IWillTry.org

Who am I?

My name is Andrew (aka Bruce) and I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada. My background is in Engineering and Business. I believe that a lot can be done to reduce our impact without sacrificing current lifestyle. A LOT more can be done with some degree of compromise that likely won’t be noticed after a while. Reducing energy usage is not linearly proportional to decreased comfort.

How am I trying?

Here are some of the things that I try to do to reduce my impact:

• Fly less. A single international return flight is equivalent to driving a single occupancy vehicle to and from work for a year. I used to travel a lot (and have been to ~25 countries). Since I learned about the impact of flying on the environment, I have decided to fly as little as possible and have cancelled two trips already (to Cuba and to Vegas).

• Buy less. Most people don’t think about it, but things take energy to make. And the true cost of an item is often not reflected in the price you pay for it, because energy cost is still artificially low. I try to buy only things that I truly need. I don’t “upgrade” my possession just because the latest gadget came out, or go to sales just because things are cheap.

• Drive less. I have a fairly efficient Honda Civic, but I still try to bike as much as possible. I realize that it rains a lot in Vancouver and it is very convenient and tempting to just hop into a car when it rains. Yup, I do that too, but I consciously try to drive less.

• Encourage others. I love camping and the outdoors, and I try to introduce both friends and strangers to this fairly inexpensive, healthy, and low-impact form of entertainment. When you go camping you also gain an appreciation of how much water / energy / food you consume, and your impact on the environment.

• Choose carefully where to spend time and money. I’ve donated my time to build a website for a good cause: http://www.endangeredecosystems.org. I’ve also invested in this company that has the potential of reducing energy consumption in residential households: http://www.energy-aware.com.

• Home improvement. We installed a hybrid on-demand electric water heating system to replace our inefficient, gas-fired hot water tank.

• Don’t be afraid to speak up. If you believe in reducing your impact on the environment, don’t be afraid to speak your mind and encourage others to do the same. Perhaps your friends are sympathetic to reducing their impact, but they may not know about the tremendous damage that air travel does to the environment. Gently educate them and make them aware of it. Then it is up to them to decide if they want to change their ways.