Tiny Choices Survey: Daniele!
By tinychoices | December 26, 2008
Vital statistics (name, age, location, link to website/blog)?
Daniele F., 29, New Orleans, LA
How do you reside (apartment or house, roommates)?
I live in half of a 120 year old house with my boyfriend (the owner of the house) and his dog. In the other half of the house are two apartments that are occupied by 1 tenant each.
Are your housing decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
A little bit of both. My boyfriend was the one who picked out the house and I chose to move in. The nice thing is that we are in agreement about choosing environmentally-friendly options when we can. This includes adding insulation to the exterior walls of the house, using bamboo flooring in the rooms where the original floors could not be saved, buying supplies from salvage stores (shout out to Habitat ReStore and The Green Project!), and not installing central air/heating. Yup you read that right. We make it through South Louisiana summers with one window unit, a ceiling fan in every room, and lots of ice water.
How do you travel (transit, car, etc)?
I try to travel most places by bicycle: work, friends’ houses, restaurants, events. New Orleans is a perfect city for biking because it is flat as a pancake. I did not have a car for my first few years here, and I used public transportation often. Unfortunately, since Hurricane Katrina there have been a lot of cuts in service so buses and streetcars are not a frequent as they once were. Now that I own a car, I use it mostly on weekends for things like grocery shopping and going out to the suburbs to run errands.
Are your travel decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
When I didn’t have a car, my travel on bike and public transportation was dictated by necessity. Now that I have a car, I still choose to commute and get around the city by bicycle most of the time instead of drive everywhere.
Tell us about a Tiny Choice you’ve made in your life.
I save plastic food containers (like yogurt tubs and the things Chinese restaurants deliver soup in) and re-use them for household storage and bringing lunch to work. I also keep a set of metal utensils in my desk drawer at work so that I don’t have to waste a new set of plastic ones every day.
What is the one environmental dilemma you personally struggle the most with?
Airplane travel. I like to travel and I live 1200 miles away from my family, so I take a few 1000+ mile airplane trips every year.
What is one Tiny Choice you can make in that direction?
I could look into carbon offsets. I’ve heard some conflicting reports as to whether they actually make up for the damage done by air travel, so I should probably get the facts and make up my own mind. Other than that, I can try to travel less.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you make that people question (in either a positive educational or a negative hassle way) you the most about?
It’s not that tiny, but I get into a lot of discussions about my vegetarianism. This has been especially true since I’ve moved from NYC to New Orleans. I still have a very hard time finding menu items that I can eat at some of the restaurants here. I don’t get hassled about it much, but I do get a lot of questions about my choice when a person first finds out that I don’t eat meat.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you would like every single person to adopt?
Since everyone’s circumstances are different, I don’t think I can say that there is one universal thing that everyone is going to be able to implement in their lives. However, I do think that every single person can take a minute to look at their lifestyle and find places where they can make adjustments. So I guess the Tiny Choice that I would like everyone to adopt is to be more conscious of how their decisions impact the environment.
Do you feel like you make sacrifices for environmentalism? Please explain.
Heck no! I think that the rewards definitely outweigh the drawbacks. I’m not really giving anything up; I’m just changing my habits a little bit.
Are you generally: optimistic, pessimistic, neutral about environmentalism and the future?
Neutral. I think it’s great the more people have become genuinely interested in their lifestyle’s effect on the planet. But I am leery of how “green” has become just another marketing gimmick. And I am disheartened by the lack of political will we have seen so far to put environmental issues into strong legislation.
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Topics: Surveys |
WOW! i love the central air-less-ness! i think too many people feel that they require that, and since i have worked outside for years, i have gotten so i really do not like air-conditioning any more.
[…] Tiny Choices Survey: Daniele! […]