I’ve been interested in the responsible co-existence with our environment for more than forty years.
- I compost, recycle, and reuse or repurpose everything that I can.
- I use timers and programmable thermostats in order to use energy responsibly. Back in 2000 I began replacing my incandescent lightbulbs with CFLs. Now I am replacing my CFLs with LEDs. I changed the color of my lights to cooler, so that I can use even less energy for tasks. In some months my electricity use is $1 a day or less.
- I do not buy anything new unless it is necessary.
- I use only genuinely nontoxic cleaners in my home/studio. I have no perfumes or perfumed cleaning products or toiletries, and I am in the process of switching over to steam cleaning. I have only the minimal amount of plastics, and no polyester or artificial fabrics. My home/studio is vacuumed daily and I have live plants to freshen the air. I change the HVAC filters regularly and exchange the air in my house on a regular basis.
- I drive fewer than 5,000 miles per year, in a car that gets almost 30 miles per gallon.
- My home/studio is on a public transportation line.
- Where possible, I get organic, locally sourced food. Some of it comes from just a few miles away. Some I grow myself.
- Rather than selling books, I encourage my students to download what they need, and print only the pages they need, or put their music on a tablet, to avoid wasting paper. All the music used in my studio is available for downloading at no charge.
A lot of people have asked me which steam cleaner I use. It’s the yellow one pictured below (I included a similar blue one in case the one I use isn’t available).