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Living in suburbs is generally not green because of (1) commuting, (2) Larger housing which uses more energy to heat and cool, (3) increased electrical line distribution loss as distance from station increases, and (4) the relation between suburban sprawl and deforestation.
A lot of parents these days complain about city living. They complain that they can't get their kid(s) into a good school system or that their kids don't have safe space to play outside.
How then can a family with kids and a desire for green living reconcile these two conflicting geographical constraints? I don't have a family yet but I'm interested in it in the future.
You could start by eliminating the concerns about #3. It really isn't that much of a factor if you consider the alternatives. Even if you had roof top solar and contributed more electricity than you used, the line losses still exist as they do with almost any point if use, rural or not. The people living in cities aren't all living near power plants, the power comes from long distances anyway.
Telecommute. Lots of people do it and reduce their commutes.
Living in the suburbs doesn't require anyone to live in a larger house. Buying a house of any size is a choice. Choose to have smaller one.
You can live in a suburban area and not deforest at the same time. Buy the land and don't cut down all the trees. It's a simple idea but one that works. Who said that to live in a suburban area that all the trees must be cut down?
Instead of focusing on the problems, make choices that support "green" living, it isn't hard to do if you're starting out and haven't yet made significant financial decisions on what kind and type of house to buy or build, arranging work schedules to take advantage of technology to telecommute as much as possible and so on.
If you can't telecommute, there are very efficient cars made that will use less resources than most others driven by people in urban areas.
Many people live with a far less impact on the environment than many that claim the same and live in cities.
Larger homes can be very energy efficient. Why heat the entire house if only one portion of it is occupied? Use zone heating and cooling.
You can live almost anywhere and practice green living.
Instead of listening to the what you can't do, do what you can. Sometimes thinking about things without all the green input is amazing. Opportunity to reduce your negative impact on the environment isn't all that hard but there is a lot of emphasis on trying to tell people what to do, when to do it and how to do it or risk being seen as something other than "green".
Not all suburban homes are large.
And any sized house can be energy efficient.
There is an insulating house paint that can be used to help keep the home cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. The assistance it gives is significant and worth the time and expense.
Due to the infrastructure we have, we are somewhat bound to it. But there are many things that one can do to reduce the using of the resources to be more green.
Choice in lighting, florescent or LED lights, turn lights off when not in the room. With children who tend to forget- it is better that they learn, but one can get motion detector/timers that turn lights off and on depending on the activities or lack of.
With a family- most people have a dishwasher- once the final rinse is done, shut it off, let the dishes air dry.
Get on demand water heaters rather than a tank heater.
Solar panels are also an option. I personally have a different approach to using them though.
Beings you are concerned with the electric transmissions and loss, that goes neatly with my utilization of solar electricity. Anything that can be run with a 12v DC current, should be.
Solar energy is collected and stored 'in' 12 or 24 volts direct current. Usually an average home that is converted to solar energy will have an inverter as part of the system to change the DC current into an AC current. There is loss in this change over. My logic is why lose the energy trying to run 110 lightbulbs and TVs when one can purchase 12v DC items. Most car stereo systems are better quality than home systems.
In my 'ultimate' home, everything that can be 12v will be, right down to the heating system. Like the post above mentions, heat only the parts of the home being used. There are great efficiant 12v powered, gas heat units that are small and could be fitted strategically within the layout of the home.
For those things that require AC power would come from the grid unless I am too rural and there is no grid.
As for the safety of the children, there are more safe suburbs than dangerous ones.
Figure out what you can do to be more green and aim for that. I wish I could be totally green, but that is unrealistic unless I ran off to live with Bigfoot in the deep forest.
We do what we can and teach our children to do the same.
You live as "green" as you can on where you want to be. To add and not repeat, that may mean using reuseable grocery bags - walking to work or your kids school if possible. Driving the most efficient vehicle you can get away with. Sometimes you need a truck, but do both parents need large vehicles?
Making your home as efficient as possible. Use whatever alt. power you can, if you can. (Solar, Hydro, Wind, etc...)
MOST important thing when raising kids and living green. TEACH them to be green or at least not wasteful.
You could start by eliminating the concerns about #3. It really isn't that much of a factor if you consider the alternatives. Even if you had roof top solar and contributed more electricity than you used, the line losses still exist as they do with almost any point if use, rural or not. The people living in cities aren't all living near power plants, the power comes from long distances anyway.
Telecommute. Lots of people do it and reduce their commutes.
Living in the suburbs doesn't require anyone to live in a larger house. Buying a house of any size is a choice. Choose to have smaller one.
You can live in a suburban area and not deforest at the same time. Buy the land and don't cut down all the trees. It's a simple idea but one that works. Who said that to live in a suburban area that all the trees must be cut down?
Instead of focusing on the problems, make choices that support "green" living, it isn't hard to do if you're starting out and haven't yet made significant financial decisions on what kind and type of house to buy or build, arranging work schedules to take advantage of technology to telecommute as much as possible and so on.
If you can't telecommute, there are very efficient cars made that will use less resources than most others driven by people in urban areas.
Many people live with a far less impact on the environment than many that claim the same and live in cities.
Larger homes can be very energy efficient. Why heat the entire house if only one portion of it is occupied? Use zone heating and cooling.
You can live almost anywhere and practice green living.
Instead of listening to the what you can't do, do what you can. Sometimes thinking about things without all the green input is amazing. Opportunity to reduce your negative impact on the environment isn't all that hard but there is a lot of emphasis on trying to tell people what to do, when to do it and how to do it or risk being seen as something other than "green".
Very enlightening post. One minor thing though about zone heating and cooling. I've never understood why so many people want space that is not climate controlled and uncomfortable to use - if you only want to keep "stuff", why not just have an outhouse or rent storage space elsewhere?
Very enlightening post. One minor thing though about zone heating and cooling. I've never understood why so many people want space that is not climate controlled and uncomfortable to use - if you only want to keep "stuff", why not just have an outhouse or rent storage space elsewhere?
True. There is something about zone heating that can be self defeating but there are times when it comes in handy. Depending on where you live, zone heating can be very effective in the evenings when you retire. The common areas are left to cool to a lower level than might be comfortable for sleeping and the sleeping areas could be set to 65 or somewhere around there (or whatever temp you like). A bathroom can remain heated and so on.
When everyone gets up, the kitchen heats first if that is a place of congregation while the sleeping areas are unheated.
Zone heating though, requires very good space planning because if you can't isolate certain areas of the home it doesn't work well. Many newer homes have the open space floor plans but that isn't very efficient in terms of using zone heating or cooling. In many years past, people figured this out and built homes with hallways and less open space but bigger kitchens. They used natural zones that didn't require excess use of heating or cooling to maintain a comfortable environment.
You make a good point, often you see homes that are more containers for stuff than living. More and more stuff is more of a problem then many other factors when it comes to being green, stuff has to be made somewhere and how it gets made isn't usually well thought out when it comes to reducing environmental impacts, especially since so much if it is made overseas where profit is higher up on the priority list than anything else. Can't really blame them too much because we did and do it too and as a country sound hypocritical when we want to tell other countries to pollute less, having caused much of the pollution and damage ourselves.
Your are assuming that all people that live in the suburbs work in the city. That's hardly the case.
For generations families of 5 to 10 lived in 1000 sq ft to 1400 sq ft homes( with one bath). All suburban homes are not large.
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