Accomplished: 3 minute showers for a year

Last year I sent out to conserve some water and energy by seeing if I could live with a short three minute shower each day for a year. One year later, I've saved about 14,000 litres of hot water. Not bad! (That said, it's interesting to consider that if you really want to save water, it's quite possible to wet your body with 0.5 litres of water, lather yourself up, and then rinse off with another 2 litres, which translates to a 15 second shower!)

Now that I'm done, I think I'll try to keep it up. There's something to be said for speedy showers even beyond saving water and energy: They get you moving in the morning! Taking 7-10 minutes in the shower is just another form of procrastination. Being speedy, on the other hand, gets you in the mind set that you have places to go and things to do. I like it.

Today I came across a neat blog:
greenasathistle.com

Welcome to Green as a Thistle. My name is Vanessa, I'm a journalist at the National Post, based in Toronto. When I saw the documentary An Inconven— no, just kidding. Now that organic is the new bl— OK, no, seriously now. In short, this blog began somewhere between dissing Stéphane Dion's dog (named Kyoto) and finding myself amongst a group of eco-hipsters drinking hemp beer at an anti-styrofoam party. I decided to take on a bit of a challenge: Spend each day, for an entire calendar year, doing one thing that betters the environment. The idea is that everything I do, I keep doing (so if I switch brands, it's a permanent switch; if I turn down my thermostat, I keep it down), so that by day 365, I'll be living as green a lifestyle as it gets. I hope, in the end, this proves that being an environmentalist doesn't necessarily have to require massive change, compromise or Greenpeace levels of dedication — it can be simple, and inspiring.