Solar panels on buildings and homes. We have received $18,500 out of the $31,000 needed to put panels on our clinic and offices. Electricity is expensive here and the panels will pay for themselves in two-and-a-half years. We just need the cash up front. If you have funds to share, it will help greatly, and if you can put panels on your homes and businesses that will also help reduce our carbon footprints.
Trees...not lawns...save carbon. No need to cut the grass. Moss is a great carbon absorber and we are looking at ways to plant moss. It is a bit difficult here with six months of no rain. We have lost a few trees due to age, termites, and hurricanes...but we have lots of baby trees growing. Trees not lawns.
Thanks to many of you, we are implementing a digital clinic records keeping program with Hikma Health, saving eight trees a year. You would not believe the paper we go through at the clinic. I'm cleaning out a file cabinet and moving records to the cloud. Here's just a small bit of clinic paper work.
What to do with old paper? Recycling is out of the question, so we reuse old paper by cutting it up to use as note pads. Grocery lists on the fridge. Drawing paper for children. Making crafts for kids. And even printing on the blank backs for other uses. When we have too much to store, we compost the paper.
Becca and Paul use old boxes as mulch to keep weeds down and moisture in their gardens. We try to compost yard leaves and waste…sometimes we have too much, though…lots of trees.
We have installed a filtration system at the Clinic for chemical sewage, to clean it before it goes into the septic tank at the clinic.
Water is precious. Last year the sesame processing plant bought a machine to decrease water usage in the plant by about 75%.
We have a attached bidet in our main bathroom to limit toilet paper use. We wash our dishes by hand and are learning how to use less water. Paul and Becca use their gray water to water plants. We try to only wash full loads of clothes and re-wear our clothes when we are not dirty. We reuse our towels often and our showers are no more than 5 mins. (Full disclosure: Mama's takes longer, being 91 years old.)
We use rags instead of paper towels. We use reusable masks mostly. I use a handmade face shield over and over the few times I go out. A great deal of the clinic's PPE is reusable and washable. We make our own chlorine to save on bottles and cost, and are learning how to make our own cleaning materials.
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| Kathleen garbed for shopping - double masks and hand-made faceshield |
We buy sodas and beer in reusable bottles mostly. We rarely buy bottled water but take our own water with us in reusable containers.
We wear clothes until they start to fall apart and mostly buy clothes from secondhand clothing stores. Full disclosure... we do buy new underwear.
We try our best to eat leftovers and not let food go bad. We do compost.
We try to double up on errands so less trips are made out. None of us gets a wild hair and jumps in a car to go get one thing.
We try...and we have a long way to go. We look at our neighbors to learn how to not be so wasteful. People living in poverty do not waste.
We have only one earth...one atmosphere...and all our water is connected. We cannot play at being green…we must be green.
We wear clothes until they start to fall apart and mostly buy clothes from secondhand clothing stores. Full disclosure... we do buy new underwear.
We try our best to eat leftovers and not let food go bad. We do compost.
We try to double up on errands so less trips are made out. None of us gets a wild hair and jumps in a car to go get one thing.
We try...and we have a long way to go. We look at our neighbors to learn how to not be so wasteful. People living in poverty do not waste.
We have only one earth...one atmosphere...and all our water is connected. We cannot play at being green…we must be green.
- Kathleen
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