Living Lighter on the Planet

A SANTA FE FAMILY WORKS TO ACHIEVE THE ULTIMATE GREEN GOAL

Planet: Santa Fe family made changes totheir lifestyle little by little

They hang their clothes to dry, bake cookies in a solar oven, grow some of their own food, reuse their bath water and produce all their own electricity.

The Griscom-Wright family of Santa Fe has taken dozens of steps, small and large, to live lighter on the planet.

Their ultimate aim: add no carbon dioxide to the environment through their daily lifestyle. Carbon dioxide is one of the main greenhouse gases -- produced from burning fossil fuels in vehicles and power-generating stations -- that scientists link to global warming. Their plan is called "carbon neutral." It's the new green goal.

The family hasn't reached that goal yet.

David Griscom and Peggy Wright still drive gasoline-powered cars, though most of the year Griscom bikes to work from their 20-year- old home off Old Santa Fe Trail. "We're not as green as some people who have no cars," Wright said. Their food isn't all grown locally. And yes, they used disposable diapers for their daughter, Chelsea Griscom, when she was born almost four years ago. (The choice was between using more water to wash cotton diapers or putting more waste in the landfill, noted Wright, 44.)

But their daily lives are a lot greener than they were four years ago. "We take baby steps toward that ultimate goal (of being carbon neutral)," said Griscom, 40. "We've approached our house as kind of a little prototype."

Making the change

They made the changes to their lifestyle little by little.

Their move to green is reflected in their career choices. Griscom, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, promotes renewable-energy projects around the state in his job as program manager for the nonprofit Regional Development Corporation.

Wright just completed her master's degree in landscape architecture with The University of New Mexico and now works with the Santa Fe company Ecoscape, which installs Xeriscaping, water catchment and waste-water recycling systems.

The mounting evidence of climate change and its impact on the desert West is part of what pushed the family toward a different lifestyle.

Saving energy

On most days, Griscom and Wright can step outside now and watch their electric meter spin backward.

Solar panels on the roof produce electricity that feeds back into the power grid run by Public Service Company of New Mexico. PNM pays the couple 13 cents for every kilowatt-hour of energy their photovoltaic system produces. With the family's efforts to reduce their electrical use, they actually produce all their home's energy now and get some money back from PNM.

Tax credits and PNM's purchase of their power help offset the thousands of dollars it costs to install the system.

But the couple started cutting their energy costs before investing in the solar panels and the solar water heater on their roof.

"We raised our general awareness, like turning off lights when we leave rooms," Griscom said.

They keep their thermostat at

60 even in the winter and turn on the heat as late in the year as possible.

They switched 80 percent of their incandescent light bulbs to energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs.

Griscom bought a Kill-A-Watt, a device that plugs into a wall outlet and measures the amount of electricity an electrical appliance uses even when it is turned off, a phenomena known as phantom load. "That was illuminating," Griscom said.

His scanner was using 8 watts all the time, when it was off. The printer was drawing 2 watts and the television 1 to 2 watts. Over the course of a year, "that's a lot of power," Griscom said. So they put everything on power strips and turn the power strip off when they aren't using the equipment.

They started washing their laundry in cold water instead of hot and turned their water heater down to

120 degrees.

"That's the low-hanging fruit, the kinds of things your average household can do, very simply, very cheaply and really reduce their energy consumption and their energy bill and thus improve their economic position," Griscom said.

The couple also switched out their older dryer, refrigerator and dishwasher for energy-efficient ones. "Most people don't know their electric dryer is going to be the biggest electric consumer in their household, especially if they use it frequently," Griscom said.

The upfront costs will be paid back to them in electricity savings within three to five years, Griscom figures. And PNM is offering rebates on some energy-efficient appliances.

The couple bought an energy-efficient front-loading washing machine, which saves both electricity and water. They are on a well, but for city residents paying a monthly water bill, "you'll reduce your water bill dramatically."

Instead of using their dryer, the couple started hanging their clothes to dry on racks and on lines in the garage. Griscom suffers from allergies, so hanging the clothes outside wasn't an option.

And they started baking in a solar oven instead of using the electric oven, baking everything from the Thanksgiving turkey to chocolate-chip cookies in the sun.

Their efforts slashed their power usage from 400 kilowatt-hours per month to 100 kilowatts. Griscom tracks their progress using a simple spreadsheet that also tracks the rising cost of energy.

Saving water

"Water-wise, the first thing we did was use a submersible pump," Wright said.

For about $40, the pump goes into saved bath or shower water. "You just hook a hose to it and pump it out (through a window) to your plants." Wright said.

They installed aerators on all the faucets, which saves about half a gallon of water a day.

Griscom changed all the shower heads to low-flow as well. "We actually had a shower head that was 1 gallon a minute. Peggy put her foot down on that one," Griscom said.

"You barely get wet," Wright added.

The couple uses tanks to capture water running off the roof to use on their plants.

Wright created a gracefully landscaped yard with drought- tolerant plants on sunny sides and more water-needy vegetation, such as aspens, on the north side near their septic tank. Location is as important as what is planted. "We don't water the aspens any more than anything else," Wright said.

She said capturing water as it moves across property is an inexpensive thing anyone can do. One example is shoveling a short dirt dam-like berm along the downward slope of a landscape to slow down water. "That's low-cost, it saves water, and anyone can do it," Wright said.

Their efforts to reduce and reuse water is tied to what they see coming.

"We read report after report after report linking climate change to increased drought conditions throughout the West," Griscom said. "Ultimately our goal will have to be preparing for the city or the county issuing a mandate saying no more outdoor watering, which they've done in the past."

Green tags

Between their jobs and young daughter, there are times the couple still use their vehicles. Their Subaru Forester gets 30 miles per gallon, and their Toyota Corolla gets 41 miles per gallon. Most of the time, Griscom bikes to work. "You save a ton of money on gas, you get in shape and feel good about yourself," said Griscom, who serves on the board of the Bicycle Coalition of New Mexico.

Since they do still drive and use some natural gas, they buy renewable-energy credits called "green tags" to offset their emissions. They purchase the tags through a new program recently established by the New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy and an Oregon-based nonprofit Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Revenue from the tags is reinvested in new solar and wind energy projects.

Drastic measures

New Mexico's power providers are set to raise rates 10 percent to 20 percent next January. "We're only going to see the rates continue to increase," Griscom said. "The cost of mining coal, the specter of carbon caps and a carbon-constrained environment is forcing utility companies to change their rate structures and raise their rates because they're going to have to pay a fine to emit carbon in the future.

"We have to think out of the box," Griscom said. "We need to take drastic measures to lessen our carbon impact. Maybe it's our neighborhoods that need to pick up the ball."

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055

or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.

ON THE WEB

* New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy, www.cfcae.org

* Green Energy New Mexico, www.greenenergynm.org

* Ski Green, www.skigreen.org

GO CARBON NEUTRAL

You can easily reduce carbon-dioxide emissions in day-to-day living. Here's some easy ways to cut back:

* Turn off lights when not in use.

* Switch out incandescent light bulbs to energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs.

* Buy energy-efficient appliances. uTurn down the thermostat.

* Drive less; find alternative forms of transportation.

* Take vacations closer to home.

* Reuse gray water.

* Harvest rainwater.

* Install aerators on all faucets.

* Produce your own electricity through solar or wind power.

* Buy 'green tags,' or renewable-energy credits.

(c) 2007 The Santa Fe New Mexican. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.