Hannah's DOTs

1. I will limit myself to five minute showers in order to conserve water. I think this is extremely important because I did a blog post on the importance of conserving clean water. This is something that we all take for granted as we take 10, 15, 20 minute showers while people across the globe work hard to find clean water.

2. I will make sure that the lights are turned off and the outlets are unplugged when I leave a room. This is important to conserve energy and reduce my carbon footprint. It was not until I studied a bit more on energy conservation that I realized how important it is to turn off a light or unplug a tv. We also learned a lot about reducing our carbon footprint through our ACE training.

3. I will wash my clothes with cold water instead of warm water and advise others to do so as well. This was another suggestion that I learned from Rowanna and Brian. They taught us how important it is to wash with cold water to reduce energy. I read in an article on realsimple.com about this topic. It also says, “Since about 90 percent of the energy consumed while running a load is used to heat the water, the average household opting for cold can eliminate as much as 350 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually. For most homes, this will amount to about $40 in savings a year.” This also saves us money.

4. I will ask for paper cups instead of styrofoam at Dunkin Donuts. Most people do not know this, but you can ask for a cappuccino cup. This is important because we cannot recycle our styrofoam and the contents will outlive you. It is also scary to imagine the foam going into our ocean and killing marine animals.

5. I will start using a reusable water bottle. I spend lots of money and waste a lot of plastic using Poland Spring bottles. It is important globally because I am reducing the amount of plastic being used. If I do use a Poland Spring bottle, I vow to recycle it so that it can be utilized into making new plastics (like the recycling facility that we went to at Ecomaine.)

6. I will carpool to work and school rather than all of us taking our own cars. This will reduce our carbon footprint because we will be using one car instead of multiple ones. We will be reducing our CO2 emissions along with saving ourselves money.

7. I will buy “green” recycled materials whenever I can. I found this article on buygreen.com about the benefits on buying green and local. It says, “By using natural alternatives such as environmentally friendly bags, we help to stretch this non-renewable resource.”

8. I will turn my thermostat down when I go to bed or to school in order to reduce my use of gas and electricity. This will save my parents money in the longrun and there is no sense in keeping the room warm when I am not there. I have blankets to use overnight and it is a small and easy way to make a difference.

9. I will continue to recycle boxes at home, but will try to introduce composting to my household. Using my extensive experience working with composting, and using the information that I learned by our field trip to help out the students at Riverton Elementary with learning more about composting, I will teach my parents the importance of composting. In the warm weather we can use a worm box and make fertilizer for our summer garden.

10. When it is nice out, I will ride my bike to work rather than driving. Since I am only blocks away, there is no sense in polluting the earth with the short car trip. I read an article on adultbicycling.com about the benefits of biking rather than driving your car, “Most people in the United States use their cars to make even short trips of a mile or less, causing major pollution damage. There’s a way to help us all out of this mess - bicycling to work and the store.” This benefits the earth by reducing the pollution along with keeping our fresh Maine air clean.

I could think of a bunch of other ideas, like DHS adding another local food day, or using automatic sinks in the bathroom to prevent leaking faucets, but these are the ten most sensible ideas that I could think of.