Okay, so I admit that I’ve been back from Cuba for a week without writing anything. I’ve just been too busy. But I’m kind of glad that I didn’t pass on my impressions right away; they’ve had some time to percolate. Keep in mind that this isn’t my normal heavily researched sort of post; it all comes from just a week there. I’m by no means an expert.

One of the many many classic cars in Havana.

My guidebook had said (yes, I am Ms. Guidebook) that Cuba is quite environmentally conscious. While the country might not have a good record of preserving its natural resources, its energy use is low. Globally, the three major sources of carbon emissions are transportation, heating/cooling, and meat production, and people in Cuba are generally parsimonious with all three.

• Transportation – Cars are either from before 1959 or imported from Europe/Russia/China, and there aren’t that many of them. Very few cars means that most everybody takes public transportation or walks. The bus system in Havana is extensive, with new articulated buses from China to meet the demand. I don’t know how often they run, but every bus stop was crowded with waiting people and the buses always seemed filled to capacity—or more. I even saw people hanging out open doorways as buses drove away. I never actually rode in one, but truthfully I’m not sure I’d want to. Even at the worst rush hour in Boston I’ve never seen the subway that packed.
• Heating/Cooling – Havana is warm enough that heating doesn’t seem to be an issue. Everyone kept apologizing that it was winter, but that really just meant I needed to wear a long-sleeved shirt outside at night. I’m sure it gets really hot in the summer, but the majority of the buildings seem to be 50 years old, thus before air conditioning. So they’re built to be naturally cooler than boxier modern buildings. Ceilings were higher—to draw hot air away from people—and it seemed that every floor had a balcony to act as a warm-weather living room, catching the ocean breeze. I wonder if it’s actually comfortable in the summer.
• Meat – I was worried that as a vegetarian I’d have a hard time in Cuba, but not at all. Beans and rice seem to be a staple, cooked in different ways and with side dishes of tostones (fried plantains) or yucca. Pork was also a regular feature at a lot of meals—once, a whole roast pig—but I was able to avoid it. I’m not sure if this is how Cubans eat on a day-to-day basis, but I was told it was traditional.

From all this, I assume that the average Cuban would have a far tinier carbon footprint than the average American (including me). However, it seems to be by necessity rather than by choice. While we might want to encourage public transportation use, natural cooling, and diets light on meat, we have to find a way to convince people who have the ability to choose otherwise.

Of course there are many environmental issues, too. For one, tourism is a major business, and if my experience is common, the source of a lot of carbon emissions. I drank bottled water the whole time, to avoid parasites in the tap water. I also took taxis, usually older cars followed by noxious clouds of exhaust. And my hotel room was a boxy building that was overly air conditioned.

All in all, it was a really interesting trip, one that made me both grateful for what we have and horrified at what we waste.

One year ago: Squeegees—Not Just for Windshields Anymore

Sorry I was incommunicado last week. Things have been a little crazy, what with our trip to Chicago for our friends’ wedding (congrats, Jim and Raquel!) and my upcoming work trip to Cuba. Between the two of them, they’ve really added to my carbon footprint for the year in just a month.

Two four-hour round-trip plane trips emit more than a ton of CO2. This is the difference between, say, driving a hybrid rather than a regular car—or going vegetarian rather than eating meat—for a whole year!  It really makes me think about how a few big choices can outweigh a thousand little ones. I try to concentrate my efforts in order of efficiency (most impact, least effort; most impact, most effort; least impact, least effort; least impact, most effort) but sometimes I get distracted by day-to-day stuff.

Obviously, choosing not to fly would save a lot of CO2, but what if it can’t be avoided (or it’s important enough that you really don’t want to avoid it)? There are a few things we can do to minimize the effects of plane travel.

• Book nonstop flights – Up to 50% of fuel is used in takeoff (depending on the length of the flight), so it’s better to only do this once.
• Don’t fly short-haul – In addition to improving the takeoff/flight ratio for fuel consumption, shorter trips are far more efficient by bus, train, even car, than by plane.
• Don’t take the red eye – Airplane exhaust trails have more of a greenhouse effect at night.
• Offset your travel with carbon credits – I don’t generally think that carbon credits actually make up for reducing carbon used in the first place, but it does help assuage my guilt a little. Just make sure to buy them from a reputable company. Native Energy is my favorite, but TerraPass is another good one.

Don’t worry—I’m not such a Debbie downer that I’m letting my worries about my carbon footprint ruin my trips this month. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to share when I get back.

One year ago: To Save Energy, Use the Dishwasher?

This week I’m most excited about the Home Energy Score program. A standardized system for home energy audits could prevent a lot of wasted money—and energy.

• Feds Set Standards for Home Energy Audits, Loans – Gigaom. An increase in energy audits—and funding for them—makes for a lot of inconsistency.
• Home Energy Score – U.S. Department of Energy. Speaking of which, check out the new Energy Star–like label.
• Farm to Dorm: Boston University Farmers’ Market – Local In Season. BU is really making huge strides when it comes to sustainability. I wish Berklee could do something like this.
• Nail Salons Move to Avoid Using Toxic Chemicals – New York Times. Seriously, girls, formaldehyde isn’t pretty.
• The Secret to Turning Consumers Green – Wall Street Journal. The secret? Guilt.
• New energy rules worry builders – Boston Globe. If “popular design options such as sheer glass skyscrapers” waste energy, they shouldn’t really be popular designs, should they?
• City wants to plow vacant plots to farm land – Boston Globe. What a great idea.
• A Conversation with Jane Goodall – New York Times. I’m not entirely sure how relevant this is, but I love Jane Goodall.

That’s all for now. As always, if you see anything interesting this week, pass it along.

Soap nuts have always seemed a little hippy-dippy to me. I mean, washing your clothes with nuts? But my friend Jen suggested I check them out, so I thought, why not? and got a sample pack.

This sample pack washes 16 loads of laundry.

First off, they’re not nuts; they’re dried fruit from the sapindus tree (which is why they’re also known as soap berries). When they’re heated, they secrete saponin, a natural surfactant. They’re perfect for front-loading washing machines, because they’re low-sudsing.

Now, we currently wash out clothes in cold water, and switching to warm water wouldn’t make much environmental sense. But you can boil the soap nuts on the stovetop to create detergent. Just bring 4 cups of water to a boil, turn it off, and toss in 6–8 soap nuts. Soak overnight, fish the soap nuts out in the morning, and filter. At 1/4 to 1/2 cup for each load of laundry, it’s actually more efficient this way than throwing the soap nuts in a warm water wash.

The prepared detergent

Even better—it’s cheaper than the Tide HE Free that we were using before. That washed 64 loads for $14. A pound of soap nuts should wash (at least) 175 loads for $30.

Granted, they’re shipped from the Himalayas, but the dried-out fruit is really light—much lighter than bottles of laundry detergent. And, at least from Laundry Tree, they come in paper bags and cardboard boxes—no plastic in sight.

I can’t believe what an unmitigated success this experiment was. I vow to be more open-minded in the future.

One year ago: An Explosion of Worms . . . and Flies

As you know, I switched razors a while back to try to get them to last longer. It worked, but not as well as I would have liked. To get my blade to last even longer, I’ve started storing it in olive oil.

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Everyone knows you can extend a razor’s life by keeping it outside of the shower and dry, preventing rust from forming. But every time I tried to dry mine off, I wiped off the aloe strip. This way’s much easier.

I originally read about this at Green Living Tips; Wise Bread lists it and a bunch of other shaving tricks. Any sort of oil will do: vegetable, mineral, baby. Even alcohol or vinegar. I just chose olive oil because that’s what we had on hand. And any oil that’s left on the blade just makes your shave smoother.

One year ago: My Anti-Thanksgiving