Thursday, September 16, 2010

How green are you?

I discovered this interesting little web quiz today called "How green are you?" It contains a pretty extensive set of questions about the sustainability of the choices you make for your family and your home. It did a great job of pointing out to me what I needed some improvement on.  Do you need a green evaulation?  I encourage my eco-friendly readers to take a few moments to take the test and see where you score.

 As for me, I received:

Congratulations! You Are Solidly Green


You have reached Level 6 out of a possible 10. Kudos! You’ve made some meaningful changes in your life to go green. Want more? It’s easy: get started for your personalized plan, based on your answers to the quiz. And please post your stories, ratings, and product recommendations.

I was surprised to score this high.  I definitely fell short on a lot of the home-efficiency items.  I have a big, old house.  While the upper level has received an energy efficient facelift, the lower level has all original windows and fixtures.  Ideologically, I sort of struggle with that:  how can I claim to be eco-conscious when I know that my house pumps all kinds of heat out through my leaded glass windows during the winter?  And every year, even though our heating bill is absolutely astounding, our beautiful original windows win out. I just can't bring myself to replace them with modern, energy-efficient counterparts.  Our house is old and full of beautiful original detail.

We've reached some compromises though.  Last year we saved a lot on our heating bill by putting up ugly, ugly clear plastic barriers on the windows that were our biggest offenders.  The difference was remarkable and immediately noticeable.  We will do that again this year.  And aside from the physical structure of our house, I know that energy efficiency was not in our minds when we purchased our appliances, and I'd like to change that as we eventually purchase new items for our home.  Maybe we'll start a new tradition in our home of doing one energy-efficient improvement to our home every year.  By starting slowly but remaining steady, I think we can make a pretty big impact on how green we live.


mbj

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Id love to take this quiz..but I can't find the link if you shared it?

Jenn said...

You are totally right - the link didn't show up. It is there now - give it a try!