90% Reduction

While researching for our upcoming Low Impact Week, I stumbled across Simple Living and Casaubon. Their goal is to reduce 90% under that of an average American. I spent several days crunching numbers, discussing with my family, and thinking about this. We have decided to use Low Impact Week as a launching pad for our year-long quest for 10%.

There is only one category where we will partially opt-out. CK works 35 miles away. There is no public transportation and it is too dangerous to walk or bike most sections of the trip. However, he will carpool part of the distance with MA and do errands on his way to and fro.

Now for the figures:

1. Gasoline.
Average American: usage is 500 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR.
90% reduction: would be 50 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR.
Us: See note above. Our past usage for MA, HM, and I was about 400 gallons. HM and I will stick with 50 gallons for the two of us. Our family will use HM’s 50 for trips to church. We’ll just have to see how our guys do with their commutes.

2. Electricity.
Average US usage: is 11,000 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR, or about 900 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH.
90% reduction: would mean using 1,100 PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR or 90 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH
Us: average 600 kwh per month. This currently includes our cooking. I am going try to switch to our camp stove and an earth oven.

3. Natural Gas + Wood Energy
US Average Natural Gas usage is 1000 therms PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR.
A 90% reduction would mean a reduction to 100 therms PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR
Us: We heat with carbon neutral wood. It is all standing dead, fallen dead, or waste wood. I plan on switching to propane for our cooking. Propane 1.1 gallon is equal to 1 therm. I don’t know how much it will take, but it will be more efficient than electric. For baking we plan on building an earth oven.

4. Garbage
the average American generates about 4.5 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.
A 90% reduction would mean .45 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.
Us: Thank goodness, finally a category where we don’t have to work. We already average less than 1 pound of garbage per day for a family of 4 adults.

5. Water.
The Average American uses 100 Gallons of water PER PERSON, PER DAY.
A 90% reduction would mean 10 gallons PER PERSON, PER DAY.
Us: 51 gallons per day.
-This surprised me! We are definitely looking at rain water collection.

6. Consumer Goods.
The average American spends 10K PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR on consumer goods
90% 1k per year (new) Used goods are 10% (used from garage sale is 10%) Used from Goodwill, Church Sale, etc does not count against.
Us: I don’t know what our past totals are. We just replaced a desktop computer with 2 laptops. I’ll just start on June 1 with a tally. We are including in this category all non-food purchases.

7. Food.
Local should be 70% of diet
Bulk allotted 25% of diet
non-local/Processed 5%
Us: Local 60%; Bulk 35%; Processed 5%

Well there it is. Some of it isn’t pretty, but we’ll work on it.
KMH