How does one begin to wrap their head around the topic of Carbon Emissions in a context that is applicable to your everyday life? There are certainly numerous outlets for data and discussions regarding the impact of our modern lives, but the delivery of information can be a tad dry and often too heavy in data to absorb.

For all you busy people leading busy lives, I’ll attempt to simplify the topic of Carbon emissions by relating it to a house hold item, common to many of us – the flat iron.

Chances are you, or someone you know, use this handy little device for about a half hour in the morning – requiring approximately 500w of energy to operate.

Let’s compare a few other energy burning household items to the flat iron. How many minutes would a few of your favorites need to be in use in order to burn the same amount of energy as a single, 30-minute flat iron session?

• Coffee maker – aka nectar of the gods – about 40 minutes

• A microwave or toaster oven – about 20 minutes

• 100 watt light bulb – about 5.5 hours

• Play Station 3 – about 14 hours ( requires a super geek)

• Dishwasher dry cycle – about 22 minutes

• 2000W Electric oven set at 350 – about 15 minutes

As you may or may not know, 1kWh is equal to 1000w. Now, unless you are Rapunzel, your hair requires about 84kwh a year for straightening alone. Throw in a blow dry and those luscious locks are cruising around 185 kwh a year.

Now that we’ve got some momentum going, let’s put this in relatable terms; according to carbon-partner.com, it would take planting one new tree a year to offset the carbon footprint of washing, drying and styling your hair. Before you gasp, it is important to note their calculations assume that 5 trees should be planted to ensure that 1 will reach full carbon sequestration potential.

What to do now? You could trim a few watts here and there. I bet someone in your house would like a break from the oven or the sound of rapid gun fire exploding from the Play Station. How about a manual drip filter for your coffee? Give that coffee maker a rest. Maybe you’ll even drink a little less coffee…well we, both know that’s not going to happen.

In general, shutting off the lights when you leave the room and hand drying your dishes are all good practices. And small efforts certainly do add up. But one more significant way to offset the effects of our daily lives is to choose Green Certified companies who offer Eco- friendly products and services, and participate in programs to offset their Carbon footprint – companies like Printing Green.

Next time you’re ready to order a business card, brochure, banner or otherwise, check us out.

Printing Green providing printing you can feel good about.

Have a more complex order; contact our parent company Bacchus Press.

Resources:

Carbon Fund: Assisting in offsetting your impact – carbonfund.org

Carbon Partner: Calculate your household carbon emission – carbon-partner.org

Michael Bluejay: Calculate how much electricity a common household item uses michaelbluejay.com