15 Years Of Trying To Be Carbon-Neutral: Practical Uses Of Technology For Individuals -- Part 2

In Dec 2019 I published an article “15 Years Of Trying To Be Carbon-Neutral: Practical Uses Of Technology For Individuals.” That article’s focus was to tie three specific projects my wife and I had implemented over the years to larger developments, in the hopes they sparked practical insights for others:

1) Transportation – traded our cars for more fuel-efficient ones

2) Energy – invested in one set of solar panels and then added to it

3) Water – series of water-saving measures including toilets with settings for a single or double flush, showerheads dispensing less liquid, airheads in faucets, and meters reducing the overall flow into a house.

This Part 2 is a discussion of three other projects we have focused on since, again with the hope of sharing very practical win-win suggestions that save money especially in the long-run and save the environment.

4) Plants and Trees – Mar 2020 the Bay Area went into COVID lockdown. With a sudden and significant change to our lifestyle, we decided to take better care of our neglected home garden. A banana plant that was a foot high in an indoor pot went into the ground. The hope was it would survive, what we didn’t imagine was it could thrive in a relatively temperature environment – today it is 15 feet high, with 20 trunks, and has fruited twice. Tomatoes came as saplings from one store, kale as seeds from another, the lemon and the avocado from the very food we ate. Several flowers including nasturtiums and hibiscus attract pollinators ranging from bees to hummingbirds. More recently we have been exploring seed libraries which in many parts of the US are common within public libraries. A pot with extra water has unexpectedly become a feeder and now we get all kinds of wildlife visiting regularly. Total space we had available? 10 square feet. Total money we have spent? The equivalent of eating out for a week. If you are looking to sequester carbon, the technology to offset about 1/3 of fossil fuel emissions has been around for millions of years.

5) Energy Storage – We invested in a Tesla Powerwall to store extra energy from solar panels during the day. It comes in handy when demand is higher and also serves as a backup for electric outages, which are unfortunately becoming more common where we live. Our math was that the cost pays off within 7 years, which it has been proving to be true. The payoff is different for different parts of the world given sunlight, government and commercial subsidies, and different electric plans. But nuance aside, what is overwhelmingly true is batteries are now better and cheaper than ever before and very much economically accessible.

6) Recycling and Composting – Living in California we assumed many if not most homes have a blue recycling, green compost and black trash bin. Turns out even such a simple thing is not the norm in the US, in Florida for instance our experience was almost a complete absence of recycling. While that is a larger policy issue, there are small things that can be done within a home to make the triage easiest. For instance, a smaller compost bin in the kitchen itself makes it easier for us to separate out biomass. A container in the freezer stores some of it too which we food to worms living in a container in the garden, which then provides natural fertilizer for the plants. What worked for us may not work for everyone but the point is this is really simply technology, it’s about wanting to reuse / recycle / reduce. For those of us in the US, the graph below comparing to other high-income countries is a reminder we owe to our planet and ourselves to do more.

I do fundamentally see these home projects as within reach for millions of individuals, especially in the biggest economy in the history of the world. The extra capital redeems itself in a few years, there are financing options, and progressive policies are increasing in scope. Have other tech-enabled solutions that individuals can implement? Comment away.

Originally published on: “Data Driven Investor." I am the Managing Partner and Cofounder of Tau Ventures with 20 years in Silicon Valley across corporates, own startup, and VC funds. These are purposely short articles focused on practical insights (I call it gl;dr -- good length; did read). Many of my writings are at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/amgarg/detail/recent-activity/posts and I would be stoked if they get people interested enough in a topic to explore in further depth. If this article had useful insights for you comment away and/or give a like on the article and on the Tau Ventures’ LinkedIn page, with due thanks for supporting our work. All opinions expressed here are my own.