| Real Estate - Friday, November 16, 2007
Dreaming of a green Christmas?
Going green while painting the town red
by Andrea Wang
'Tis the season for dressing up, throwing parties, buying gifts, celebrating big time: Is it possible to do all this without making a major dent in your wallet -- or the environment?
To save money and fight global warming, a few simple things can be done for the holidays without sacrificing tradition and spirit.
Jennifer Duchene, founder of Homes Redefined, said one small thing that helps conserve energy and money is to use -- and reuse -- objects that people already have in their homes or gardens.
"The idea is to give people ideas of what they can do themselves, and a lot of people like the idea of doing something green," Duchene said. "There are so many things you can do with what you have. Go through your own supplies and ... incorporate it."
For example, Duchene said people can make their own holiday decorations -- wreaths, table centerpieces, garlands, and window and wall ornaments -- using plants, branches, leaves, acorns and berries found in their back yard.
Old greeting cards and used wrapping paper can also be cut up to make shapes to hang around the Christmas tree, or even to make into window decorations.
"Package green," Duchene added. "Take existing paper (such as old wrapping paper or the Sunday comics) -- or even brown paper -- and decorate it."
Food and fruits also work well in decorations and are good for the environment because they are biodegradable, she said. People have food in their homes whether or not it is the holiday season, so using these items will save money and a trip to the store to buy items specifically for the occasion.
Duchene added that by using already-existing items, people will be saving energy and eliminating waste because there are "(fewer) things you're throwing into the garbage."
One daily activity -- not restricted to holidays -- can have a huge impact on both the environment and the local economy: eating.
"Food choice is something we do three times a day," Conexions Executive Director Susan Stansbury said. The food system itself -- including transport, refrigeration, packaging and distributing chemicals used for growing -- uses 20 percent of all fossil-fuel, she said.
Every year, Conexions -- a non-profit environmental organization -- throws a dinner party through Valley of Heart's Delight called the 100-Mile Thanksgiving Celebration, which not only feeds participants but also shares Thanksgiving recipes that are both environmentally and economically friendly.
Stansbury said this celebration was started as an international event to raise people's awareness about the ecological and economic purposes of eating locally.
"By buying organic food and reducing the food miles, we are lowering our consumption of fossil fuels," she said.
According to Stansbury, each ingredient for a typical meal with meat travels around 1,500 miles. Buying groceries from the farmer's market or even a nearby store not only supports the local economy by keeping the money in local farms so they can stay viable for the future, but also reduces one's global impact, she said.
Although the 100-Mile Thanksgiving Celebration is thrown for Thanksgiving, Stansbury said the principle of the celebration can be applied to Christmas, or any other meals served throughout the year.
"Holidays are a little tricky," she added. "There are traditions and some foods that people expect on the table."
However, Stansbury said that it is possible to find a balance that both honors seasonal traditions and supports local ingredients.
"A really simple thing would be ... use a local source for turkey or buy potatoes at the farmer's market as opposed to buying a big bag from Idaho," she said. "You can find ingredients that fit into your meal that are locally grown."
With big holiday meals, it is good to use real dishes such as china in order to eliminate waste, she added. She also suggests composting food scraps, recycling all bottles used, and if people must use disposable dishes, there are local organizations, such as World Centric, that sell biodegradable and compostable tableware.
One of the more popular holiday traditions is the use of Christmas lights, whether they are strung throughout and around the house, wrapped around the Christmas tree or incorporated into ornaments and lawn decorations.
During the holidays, the average electric bill goes up around 20 percent just for lighting up homes and trees, which translates to around $15-20 a month extra on utility bills, City of Palo Alto Utilities representative Bruce Lesch said.
"While the amount of energy used per household may not seem to be a huge amount, there are many people in the U.S. who are lighting up their homes," he said. "The amount of energy adds up quickly. ... Energy used by Christmas trees -- if everyone in the U.S. used C7 (classic holidays lights) lights -- would be equivalent to the total energy usage of the entire city of Palo Alto for 2.55 years."
Lesch explained that if all those people using C7 lights converted to LED (light-emitting diodes) lighting for their trees, the energy usage would be equivalent to 22 days of the energy usage in Palo Alto -- and this number is just for trees.
Palo Alto Hardware General Manager Maureen Montez agreed and said a great way to reduce energy use is to switch all standard filament Christmas lights to LEDs.
For 600 lights on for 45 days, six hours a day, and 12 cents per kilowatt, the energy cost for standard lights will be $8.26 while the energy cost for LED ones is only $1.63, an 80 percent decrease in energy use.
Larger, standard C7 bulbs use 810 kilowatts of energy, and switching to LED lights can save up to 95 percent on the next electricity bill.
"You can (decorate) your whole house coming out of one outlet and you won't even blow a fuse," Montez added.
However, Montez points out that LED lights can cost up to three times as much as the standard bulbs.
"They are a lot more expensive," she said. "But on the other end of it, what you are doing on your PG&E bill and what you are doing for the environment will definitely pay off."
Residents of Palo Alto are eligible for a 50-percent discount on their LED holiday lights if purchased at Palo Alto Hardware or Peninsula Hardware.
Lesch said the city of Palo Alto is looking into taking down the holiday lights in the trees on University Avenue and replacing them with LED lights.
"While there is a cost to remove the existing lights and put up the new lights, the energy savings and the decreased maintenance due to the long life of the LEDs make this a project with a very quick payback," he said.
Editorial Intern Andrea Wang can be e-mailed at awang@paweekly.com. | 
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