A group of Mount Desert residents are making the world’s leaders look like environmental lightweights.
While leaders from the world’s leading industrialized nations are hoping to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, the members of the Mt. Desert group ROOTS plans to achieve the same goal in just five years.
Don’t laugh; most of the group’s regular members already have cut their emissions 30 percent in the first year, and they’ve seen thousands of dollars in savings from reduced electric and heating bills as a result.
Achieving a real reduction in your carbon footprint is actually pretty easy and doesn’t require a major shift in lifestyle, said Erika Shriner, the group’s unofficial spokeswoman. “20 percent for most people is actually doable” without much effort, Shriner said.
ROOTS (Running Out of Time) is a group of 10 to 12 MDI residents who track their energy consumption and find ways to be more energy-efficient. The group also has been active in local schools and government. Now, they want to share how easy it is to be green.
This summer, ROOTS, along with the Sierra Club, is sponsoring a “Green and Lean” lecture series, eight events on Mt. Desert to help people find ways to go green and save money. On August 2, the group will host a green fashion show at the All in One Shop in Southwest Harbor to promote second-hand clothing.
Four friends started the group two years ago on Earth Day because of a lack of government action on climate change, said Shriner. The small group decided to reduce their own carbon footprint by 30 percent within a year instead of waiting for national leadership. But there was a twist to the pledge; the group had to keep comfortable and continue to have active lives while they reduced their energy consumption. They couldn’t resort to changes that would make their lifestyle choices unrecognizable to mainstream America.
“We wanted to do something that other people would want to adapt,” said Shriner.
News of the group’s goal quickly spread and curious people began to attend ROOTS meetings to see if such a reduction were possible, including Judy Rothrock, a retired clinical social worker. Rothrock was soon swept into the group.
“Erika is a force of nature,” said Rothrock. “Before I left that meeting, I had a bunch of charts to fill out.” Since joining, Rothrock has seen her electric bill drop by an average of 25 percent and the average number of trash bags she puts out on the curb drop from three a week to one or less. She’s achieved this reduction by composting, being more aggressive about recycling and switching to energy-efficient lightbulbs, among other things.
Once the group found the 30 percent reduction was doable, they upped the ante to 50 percent in five years. Jan Queen Russell cut her power bills by little lifestyle changes, like regularly using a drying rack instead of the dryer. Now that she’s seen the savings, she’s reluctant to go back to her old ways.
“I wouldn’t wash my clothes in hot water if my life depended on it,” Russell said.
This winter, Russell hopes to save even more. She plans to move her bed and dining room table into warmer rooms and close up her bedroom and dining room during the heating season. She also plans to use homemade drapes with fleece middles to cut down on heat leakage. “I’m going to see how low I can get our oil bill,” she said.
The key is tracking your energy use, said Shriner. The group elected to avoid online carbon footprint trackers in favor of easier-to-read indicators, like electric, heating oil and water bills. With these in hand, it quickly becomes a mental game to find ways to make the numbers go down. Many of the easiest things to do, like turning down the refrigerator thermostat and plugging in smart power strips that cut off power when electronic devices are not in use, can be done in a few hours and net huge savings, she said. Shriner saved $2,000 in lower bills and reduced impulse shopping, and she thinks others will save more.
“It’s fun and it’s addictive,” said Shriner.
But as the group’s name suggests, its energy-saving mission exists to help prevent environmental disaster. Shriner said the latest reports on climate change show it is wreaking havoc already for farmers and tourism businesses. And experts are becoming increasingly aware that new green technologies will not come online quick enough to stop global warming. “Most everything you read about clean energy is telling us there’s no way green energy, in our lifetime, is going to power the traditional American lifestyle,” Shriner said.
But she says there’s an opportunity in the economic recession to motivate people towards energy-efficiency. Unlike the stock market, it’s a sure investment at a time when many are desperate for cash.
“You can invest in energy-efficiency and be reaping in 5, 10, 15 percent [return],” Shriner said.
For more information on the lecture series, call 244-3229.