Simple Changes Group

For this idea, we might devote some portion of our monthly meeting to supporting each other in making the simple changes in our own habits and lifestyles to reduce our personal impacts.

We all know that if others whom we respect hold us accountable in a gentle, supportive, positive fashion, simple changes are even that much easier and rewarding.

The thrust of the idea is that each month, each participant discusses their experience of the prior month, did they accomplish their goal, and if not, what did we learn, what can we try next. The idea is that this is a very supportive process, no judgement, no pressure, just gentle support.
Then, each participant will state what simple small change they will commit to making for the upcoming month. To get ideas, we will have resources available, and of course the
experience of the other members will be available to help us come up with ideas.

February 27th, Simple Changes Group Results:

Karen will use the Kill-A-Watt meter to measure an appliance.
JP and Mark will use the Kill-A-Watt meter to measure computer power consumption.
Steve will try the Evolve shower head.

March 22nd, Simple Changes Group Results:

Steve:

March Results:
- Evolve Shower head not compatible with hand-held shower head. Will order Evolve Shower head without head, so can attach hand head.

April Goals:
- Fix water leak in bathtup

Brenden:

April Goals:
- Use an Activity tracker, to encourage less driving, start biking more

Mark and JP

March Results:

- Set up a PV system for our Tool Shed, was done successfully.
- Set up a demo for Solar Hot water, was done successfully.
- Purchased locally produced chicken and beef(grass fed) from near Pittsburgh.

April Goal:

- Continue setting up solar hot water system
- Research ways around complications with putting hot water into tankless systems, they tend to overheat. May need tempering valves, difficulty working through tankless system, use a storage tank, run through tankless.
- Research more on locally produced Chicken/Beef, see about getting a bulk rate.

Lisa insulated walls, got a big rebate.

Karen and Ed:

March Results:

- Continue switch over to organic foods where ever possible.
- Ordered electric kettle.

April Goal:

- Use Kill-A-Watt meter to measure energy consumption between clean and not clean fridge.

Lisa:

April Goal:
- Lisa checked out Kill-A-Watt Meter