A greener life, 1 bag at a time
Al Gore is holding a Nobel Peace Prize for trying to save the planet, and I’m carrying a cloth bag to PCC.
How far do I have to go to feel like I’m doing my part? Ah, that sense-of-duty thing. I haven’t entirely transformed my life, but maybe little things become habitual and change attitudes, easing us into a new sense of how life should be lived.
We can move from doing things differently because we have to, to doing what feels good.
Then it’ll be easier to live green, or at least greener.
During the summer my family vacationed in New Mexico.
On the drive from Taos to Santa Fe we came across an Earthship community.
Earthships are houses built mostly of discarded materials and designed to generate energy and recycle waste.
They don’t look anything like most houses - walls studded with empty bottles, earth packed into old tires.
We stopped out of curiosity, but after a tour, the word hippie, which popped into my head when I saw the first building, faded.
The construction made sense.
It may be awhile before we are all living in Earthships, but you could stick a solar panel on your roof right now.
Jeff Collum was installing a solar system on a new building on Capitol Hill the other day.
He’s a partner in Sound Power, an electrical contractor that specializes in renewable energy, and he’s been a solar fan since the 1970s.
It was not mainstream then, but now, Collum said, “I feel like I’m slipping out of the lunatic fringe.”
He still does the occasional installation for a survivalist type or communal living group, but that’s become the exception. Now most customers tend to be ordinary people who do it because it makes sense and they feel good about it.
Collum said a lot of stories about solar power focus on the science of it or the real-estate impact, but they miss this human part.
“Talk to anyone who does what we do … we all agree there’s a certain spirit connection that informs a job.”
The owners feel good about living in a house that’s making its own energy. They become more aware of what energy means to their lives. They have a sense of independence.
All of that rubs off on the contractors and designers and workers.
For some of his customers, Collum said, installing a solar system is a “deeply wonderful philosophical thing. For others it’s just cool, and for some there is the tech of it.”
On some systems, a homeowner can even press a button and see how many tons of greenhouse gases she’s avoided making. That’s gotta feel good.
Solar is still too pricey for most people, but it doesn’t cost to turn off an unused light.
I’m feeling pretty good about carrying bags to the store, even though I have to admit to feeling silly at first. What difference was my little bag going to make?
The clerk gave me a big smile the first time I placed a couple of bags on the counter.
Now it’s getting to be a habit, and I feel almost as pleased as Al Gore.
Jerry Large’s column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com.