Save your money, save our planet

Press Democrat

Just when environmentalists thought they had a foothold in what they call their race against time and human habit -- and a new president who says he's ready to make green policy a priority -- the economy crumbled.

Jubilation at the election of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama as president was countered with the sobering combination of skyrocketing national debt and the worst economic crisis in nearly a century.

For many whose hearts and minds are telling them to go green, their pocketbooks and bank accounts are sending a distinctly different message.

For many Sonoma County residents, New Year's resolutions to make greener decisions are being balanced with the painful reality that many have less financial leeway to go green if that means spending more green to do it.

"We need to figure out how to break the climate change nut," said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena. "At the same time, this is the toughest time to do it. We have an $11 trillion debt, we have two wars, we have a struggling economy."

"But there are tremendous costs associated with failure to address the problem," he said.

It doesn't have to be one or the other, advocates contend.

In this time of New Year's resolutions, many Sonoma County residents are left wondering not only how to shed a few pounds, but how to reduce their carbon footprint without decimating their pocketbook.

"My sense is that, collectively, we tend to focus on the most difficult things and overlook the easy things," said Pete Gang, a Petaluma architect and green building instructor through the U.S. Green Building Council.

Turn a thermostat down a couple of degrees, install a clothesline come springtime, install compact fluorescent light bulbs and wrap a water heater in a blanket, he said.

It's not as expensive as buying a $24,000 Prius, installing solar panels on your roof or putting in double-paned windows, but it's a start that will merit results, Gang said.

"It's those kinds of things I want to do first -- relatively inexpensive but with quick payback," he said.

Front-loading washers, low-water dishwashers and some refrigerator and freezer models can be more expensive than their non-green brethren on the showroom floor, but going green helps a pocketbook in the long run, said Mike Montague, head of the sales department at Tee Vax Home Appliance and Kitchen Center in Santa Rosa.

Rebate programs can return $200 on the initial investment, and for an appliance like a freezer the expense to operate a newer model can be one-third of an appliance purchased 15 years ago, Montague said.

"The trend right now is they are replacing a washing machine because they have to and if they can get something within reason for an energy (rebate), they are doing it," he said.

People needn't shy away from their good, green intentions in the new year out of fear of the financial hit, said Rebecca Bautista, greener choice coordinator for Friedman's Home Improvement.

Sure, a $4.97 compact fluorescent light bulb is more expensive than two standard bulbs at $2.99, but it will also burn considerably longer.

A $29.99 smart strip will cut power to computers and entertainment equipment so "sleep" mode won't suck energy 24 hours a day. About $350 will get you a dual-flush, low-flow toilet that reduces water use, but a $12 Hydrofix toilet tank gadget is an option that adjusts the flow with each flush, she said.

And $3.60 will get you enough weather stripping to insulate a drafty door or window.

"All the energy you are using to heat the room is going out the window, in two ways," Bautista said.

Want to go big regardless of the economy? Installing double-paned vinyl windows in a 2,000-square foot house will pay for itself in about five years, said Pat Smith, a window technician at Friedman's.

Municipalities -- hard hit by economic woes -- are still trying to go green where feasible.

Hundreds of employees of Sonoma County and its nine cities could be driving electric cars by 2010 under a deal being worked out behind closed doors with Nissan North America.

The company has targeted Bay Area counties and cities as a two-year testing ground for an all-electric car it hopes to market to the general public in 2012, according to Nissan.

Ann Hancock, director of Sonoma County's Climate Protection Campaign, said she remains hopeful that the new presidential administration will be able to marry solutions for the faltering economy with green building ethos so one effort isn't pitted against the other.

"The fact of the matter is that the solutions that we need for green are really synonymous with the solutions we need for the economy," she said. She pointed to changing from reliance on processed fuels to renewable energy, building more efficient homes and offices, and changing the transportation system to support bicycles, buses and trains.

"People go into fear mode and fear kind of interferes with smart," she said. "Certainly we have to pay attention and respond to the economic crisis but we have to do it in a way that actually sets us up better in the long run."