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Making Personal Choices That Contribute to Sustainability

A Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice From The Union of Concerned Scientists

By Michael Brower, Ph.D. and Warren Leon, Ph.D.

Outline

A Valuable Discovery

Almost all of us recycle. And we purchase more and more recycled goods. Many of us are asking now, how do we go beyond recycling? Which of my actions will have the most impact? Well, I just discovered the Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice From The Union of Concerned Scientists, by Michael Brower, Ph.D. and Warren Leon, Ph.D., published by Three Rivers/Random House in 1999. The authors were formerly with the Union of Concerned Scientists (www.ucsusa.org), which is a group of citizens and scientists working to provide impartial data to inform public policy decisions that affect the environment.

The book offers practical advice for setting priorities, taking action, and reducing our worries over insignificant decisions. Reading it has been so helpful to me that I asked the authors for permission to share some of the highlights in a condensed form -- which is what you'll find here.

By the way, if you'd also like scientific evaluations of the environmental issues mentioned here, check out the UCS site or Worldwatch's annual publication called "Vital Signs" (www.worldwatch.org/chairman/publicat.html).

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Taking a Targeted Approach

Across-the-board reduction is not the only way to reduce environmental damage through consumption; a more targeted strategy may be more effective and appeal to more people. U.S. consumers use 25 percent of the oil worldwide and produce 20 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions from human sources, with only about 5 percent of the world population. We each use, on average, twice as much fossil fuel as residents of Great Britain and two and half times as much as residents of Japan. Changing the consumption habits of the affluent is the main priority in curbing environmental degradation worldwide, because we consume so much more than less developed countries, despite the effects of over-population. But most of the advice we get is over-whelming and doesn't offer priorities. Some changes aren't practical for the consumer, but require us to participate more actively as citizens or in the organizations where we work.

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Environmental Problems Most Impacted By Current Household Consumption

Hazardous waste sites, ozone depletion and damage from PCB's are other serious environmental problems were excluded from this analysis because they are the results of prior activities or are currently being resolved as damaging chemicals are phased out.

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Seven Categories of Spending With The Most Impact

The authors' study links consumer spending in each of 50 major categories to the four environmental issues above, either through direct impact or through the industrial processes involved along the way. They found that JUST SEVEN accounted for the majority of the environmental impact caused by consumers. In descending order of importance, here are the seven:

  1. Cars and light trucks: 28% of impact on greenhouse emissions, 48% of toxic air pollution, 24% of common air pollution, and 21% of toxic water pollution attributable to consumer activities are due to the production and use of cars and light trucks. The average new car produces 2 METRIC TONS of carbon emissions each year. The impact on water pollution is due to production processes involving steel, batteries, paints, plastics, aluminum, lubricants, etc.
  2. Meat and poultry: 25% of impact on land use, 20% of common water pollution, and 19% of water use attributable to consumer activities are due to the consumption of meat and poultry. And about 25% of the threat to natural ecosystems and wildlife are due to meat and poultry consumption, because 40% of the U.S. land area is used for grazing livestock. Heavy water use is required to irrigate land for growing livestock feed. And animal wastes cause 16% of common water quality problems, because they generate 2 billion tons of wet manure each year - which is extremely difficult to dispose of safely. One pound of beef has 17.5x the impact on common water pollution as a pound of pasta, and 19.9x the impact on land use. A pound of poultry, although better, still has 11.2x the impact on common water pollution as a pound of pasta.
  3. Fruit, vegetables, and grains: 28% of water use attributable to consumer activities is due to production of fruit, vegetables and grain, because irrigating crops takes so much water. It also requires 20% of the US land area, and results in some water pollution due to fertilizer and pesticide runoff. The cultivation stage has much more impact than the processing, packaging and transportation stages.
  4. Home heating, hot water, and air conditioning: 16% of impact on greenhouse emissions, and 11% of impact on common air pollution attributable to consumer activities are due to heating, hot water and a/c. This is largely due to the fossil fuels burned either directly or in the generation of electricity, which is mostly produced by burning fossil fuels, especially coal. Wood is the most polluting option, due to the particulates released by low-tech home furnaces. Natural gas appears to have the least impact.
  5. Household appliances and lighting: 15% of impact on greenhouse emissions and13% of impact on common air pollution attributable to consumer activities are due to appliances and lighting, again due to fossil fuels burned either directly or in the generation of electricity. This category also has an impact on toxic air and water pollution due to the production processes for plastics and metals used in the appliances. Refrigerators, freezers, swimming pool pumps, waterbed heaters, lighting, and electric dryers consume the most electricity per appliance (except lighting which is per household). Computers are among the lowest consumers of electricity.
  6. Home construction: 23% of consumer impact on land use is due to home construction, both due to the direct use of lots and also due to the enormous amount of wood required to build a home. 2/3 of timber harvest in 1991 in the U.S. went to structural lumber. Erosion often results from clearing land for housing. Manufacture of home materials, as well as fertilizer and pesticides used in new landscaping contribute to toxic water pollution. Mobile homes may have higher impacts due to metals and plastics used in construction.
  7. Household water and sewage: 11% of impact on common water pollution attributable to consumer activities is due to water use and sewage, because municipal sewage remains a major source of water pollution. Home water use only accounts for about 5% of total water consumption. Solid waste disposal contributes to air pollution through incineration, usually due to low-tech approaches by individual households.

Overall, the categories above (except Housing) can be grouped into Transportation, Food, and Household Operations, which combined, explain about 80% of the impact from consumer activities.

Transportation: accounts for 32% of the impact on greenhouse emissions, 28% of common air pollution, 51% of toxic air pollution, 23% of toxic water pollution (due to manufacture of vehicles) and 15% of land use (due to road construction), attributable to household decisions. Cars and light trucks, described above, have the major impact. Motorcycles are no better than cars, per passenger mile, due to the lack of pollution controls on their engines. Intercity bus travel has about the lowest impact, although passenger air travel has lower air and water pollution. Passenger rail travel is also relatively low impact, although it has high air pollution (due to low ridership) and a huge relative impact on land use. Personal aircraft, recreational boats and off-road vehicles may have as much as 15 times the emissions of ordinary cars.

Food: accounts for 38% of common water pollution, 22% of toxic water pollution, 73% of water use, and 45% of land use attributable to consumer decisions. Meat and poultry has the most impact, with fruit,vegetable and grain consumption coming in second. Seafood production was not measured, because we eat so little seafood compared to other categories studied, but there are serious impacts there including depletion due to over-fishing and damage from unregulated fish farms. Sharks, swordfish, and orange roughy fishing and farming are among those with the most negative impact.

Household Operations: 35% of greenhouse gas emissions, 32% of common air pollution, 20% of toxic air pollution, and 21% of common water pollution attributable to consumer decisions around overall household operations. In addition to the categories described above - heating, hot water, a/c, appliances, lighting, water and sewage, other practices have a significant impact. Cleaning products and services, including dry cleaning and the use of solvents in particular, make up a large share of toxic air pollution caused by consumers.

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Personal Action Priorities

Unfortunately, the most damaging activities are pretty central to American middle-class lifestyles. Choosing a simpler way of life and spending less money usually results in lower impact. The choices available to us are largely created through government or community action, so this is one area of potential personal action. In the meanwhile, here are eleven individual action priorities:

  1. Choose a place to live that reduces the need to drive - it will reduce your stress as well.
  2. Think twice before purchasing another car - so you're not tempted to drive more, and you don't cause the environmental damage of auto production.
  3. Choose a fuel-efficient, low-polluting car - suitable for typical needs, not extraordinary needs. Consider a low- or zero-emission vehicle.
  4. Set concrete goals for reducing your travel - use your odometer to check your progress.
  5. Whenever practical, walk, bicycle, or take public transportation.
  6. Eat less meat - even shifting to dairy products helps.
  7. Buy certified organic produce - which is generally produced more sustainably, with less mechanization and better crop rotation, and doesn't create water pollution from fertilizers and pesticides.
  8. Choose your home carefully - especially don't move into a home that's too big and will require more to build and heat. Avoid new developments. Look for insulation, efficient windows, heat-recovery ventilation and other improvements if you do buy a new home.
  9. Reduce the environmental costs of heating and hot water - install efficient hot water heating. Choose natural gas or an electric heat pump. Turn down the thermostat, insulate, seal the windows, upgrade windows and doors for energy-efficiency. Consider a solar collector and extra large storage tank for water, if you have an electric water heater. Request a free home energy audit.
  10. Install efficient lighting and appliances - buy the most energy-efficient refrigerator, only as large as you need. Look for energy labels. Wash clothes in cold water where possible. Try compact fluorescent bulbs which last 10x as long and use 1/4 the electricity.
  11. Choose an electricity supplier offering renewable energy - to reduce the amount generated through the burning of fossil fuels such as coal.

To counter-act the forces in favor of driving (affordability, spread out communities, driving satisfaction) create a Household Travel Profile, comparing your household to the average for the U.S:

Use this comparison to determine how much of a priority to put on the transportation category.

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Miscellaneous High Impact Activities

Certain activities didn't show up in the main study because they are practiced infrequently, yet on a per-use basis they have a disproportionate affect on the environment:

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Rules for Responsible Consumption

When faced with a choice not covered in the preceding sections, here are seven guidelines:

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What to Ask of the Government

Many major environmental issues require us to influence government to increase the choices available to all of us, because it's the government that makes many of the rules we operate by. The key steps to participating more actively are: stay informed, vote and work for candidates, contact elected officials to express your views, write letters to newspapers, and work with environmental organizations. Just 10 additional hours a year can have a dramatic impact. Here are some ideas of what to ask for:

1. Make the marketplace work for the environment - ensure prices charged reflect the true costs of a good, so resources are truly allocated to their highest use, based on full information.

2. Set high standards - where the marketplace places little economic value or value can't be quantified, or where financial implications are hard to understand.

3. Invest in the environment - where private entrepreneurs lack the investment funds.

4. Make land use and environmental issue - loss of wetlands, ancient forests, as well as conversion from farmland to housing exacerbate other problems. Suburban sprawl affects how much we drive, stresses water use, affects endangered species. Existing efforts at conservation are slow and piecemeal, but land-use lies at the heart of a big picture view of the problems we are causing. Does require us to look at the tradition of individual property rights

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Excerpted from Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice From The Union of Concerned Scientists (C) 1999 Michael Brower and Warren Leon.