Get Ready for No Impact Thursday: Energy

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Photo by Dayvayen

Today we are going to focus on reducing energy use.

You've reached the fifth day of your No Impact Experiment, and you have made incredible changes: you are making less trash, getting around on your own steam, eating better, and cutting back on your consumption. If life without electricity sounds daunting, well, it can be. The laundry machine was one of the things Colin and Michelle missed the most during their No Impact year. But they also found their apartment was cluttered with electricity-sucking devices they didn't miss at all. Without TV, they had to rely on each other for entertainment.

The family forged deeper relationships and had more meaningful conversations. They slept better following the natural rise and fall of the sun, and without refrigeration, they perfected a healthful culinary technique of preserving vegetables. Over the next four days, how far can you go to reduce your energy consumption?

Steps to Prepare

• Assess current energy consumption habits. Walk from room to room in your home. List everything in each room that uses energy to operate (i.e., electricity, oil, gas, batteries). Put a star next to any item that you would ordinarily use in the remaining four days of your No Impact Experiment.

• Next to each starred item, indicate if you are going to eliminate or mitigate your usage of that item. Not sure how to live without your fill in the blank? Brainstorm and spark a conversation with others online.
• Unplug! Turn it off. Power down. Go off the grid. For the truly adventurous, turn off your electricity completely and see what happens.
  
• Ask yourself throughout the day: What is the hardest part about reducing the amount of energy you use? 

• Write down five things for which you are grateful, and share them with us on Facebook.

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Find out what other YES! readers are discovering and share your own experiences.