Can you be single and green?
Here is an interesting article from the Globe & Mail, on living green.....
Eco-minded and unattached !!
The personal kingdom is the fastest growing type of household in Canada, rising from 2 per cent to more than 14 per cent in the past 50 years. While there is nothing wrong with enjoying your own company and flying solo, single households now represent the largest consumption of energy, land and household goods.
From washers and dryers to plastic packaging used for take out and single serving foods, singletons burn through over twice as much energy per-capita as four-person households. Joanna Williams, sustainable development professor at the University College of London, said the rise of singles represents, "an environmental time bomb".
Not to worry-there are options for singles who don't have any plans to pair-up but still want to reduce their carbon footprint. Penny Gurstein, of the school of community and regional planning at UBC, recommends singles check out the Canadian Co-housing Network in which residents live in individual homes clustered around a common area so they can share amenities. Gurstein also recommends the Vancouver Community Kitchen Project which she said, "is a way for people to get together and cook in large quantities and then parcel it out".
The main idea is that singles can consume less if they pair up with other singles to share some common resources. However it isn't all over consumption for singles who often live close to work and chose to walk or take public transport - go singles!
For more information on the Canadian Co-housing Network and the Vancouver Community Kitchen Project check out: www.cohousing.ca & www.communitykitchens.ca
(All cited quotes & figures are from The Globe & Mail)