1. Continue whatever projects are left from year 2. By now you should have just about broken your trash addiction, and your other progress indicators should be nearing your household goals.
2. Housing: Install rainwater catchment system. Dig a root cellar. Your insulating/weatherizing project should be complete by this time.
3. Transportation. Ride public transit, carpool, or bike to work every day.
4. Food. Use gas or propane only for cooking, not heating or cooling. Don't cook anything with electricity. Stop buying corporate agriculture food products. Get as much of your food as possible from local sources -- grow it yourself, or purchase it from local growers/processors. Double the size of your organic garden or join a community garden if you are out of space. Eat meat only one day a week, or go all the way to a vegetarian diet.
5. Heating/air conditioning. Abandon air conditioning in the summer, use no electricity or gas for heating in the winter.
6. Electricity. Install alternative power system and disconnect from the utility grid (wind or PV or hybrid). The lower you get your monthly kilowatt hours, the less money you will spend on an alternative power system. You could go with solar cells only, wind power only, or a hybrid system using both.
7. Miscellaneous. Kill your TV, or replace it with a small used black & white set. Go shopping at "corporation" stores as little as possible. Stop buying new stuff.
About The Author: This document is Share-right (S) 2001 by Robert Waldrop, it may be copied as long as it is distributed free of charge.
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