CONSERVE WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

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ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

By J.A. Beydler

Invest your tax refund and realize a 100% annual return.

Insulation. Weather-stripping. Water-heater blankets. High efficiency lighting. Are you yawning yet? Day-to-day resource conservation is not nearly so glamorous as chaining oneself to a redwood tree or marching on Washington. Sure, we all know — intellectually — that conservation is what we really should do, just like we all know we really should read more classic literature, but, being mere mortals, we usually leave David Copperfield on the shelf and reach for the remote control. Here's a factoid to post on your refrigerator, complements of Amory Lovins of The Rocky Mountain Institute: "All the remote control televisions in the U.S., when turned to the "off" position, still use the equivalent in output of one Chernobyl-sized power plant."

In the energy business, we call that a phantom load — the power your house is consuming when no one is home and all your appliances appear to be off (appear being the operative word). Phantom load is just one of the culprits working to defeat energy conservation efforts (see the chart on page 26). The biggest culprit of all is human nature. We all care deeply about global warming, rapid depletion of natural resources, and toxic-waste production. But these issues seem so distant and enormous that we feel that our individual contributions can't have a meaningful impact. After all, when you chain yourself to a redwood tree, you see an immediate, if transitory, effect. It's hard to get the same exhilarating feeling of accomplishment when you buy a water-heater blanket. But you should.

Imagine for a moment that your Uncle Sam just gave you $2,000 to invest. Would you choose mutual funds? Certificates of deposit? Real estate? What if you found an investment that would net you a 100% annual return? How about a 300% return? Investing in simple, relatively inexpensive conservation measures will give you that kind of return, risk-free.

According to a revealing report by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, investments in energy efficiency improvements to buildings in just three states, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, could save more than one hundred and fifty billion energy dollars, and reduce U.S. air pollution emissions by 24%. Here's another point to ponder: if every subscriber to MOTHER replaced their washing machine with a new water-conserving horizontal axis model, the annual water savings would be two billion gallons.

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