Life is hectic. We’re all juggling so many things on our ToDo lists — work, friends, family, errands, school, minor emergencies, causes and volunteer work – it seems we don’t have the time or the energy to add a single thing or our minds will implode from ToDo overload. But think about this: do you have just THREE MINUTES to spare? Not an hour or two, but just three minutes you can invest each day to do something you believe in and know is important for the future of our planet?
Three minutes isn’t much. It’s about as long as it takes to pop a bag of popcorn in the microwave or the amount of time you spend waiting in line at your favorite fast food place during the lunch rush. And that’s about how long it would take each morning to do a quick circuit of your home or apartment and unplug any unused power adapters, appliances, clocks or other devices that waste energy while you’re not home.
“What good would that do?” you might say. “That’s just pennies a day. It won’t amount to anything. Talk about a waste of time and energy.” But little things DO add up.
In fact, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, American households waste about 65 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. Your fancy coffee maker with the clock and auto-on function? Wasted energy. Your cell phone chargers — one in the bedroom and one in the kitchen, both plugged in? Wasted energy. By leaving unused electronic devices and power adapters plugged in when no one is home, Americans waste almost $6 billion a year in phantom electricity.
And the cost isn’t just financial. This unneeded and unused electricity contributes to global warmingand the depletion of the ozone layer by sending more 87 billion pounds of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.
So what can you do? Invest just $20 in three power strips, one strip for each group of electronic devices in the three main rooms of your home: the living room,bedroom, and kitchen. In each room, make sure all the energy-sapping appliances that are usually left on during the day are now plugged in to that power strip and that it’s in an easy-to-reach spot. Then add one little ToDo to your morning routine. After you’re ready for work but before you leave for the day, make a quick circuit of your home and flip the switch OFF on each of the three power strips: one, two, three.
It won’t take more than three minutes each day. In fact, once you make it part of your morning routine, you may find it takes less than that. Finished in the bedroom? Flip the switch as you head for the kitchen. Passing through the living room on the way to the kitchen? Flip the switch. As you’re grabbing your keys to head out the door, check the kitchen and flip the switch. Easy-peasy. One, two, three.
Think about this. The energy companies have no incentive to encourage us to spend less money on their products because that means less profit for them. And politicians and technocrats depend on the campaign contributions of those same energy companies to get elected, so how likely is it that we’ll see changes to legislation that would reduce energy consumption? We don’t need that anyway.
Americans are smart, creative and innovative and we don’t wait around for “experts” to tell us what to do and how to do it. That’s why Harvard/MIT start-up iPowerDown came up with the quintessential American idea: let’s get real people involved and challenge all of America by having a contest to see who can come up with the best ideas for saving energy. Get the whole country involved in the discussion and may the best ideas win. To join in, go to our Facebook page, Compete for Energy Efficiency and put in your two cents. No major overhaul, no reinvention. Baby steps. Because little changes add up to big savings.
please contact the author Diane Bliss : dblissinkc “at” gmail.com
please contact iPowerDown : igreene “at” fas.harvard.edu
