“‘Green’ is the new black.” I’ve heard this phrase before and it seems to be appearing everywhere in the news. Companies are now using the term of being “green” as a gimmick to look more attractive to consumers. Small businesses and even schools are becoming ‘green’. We can even be ‘green’ in our own homes. I’d like to think as myself as a pretty responsible citizen and yes, I DO recycle. However, do you know that the U.S. energy consumption per-capita is 98,418 kiloWatt hours per year in comparison to only 21,213 kiloWatt hours used around the world per year? How is that even possible? Recycling is one thing, but when I think of how much I drive back and forth from the suburbs to downtown because it is more comfortable, its insane to think that I have to go fill up my energy efficient Toyota Corolla twice a week! The average American drives 12,000 miles per year and uses 441 gallons of automobile gasoline. Sounds like a lot doesn’t it? Americans are known to have the luxury of being able to buy a car, and be able to use a car as our main system of transportation when the rest of the world relies on public transportation, bikes and the use of their own legs.
In reality the average American disperses more than half of those 98,000 or so kiloWatts hours per year in our very own homes. This includes air conditioning, water heating, space heating, refrigeration, and lighting/appliances. For me this includes, the ten minutes that I leave the water running in the shower to let the water warm up plus the additional twenty minutes I use in the shower, the countless times I leave my hair appliances on carelessly in the morning as I brush my teeth, get ready, and eat breakfast BEFORE I even get to do my hair! That’s more than half an hour on energy wasted. Side note: this may not apply to the boys. Let’s not forget the numerous times I crank up the heat and then forget to change it back when I leave the house. Keep in mind that I only go to my house to sleep. Does this routine sound familiar? If it does, then it’s easy to say that we as Americans are not as energy savvy as we thought.
The U.S. is known to have the best of the best, yet we are not investing enough to reduce the amount of energy we use. As of now, we only use 3.7 percent of solar, wind, and geothermal energy efficient energy combined and 6 percent of hydroelectric energy compared to the 48 percent of coal and natural gas which is inefficient. Surprisingly enough we use 1 percent of oil. Because of awareness of these statistics, we reduce the use of energy by doing as little as taking public transportation, turning off and unplugging appliances or turning off the heat as much as you can when you are not at home. (Merely turning off an appliance does not always mean that it does not eat up energy) Changing to energy efficient items is also advised such as using CFL bulbs. At Save Wave Energy, we encourage everyone to go green. Our suppliers use energy efficient power to help our customers go green and cut down on those electricity bills too!
Sources: VisualEconomics.com
