Content related to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
It was a frustrating and disappointing week at work, with some losses for public health and climate action. I told my team that “if it were easy, someone would have figured it out already.” That said, I am grateful for the opportunity to figure it out with 15 other leaders from around the world this coming year as part of the Indo-Pacific Leadership Lab.
In honor of Climate Week and our need for stronger, swifter climate action, this post examines the new Allegheny County ordinance calling for the creation of a Climate Action Plan, which will reference Pennsylvania’s and Pittsburgh’s existing plans. Therefore, it’s important we understand the assumptions and omissions present in these example Climate Action Plans and how their approaches will shape the county’s next steps.
After years of intermittent research and data collection, I’m ready to share what we already knew: we’re saving money by using less energy! But how much, and how long until we recoup the costs of the weatherization work we had done in our attic in May 2021? We’ll never know for sure, but this exercise was a fun exploration of that complex question.
I finally got my hands on our gas usage data, thanks to a very patient husband and a helpful customer service representative. With this information, I’ve been able to take a look at how much we’re saving since our attic weatherization work in May 2021. I’m looking for ways to at least reduce our use of this fossil fuel until we’re in the position to eliminate it.
The world is talking more about decarbonizing our energy and transportation sectors, and one hot talking point is hydrogen. Hydrogen fuel cells can store energy like a clean battery, and hydrogen burns cleaner than fossil alternatives. However, the various processes of isolating hydrogen from input materials mean a range of environmental impacts, especially since the bulk of hydrogen is still produced using fossil fuels.
Once you’ve paid for weatherization work at your house, you may be curious how effective it is in saving you energy (and money). By employing data points called “degree days,” we can get a reasonably accurate view into how much energy gets used before and after weatherization work while keeping an eye on how much heating and cooling demand existed during the period in question.
About a year ago, we finally weatherized our attic. Many people know that weatherization includes air sealing and insulation; many people do not know that those things have to be done in a very specific way in order to work… and the previous owner of our house was not one of those people. Doing the job wrong is ineffective at best and dangerous at worst.
We recently got a set of concrete steps put in at our house. As part of my atonement, this post summarizes what concrete is, why it’s so bad for the environment, why our governments can’t get enough of it, and what can be done to reduce the climate, health, and environmental justice impacts associated with the second-most-used substance on the planet.
The term “recycling” is a dangerous thing because of how it inaccurately shapes our perceptions around the plastic lifecycle. Most plastic put in the recycle bin doesn’t get recycled, but even the industrial process of “chemical recycling” doesn’t necessarily create a closed-loop plastic system. Instead, it can often fuel increased health risks for those living nearby, increasing global temperatures, and demand for additional plastic.
There are plenty of debates right now about energy independence and what that means, especially in light of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting boycotts of Russian fossil fuels. There’s not much I can do as an individual, but these events prompted my switch to a third-party electricity supplier, particularly one that focuses on utility-scale wind and solar projects here in Pennsylvania.