty about the trip to Half Moon Bay because it brought so much pleasure to my family. However, I do feel guilty about the 8 trips to the store.

For this week’s Monday Mitzvah let’s work on taking the road less traveled and drive less. With the price of gas these days this good deed not only helps the world but also our wallets. We all know we should drive less but how many of us really do. Driving is somewhat of an addiction. It is easy, fun and makes us feel powerful.  Riding a bike to the store just doesn’t have the same kind of thrill.

To help you deal with automobile withdrawal is an organization called Autoholics Anonymous.  They offer support to “recovering autoholics to guide you on your path to finding your two feet again.”  I need this program! I could easily walk to the store if I planned properly.  I know “there is a power greater than me” that can help me get over my car addiction. However, I need to start with baby steps.

Autoholics Anonymous offers a 12 Step program to help you deal with your car addiction. I have 5 simple suggestions to help us get started:

1. Consolidate Car Trips: Plan out your weekly errands and do them all in one or two trips.
2. Coordinate a Carpool: Find a friend in the neighborhood who has the same errands and double up. It will be more fun and you will save time and money.
3. Bust out the Bike: Dust off your bike, throw on a backpack and pedal your way to a neighborhood market for your supplies. It is good for the environment and good for your soul
4. Go for a Goal: It is hard to achieve objectives without having a goal. For example, only allow yourself to fill up your gas tank twice a month. If that is your goal, you will think twice about taking all those extra trips to the store.
5. Forget the Freeway; Take the Information Highway: The internet is one of our best tools for helping the environment. You can avoid many trips to the mall and the store by shopping online. Negotiate an arrangement with your work to telecommute one day a week. Hold meetings via conference call or web instead of in person.

What techniques have you used to cut down the amount you drive?

Did you know that every night you are being robbed? There are thieves under your own roof stealing from you. They lurk in the kitchen, your home office, family room and garage. You think that when you go to sleep so do they. But they are insatiable insomniacs wickedly wasting your energy while you slumber. They are your appliances.

Microwave ovens, computers and TVs even when turned off continue to use energy. Like a leaky faucet, they are responsible for a tremendous amount of waste. In fact, 40% of the energy used to power consumer electronics is consumed when the devices are not in use.  The typical American household has 27 appliances that are always on according to the Electric Power Research Institutue.

The Department of Energy says “vampire energy loss” represents between 5-8% of a single family home’s total electricity use per year. Taken across the United States this adds up to approximately 68 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually which is the equivalent output of 37 typical electricity-generating power plants. Yikes!

For this week’s Monday Mitzvah let’s vanquish the vampires. You can cut up to 10% off your electric bill by unplugging your appliances at night.  One of the easiest way to manage your power sucking devices is to use a power strip that automatically turns off your electronic devices.

Two of the most popular are the Smart Strip and the Isole Power Strip.  Energy Saving Smart Strip With Autoswitching Technology #LCG3 has a series of outlets that are controlled by a single controlling outlet. For example, when you shut down your computer it will automatically shut down power to your mouse, keyboard, printer, etc. Isole’ Power Strip Auto On/Off Sensor has a mountable motion sensor which automatically turns off and on all of the controlled devices. The time delay can be adjusted from 30 seconds to 30 minutes.

To see more information about home automation networks check out Finding and Fixing A Home’s Power Hogs published in the NY Times on Sunday. 

Let us know if you have found any other good ways of slaying energy vampires.

“Everybody likes a compliment” Abraham Lincoln

For the last two months I have had an obsession. There is an ugly, dry patch of dirt in front of my house that I have been determined to make bloom. I performed a guerrilla gardening mission on my own property. However, it did not immediately take. From my front window I could see big black crows picking the seeds from the ground and it seemed like every morning there was a new mole hole. The ground had so many lumps that it looked like there was subterranean mole condo complex.

My water tolerant wildflower garden has been a Zen exercise for me. There is no way to speed up the growth and there is no way to guarantee a blossom. I have had to patiently protect and nurture the little buds as best as possible and hope for the best.

Today as I was conducting my morning ritual of examining my little plot to see if there was any progress overnight, one of my neighbors, who is not exactly the friendliest woman in the world, stopped to talk to me. In the four years I have lived near her, we have probably had only one or two brief conversations. She generally avoids eye contact on her daily walks down the street. Today was different. She stopped next to me, looked me in the eye and said, “Your garden is really coming along.” My heart swelled with delight. With that one little compliment she totally made my day. That was the end of our conversation but that was all it needed to be. I felt honored, acknowledged and appreciated. She gave me a gift.

For our Monday Mitzvah this week let’s do a true guerrilla good deed and give someone a sincere compliment. Take a moment to appreciate something positive about someone. The best kind of compliment is like the one my neighbor gave me. It is a compliment that is based on something personally meaningful to the recipient. A compliment about something superficial such as looks or something about which the person doesn’t have any control is less meaningful. Step outside of yourself and notice what is important to those around you. By simply acknowledging what is true and important to someone you will deepen relationships, bring happiness and do a good deed.

This week’s good deed is about connecting honestly and directly with another human being and acknowledging a positive truth about them. This is a powerful way to help the world. The more we connect the better we all feel which lifts the consciousness of the entire planet.

Let us know what happens this week as you give your surprise compliments.

“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.”  Dale Carnegie

Last week as I was working on my guerrilla good deed to stop complaining, I became acutely aware of how much negativity there is in our world. We are inundated with bad news. The stock market is plummeting. Gas prices are rising. Homes are foreclosing. The Feds are taking over banks. People are losing their retirement. It is all really scary.

Complaining is a common denominator. We can connect on bad news because it is so prevalent. However, complaining about how bad things are is like adding more waste to an already overflowing landfill. It is interesting that there is so much attention given to going green in our homes yet no discussion about going green in our relationships. The mantra of the green movement is reduce, reuse and recycle. Reduce your consumption, reuse what you already have and recycle your waste.

For this Monday Mitzvah let’s focus on the reduce component. And by reduce I mean reducing the negativity in our minds. Let’s reduce our consumption of negativity. Take a week off from the news and allow your mind to detox. I have a family member who watches Fox news 15 hours a day. As a result he thinks we have reached the end of times. It sounds like that when you watch the news. California is on fire; the mid-west is flooded; the artic is melting. Pretty soon we will be able to buy oceanfront property in Reno.

My challenge to you this week is to greenify your mind by not polluting it with any negativity. Just like farmers rotate their crops to allow the soil to mend this week purify your minds with something positive. One strategy for greenifying your mind is to adopt an attitude of gratitude. It may sound trite but it really works. You can’t be negative or fearful and be grateful at the same time. Our minds can’t hold two opposing thoughts. Every time a negative thought, complaint or fear rises up in your mind this week think about what you are grateful for in the situation.

Often things that seem horrible at the time turn out to be blessings in the long run. It is like the old story of the poor farmer who lived alone with his one son. They were poor and lived a hard life. One day their only horse ran away. Their fellow villagers lamented saying, “What will you do now? That was your only horse. How will you farm your land? You are so unlucky.”

To this the poor farmer said, “We’ll see.”

A few days later the farmer’s horse came back bringing with it a wild horse. And the villagers said, “Now you have two horses to work your land. You’re so lucky!”

And the farmer said, “We’ll see.”

The next day the farmer’s son was taming the wild horse when he was thrown from her back and broke his leg. And the villagers said, “Now who will help you work your land? That is your only son. How unlucky!”

And the farmer said, “We’ll see.”

A few days later the army came through town. They were there to draft all the able-bodied young men to fight in a distant war for their emperor. All the young men of the village, except for the poor farmer’s injured boy, were taken away. The villagers watched as their children were taken away. They looked at the poor farmer and his boy and said, “You’re so lucky.”

And the farmer said, “We’ll see.”

And so it goes. Be grateful this week. You never know what is going to turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

“The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention.”  Japanese Proverb

This weekend I read an article from the Associated Press on guerrilla gardeners who silently and secretly beautify their cities. Guerrilla gardeners are a global movement of people committed to the “war against the neglect of public space.”  They engage in the illicit cultivation of low maintenance gardens in empty lots or overgrown public spaces. These guerrilla gardeners infiltrate littered freeway off ramps and highway medians like rebel soldiers on a stealth mission. Armed with bags of seeds, shovels and trowels, these warriors transform dead city space into living beauty under the cover of darkness. The movement began as a way to stimulate inner-city renewal but has now spread around the world to cities large and small.

I am inspired by the guerilla gardeners random acts of gardening. Planting a few seeds in a vacant lot, highway median or even a foreclosed property in the neighborhood is a simple yet profound way to help the community. Not only did the simplicity touch me but the fact that they are so highly organized. With “troops” throughout the world members can easily find local “digs.” The members share snaps and stories about their discrete digs and celebrate the transformative results of their midnight missions.

In honor of all the guerilla gardeners out there, this week for the Monday Mitzvah I challenge everyone to do a guerilla good deed. Allow yourself to be surprised by whatever opportunity emerges. Perhaps it will be picking up a piece of trash that happens to catch your eye or sending money to an unfortunate family that grabs your attention on the news. Maybe you will see an elderly neighbor and invite them over to your house for coffee or you will have the opportunity to scatter some seeds in a vacant lot. 

The really fun and interesting part of this challenge will be to see what calls to you. What do you notice? What needs to be done?  As you do your guerrilla good deeds this week share them with us. Respond to this post in the comment section and let us know what you did and how you did it. It will be inspiring to hear everyone’s guerrilla good deeds. Let us know how you found the opportunity and why it spoke to your heart.

This is going to be a great week. I can’t wait to hear from everyone.

Talk about a simple way to help. Replace your paper coffee filters with a permanent filter. Considering landfills are approximately 40% paper, we can help reduce that volume by not purchasing paper filters. Chlorine bleach, which releases toxic dioxins into the environment, is used in the manufacture of white coffee filters so by making the switch we are helping the environment on two fronts.

There is some debate in the coffee connoisseur community about the taste of coffee when a permanent filter is used.  I personally think a gold filter makes the coffee taste better although some people complain about too much sediment leaking through. If sediment is a deal killer for you, another green option is to use a French press which does not use a filter at all. Not only does a French Press not use paper filters but it also doesn’t use electricity.  One concern with a French Press, however, is that oil on ground coffee beans has been linked to increased levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol.  French Press coffee makers do not filter out the oil at all.  Paper filters in drip coffee makers remove most of the oil but metal filters are not as thorough. 

So what is the solution?  Hemp.  I know it sounds a little green extreme but hemp cloth coffee filters effectively strain out coffee bean oil and since they are washable are great for the environment. The tightly woven hemp fabric produces a slower and finer filtration than paper thereby producing a stronger, richer cup of coffee.  One filter will last for many years and will pay for itself within 3-4 months.

“Eating 6.6 lbs. less of red meat a year is equivalent to reducing household water use by half.” Rebecca Blackburn, Green Is Good: Smart Ways to Live Well and Help the Planet

Americans eat roughly eight ounces of meat a day which is approximately twice the global average. To put that in perspective 2.2 pounds of beef burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.  Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20% it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan, i.e. Toyota Camry, to a Prius.  So instead of buying that new hybrid you have been eyeing an even better way to contribute to the health of the planet is to eat less meat.

The mitzvah this week is to consciously reduce your meat consumption.  You don’t have to go to the extreme and become a vegan or a vegetarian.  Just try to cut back a bit.  Americans consume approximately 110 grams of protein a day which is about twice the recommended daily allowance.  About 75 grams of that comes from animal protein.  You could safely cut that down to 30 grams of plant protein a day and have a healthy diet.  The best source of plant protein is the legume family which includes lentils, kidney beans, peanuts, peas and edamame. 

Minimizing meat is a low impact way to have a high impact effect on the world.  In January, Rajendra Pachauri, who is the head of the United Nation’s Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change, asked the world to “please eat less meat.” His team considers climate change the planet’s biggest problem and points to eating less meat as one way to help.

Let’s really support each other in minimizing the meat in our diets.  My strategy is to not build my meal around the meat.  In America we tend to make meat the focal point on the plate with vegetables and starch as the “side dishes.”  One way to minimize the meat is to reduce the meat portion and make the vegetables and starch the main attraction.  If I make desirable veggie, rice, potato and bean dishes, I won’t miss the meat as much. 

How are you minimizing the meat?  Your strategies will inspire us all.