Friday, May 23, 2008

Sustainability blogpost 6

During this quarter long sustainability project my family and I have gained a lot from it. We have become more sustainable and healthier than we have ever been. We have met most of my goals like not using paper plates which he have not used and also not washing half loads. Also our family has been more productive in carpooling, now every Tuesday and Thursday we have been carpooling to practice and home. This saves gas for both of the families involved since gas is about 4 dollars a gallon. My dad and I have been taking shorter showers now since I told him how much water we save. I think that our family is really trying to fit into the sustainability mold because when my mom is out grocery shopping she is buying organic foods and making healthier selections on the foods we eat for dinner. Also we are making strides towards solar water heating in our house and also thinking about electric cars, another thing is when I am out clothes shopping I try to buy organic clothes but It can be expensive. The hardest thing about this project had to be shortening our showers to 3 minutes, it was hard because we are used to long hot showers. After a while your body gets used to it and it is not that hard to do. This project was great for our family because we are eating a lot healthier and organic fruits and drinks just taste that much fresher and better. I like drinking organic fruit smoothies in the morning because they wake me up and taste great. Some disadvantages to this project are that organic and local foods cost more but my family is willing to pay extra to have fresh and fruit with no pesticides. Whenever my mom cooked dinner we ate with ceramic plates not paper this way we are not killing trees and saving money on not buying paper plates. A disadvantage to this is that we have to wash them more often and that our dishwasher uses up a lot of water. I hope my family continues our journey to becoming sustainable because we are becoming healthier and saving money in the long run. If just everyone started to become a little more sustainable our earth could be that much cleaner and be saving that many trees and that much water. I wish that Punahou School would take sustainability more serious in the snack bar. Even though they launched the pilot they still are serving hot pocket's on a regular basis now. I hope they take a step into having healthier foods especially in the lunch lines where you purchase hot foods. So far this quarter long project has been a real plus for my family and I and I really hope that we can keep it up.

3 comments:

Cheyne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cheyne said...

Good reflection. That is amazing that you can cut your showers down to three min. Our family is trying to do the same.

Lara Cowell said...

Hi Lowell,
Another way you can reduce your carbon footprint in the clothes dept. is to buy from vintage or secondhand stores, like Goodwill, Savers, consignment stores, and the Punahou Tank. It's amazing how you can get inexpensive, yet stylish designer threads, sometimes new with labels still attached.