Article Archive

Somewhere in your home, a broken item languishes. Maybe it's the holiday gift that stopped working by New Year's Eve, or the lamp that flickered out months ago.

What if you could draw a line from where you are today to a home that runs entirely on solar power. No natural gas bill.

Happy New Year. We’re starting a new tradition here at One Step This Week: for our first issue every January, we’ll kick off the year with our New Year’s resolution edition.

At any given moment, a typical American household contains more than two dozen batteries of various kinds—some in remotes, flashlights, toys, and others scattered in junk drawers. Most end up in...

A white-tailed deer steps cautiously through a meadow that might otherwise have been paved for a parking lot. Overhead, a red-tailed hawk circles brush spared from a bulldozer.

You matter. You have influence, and as a subscriber to this newsletter, you are connected to hundreds of people like you who are taking practical action to protect our planet.

That sweater didn't fit quite right, so you printed the free return label, dropped the package at UPS, and felt virtuous knowing it would find its way to someone else's closet. Except it probably...

What do people actually want when they get a gift. After decades of research, psychologists have identified four core desires that separate memorable gifts from forgettable ones.

Which paints a prettier picture: your neighbors stuffing bags full of gorgeous autumn leaves, hauling them to the curb for municipal pickup, or you gathering this “waste” into a pile to transform...

Your heating and cooling system is about to get a breather as the seasons turn. That “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” metal box in your basement or the outdoor unit getting covered in leaves is either...

Your monthly electric bill shows a credit instead of a charge, your home runs entirely on clean electricity, and you're no longer burning any fossil fuel to heat your home or drive your car. Sound...

That satisfying snap of a quality lunch container closing, securing a colorful array of fruits and vegetables—it’s a small sound that signals something bigger. You’re ready for the day, keeping money...

Labor Day is meant to honor hard work, but it’s also about taking a well-deserved rest. While you’re taking time off this weekend, why not give your appliances and home systems a little rest, too.

It’s that time of year again—new backpacks, sharpened pencils, and fresh devices. Laptops, tablets, and phones are now as common as notebooks for students, and back-to-school season often means an...

Picture yourself in January, opening a glass jar of summer tomatoes you preserved yourself—their rich flavor bursting with August sunshine, no plastic packaging clouding the view. Or imagine reaching...

Just this week, OpenAI launched GPT-5, their most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) model yet, promising access to "PhD-level intelligence" for everyone. Meanwhile, you’re trying to get up to...

What's wrong with this picture: you’ve switched to LED bulbs, drive an efficient car, and put in heat pumps, which you keep topped up with refrigerant every year to maintain peak performance. LED...

Is artificial intelligence (AI) increasing our demand for electricity on power grids. And if it is, can we deploy solar power fast enough to keep up with demand, or will we need to build new coal or...

During the next heavy rainstorm, watch how water flows on your driveway. Does it cascade into the street carrying oil, fertilizer, and debris into local streams, or do you see rainfall puddling, then...

You've just invested in solar panels, a smart home automation system, and all-new energy-efficient appliances to improve your environmental impact. Then a summer thunderstorm rolls through, lightning...

If you could make one small shift in your daily routine to help safeguard the home for over 80% of Earth's life, would you do it. Shark Awareness Day on July 14, amid the height of summer beach...

You’ve just finished your morning coffee and realize you’re already stuck with a dozen pieces of plastic garbage before starting your day: the coffee pod, creamer cup, yogurt container, granola bar...

Consider this heat wave scenario: it’s 95°F outside, your air conditioner is humming at full blast, and your electricity meter is spinning like a roulette wheel. Across your neighborhood, dozens of...

We’ve just passed the summer solstice—the longest day of the year when Earth’s northern hemisphere tilts closest to the sun, delivering up to 15 hours of natural daylight. Yet as you read this,...

Picture this: your vacuum cleaner starts making an ominous grinding sound, signaling its impending doom. Is your first instinct to start shopping for a replacement, or to channel your inner MacGyver...

Picture this: you're standing on a “pristine” beach watching waves crash against the shore, yet those waves contain over 51 trillion particles of unseen microplastic pollution. Microplastics are...

Picture this: it’s 6 am, and while you’re just waking up, your neighbor’s sprinkler system kicks on, sending water cascading not just across their freshly sodded lawn, but down the street in a...

To understand what's happening, it helps to know the baseline: without special legislation, federal tax rates do not depend on a taxpayer’s energy or vehicle choices, and states generally cannot...

Picture this: millions of families gathered around grills this Memorial Day weekend, celebrating the start of summer with the people they love most. Now imagine if each of those celebrations...

We’re glad you’re a part of our community of sustainability change agents; we hope our Handbook and other resources inspire and empower you to use practical sustainable technologies and techniques to...

Happy Mother's Day. Today, millions of us are celebrating the extraordinary women who shaped our lives.

We hope our Handbook and other resources inspire and empower you to use practical sustainable technologies and techniques to protect our Earth for the benefit of all. While we eagerly welcome...

We’re glad you’re a part of our community of sustainability change agents; we hope our Handbook and other resources inspire and empower you to use practical sustainable technologies and techniques to...

It’s here. You can order an e-copy of Sustainable Practices: Your Handbook for Effective Action for $24.

Note: Before we present today’s One Step This Week, we are announcing our Earth Day book launch of Sustainable Practices: Your Handbook for Effective Action. We expand the action steps shared in this...

What if your washing machine could help fight asthma. Or your electric car could stabilize the power grid.

Many people feel that individual actions are meaningless against massive global challenges. However, research demonstrates that the social contagion of sustainable behaviors is evident when our...

Have you ever marveled at how a tiny seed can survive even the darkest and dreariest winter, patiently waiting for the right conditions to sprout and flourish. Helping this miraculous transformation...

In a world where freshwater resources face increasing pressure and wastewater treatment plants can’t always keep up with demand, redirecting household greywater to your house plants or garden offers...

Did you know that if American pets formed their own country, their meat consumption alone would rank fifth in the world. The collective environmental impact of our beloved animal companions is...

When your neighborhood goes dark during a power failure, imagine your home with lights still on, your refrigerator humming, and your phones charging. No noisy generator, no scramble for...

Imagine walking into your kitchen on a snowy February morning and harvesting a handful of fresh, vibrant greens for your breakfast smoothie. No plastic packaging to throw away, no transportation...

As winter tightens its grip, we spend more time indoors, with windows sealed against the cold. This creates an important challenge: maintaining healthy indoor air quality.

What barely-used tools are lurking in your garage or storage closet. We all have them—from pressure washers that see daylight once a year to camping gear that dreams of adventure to food dehydrators...

Imagine your ideal trip for work or errands. Perhaps you're cruising silently in an electric vehicle, feeling good about the zero emissions.

Almost everyone who owns or rents property that gets a little sunshine has started thinking about how to make their own electricity from free sunlight. Every business and family can get on the...

As winter tightens its grip and flu season reaches its peak, many of us find ourselves making trips to the pharmacy or doctor, accumulating plastic bottles, blister packs, and disposable medical...

A single hidden water leak can waste thousands of gallons of precious water and—worst of all—quietly cause devastating structural damage to your home. Undetected leaks in toilets and sinks can add...

Imagine your home anticipating your needs and effortlessly optimizing your energy use in ways that would be tedious to do manually–cutting off power-hungry devices automatically, adjusting...

January can be a real shock when those post-holiday energy bills arrive. But instead of just digging deeper into your wallet, why not take practical steps to trim waste and improve comfort.

Before reading about an ideal New Year’s Resolution, we at Sustainable Practice want to remind you that there are just a few more days to get 20% off a yearly paid subscription for the new year....

Before reading about holiday travel, we at Sustainable Practice hope you’ll consider the most sustainable holiday gift you could give this year: 52 weeks of a digital copy of One Step This Week....

Before reading about holiday lights, we at Sustainable Practice hope you’ll consider the most sustainable holiday gift you could give this year: 52 weeks of a digital copy of One Step This Week....

Before Sustainable Practice presents detailed information about sustainable gift-giving for your holidays, we also encourage you to consider the most sustainable holiday gift you could give this...

Before Sustainable Practice presents information you and your friends and family can use for energy savings this winter, we want to encourage you to consider the most sustainable holiday gift you...

The holiday season brings joy, celebration—and a massive surge in household waste. But this year can be different.

When autumn arrives, many families begin planning their holiday menus—a tradition that has a global impact, given that feeding ourselves accounts for over half of habitable land use and a quarter of...

Here’s a simple, empowering, and positive step for sustainability this week: volunteer. “Local volunteerism is a fundamental resilience strategy and a property of resilient communities,” reports the...

As the season turns to winter in the northern hemisphere, it’s time to check every window to make sure it’s tightly shut. In a superbly sustainable home, closed windows are a passive heating system,...

Before I opened my store for sustainable goods and supplies, I had no idea that replacing an old toilet was something most handy homeowners could do in an afternoon—and that it provides such a huge...

How fast we’ve ramped up solar electricity since 2014 has surprised experts: next year, the United States will generate more electricity from sunlight than from hydropower. My guess is we haven’t...

We so appreciate your support, which enables us to provide empowering knowledge for people practicing sustainability in their own homes and organizations. To say thank you, we want to give you a...

Maine is making headlines nationally by taking steps to stop burning diesel fuel (called “#2 heating oil” to avoid the tax levied on diesel intended for on-road use) with no pollution controls in our...

People started building electric cars long before they started making fuel-burning cars, and if current trends continue, electric vehicles will continue being made long after gasoline and diesel...

If you haven’t discovered induction cooking, you’re in for a treat. This technology is three times more efficient than gas stoves, which means you can boil water and prepare meals in less time for...

One of the easiest ways to save a lot of energy and protect our environment is to upgrade an old refrigerator. If your fridge is 15 years or older, give serious consideration to surprising your...

Hanging laundry to dry uses no fuel or electricity and produces no pollution, but takes a little more time than throwing a damp load in the dryer. Another way to save energy is to upgrade from a...

Heating water with heat pumps is much more efficient than other water heating technologies. Using an electric heating element to keep a tank of water warm can be used as the baseline for efficiency.

Washing clothes in cold water saves energy and can be more effective with the use of detergents specifically formulated for cold water. The active ingredient in cold-water laundry detergents are...

Our one step this week is Landscaping 101: Planting Native Species. Turfgrass lawns became popular in the United States in the 1870s and have since become the dominant idea in residential and...

Our one step this week is Lighting 101: LEDs. Light-emitting diodes (or LEDs) were discovered at Marconi Labs in 1907, but it wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that red, orange, yellow, and green LEDs...

Our one step this week is Insulating 101: Sealing and Insulating Attics and Basements. Of all the areas in a building, sealing and insulating the basement and attic does the most good due to the...

Our one step this week is Plastic 101: Avoiding Single-Use Plastic. Like other effective practices for sustainability (including Walking 101: Short Trips by Foot), this is deceptively easy to...

Our one step this week is Cleaning 101: Using Safer Solutions. Like last week’s practice (Drinking 101: More Tap Water, Fewer Bottled Beverages), this is a practice everyone can afford—plus it would...

Our one step this week is Drinking 101: More Tap Water, Fewer Bottled Beverages. This is a practice everyone can afford; in fact, it’s one of the easiest ways to save money—hundreds of billions of...

Our one step this week is to buy local organic food in season. This is Eating 102, continuing our sustainable practices regarding food.

How much better would our world be if everyone had a better understanding of environmental problems—and knew exactly what they could do to help solve them. We know from surveys that environmental...

Choosing to eat delicious and nutritious plant-based meals instead of chowing down on burgers and steaks is really good for our health and pocketbooks—and our planet. Eating more plants, and less...

Add more fun to your years by celebrating our planet and its passengers as we circle our sun on our journey through the universe. Click on the underlined day to visit the day’s page on our website...

For most of us, walking is like flossing our teeth: we know it’s good for us, but we just don’t do it enough. Unlike flossing, making walking a healthy habit isn’t just good for us; it’s good for our...

As a leader for sustainability in your community, you know that composting saves money, prevents pollution, and improves soil quality while meeting the daily need to manage waste. These benefits earn...

You can most certainly protect our environment and help secure a future for everyone on Earth by achieving twenty sustainable practices in your home or organization: Compost organic solid waste....

You’re into the province of “advanced” composting any time you’re managing organic waste beyond the “basic” recipe. To recap the “basic” composting guide from last week: outdoors, during warm...

Stinky garbage is a sign that we’re not being smart about recycling. Anything that can rot really doesn’t have to go to a landfill or a waste-to-energy facility.

Composting is part of a sustainable diet—putting water and nutrients back to work, and growing more food, paper, wood, and other organic goods. It’s probably the single most effective thing we can do...

In 2015, Carnegie Mellon University professor Paul Fischbeckmade headlines by saying, “Eating lettuce is over three times worse in greenhouse gas emissions than eating bacon. ” Of course, the real...

This week’s action guide is my final dispatch from New Zealand. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ideas for sustainability from this fascinating country.

This action guide for tuna rounds out our three-part series on sustainable seafood. (See part one for sustainable salmon and part two for sustainable shrimp.

Gold and coal play a big role in the history of New Zealand—and both will probably continue to play a big role in the future of our planet. The lessons of the historic gold rushes and coal fields of...

This action guide is the second of a three-part series on sustainable seafood. Shrimp is by far the most popular marine seafood item in the United States.

After the conservatives won the last New Zealand election, there’s been some grumbling that the country is abandoning responsible environmental management. Labour and the Greens are no longer in...

Batteries are the key to our clean energy future, but what about the materials necessary to make them. How “dirty” are batteries.

This action guide is the first of a three-part series on sustainable seafood. Shrimp, salmon, and tuna are the “big three” for seafood in the United States.

If you see fish on a menu in New Zealand, chances are it’s salmon—which seems odd since all salmon are native to the northern hemisphere. If you see fish in a river in New Zealand, small ones might...

How to enjoy “dairy” and save our planet depends on how flexible you are about the definition of “milk. ” If you feel that milk must be squeezed out of a cow, then you can’t enjoy very much of it...

Every American traveling around New Zealand should know five important things: first, you need a car outside the big cities; second, they drive on the left; third, gas is about $3 (New Zealand) per...

Thomas Malthus predicted in 1798 that population will grow faster than agriculture, condemning hungry humanity to a “perpetual oscillation between happiness and misery. ” Yet the rate of global...

The west coast of Te Waipounamu, New Zealand’s South Island, is one of the rainiest places on Earth; the Cropp River, which flows into the Hokitika River, has recorded an annual rainfall of 18...

You may be surprised to learn that preventing food waste is one of the easiest ways we can mitigate climate change and ameliorate global hunger. In 2021 the United Nations estimated that “8-10% of...

Sustainable living in the United States can sometimes feel like navigating an obstacle course—especially when dining out. Ask for water in a stateside café, and you might need to specify tap water,...

One of the most difficult habits to change is what we eat. But if we’re serious about sustainability, encouraging sustainable diets is a challenge worth surmounting.

We’re starting to have a national conversation about the role of natural gas in our energy future. A recent story from Maine quotes politicians from both major parties staking out unwise positions...

The New World supermarket in Hokitika on the west coast of New Zealand has something I didn’t know I needed until I saw it—a self-serve juicing machine. I love orange juice but hate packaging waste.

As environmental champions, we can share our time, money, and property to achieve sustainability goals in our community. Effective donations improve human well-being, increase the value of existing...

Dr. Hugh Wilson is one of the most delightful humans you’ll ever meet.

As a sustainability champion, you may be planning to take more steps toward sustainability in 2024, and we can join you. In this week’s action guide, I encourage you to decide how you will help...

In this week’s Dispatch from New Zealand, I want to share a sustainability story from the fiordlands of the South Island about the power of environmental champions to protect our world. Although this...

Microplastics are on the short list of our planet's worst pollution problems. Tiny plastic particles and fibers are now dispersed across our entire globe, from the air at the top of our highest...

On Sunday afternoons in South Dunedin, New Zealand, you can see stationary steam engines in working order. The engine house, boiler room, boiler house, chimney stack, and the fitting and blacksmith’s...

Should you believe the idea that a “crazy rush to green energy will push us to endless blackouts”. Or is it actually wise to “rush” to green energy.

This Sustainable Practice action guide helps you phase out the ‘forever chemicals’ called PFAS, which build up in our environment, find their way into our bodies, and can cause cancer and birth...

Peggy Siegle from Sustainable Practice is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Sustainability Office Half Hour with Fred Horch Time: Dec 6, 2023, 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada).

In the month we’ve been exploring the area around Ōtepoti (Dunedin), New Zealand, we’ve watched albatross flying (and landing. ), seen penguins nesting, observed sea lions arguing, and heard kiwi...

If you watch Fox News or read the Wall Street Journal, you might think that renewable energy and electric vehicles are not quickly gaining market share. Articles like “The slow demise of green energy.

This week’s sustainability step along the sustainable goods pathway is part of a “shop wisely” strategy for clothing—recognizing that we often buy clothing we rarely wear. When we give away or sell...

Every other week I’m comparing sustainability practices in North America versus New Zealand, where my wife and I are traveling on sabbatical from our home in Maine. As one of the last places on Earth...

As the world prepares for the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), journalists are filing reports on the failure of public...

In the quest to find the perfect holiday gifts, adding sustainability as a factor can either complicate or simplify our lives. This action guide helps you use sustainability to make your life easier...

For the next six months I’ll be sharing sustainability dispatches from New Zealand, as my wife and I leave our home in Maine for a camper van and AirBnBs in Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu (the North and...

Ten years ago, a 6,000-watt solar electricity system cost $50,000; today, you can buy it for less than $21,000—and get a 30% federal tax credit on top of that. Going solar is now a wise investment:...

This action guide helps you buy big batteries to power your electric car or home, an essential step to a clean energy future. But first, an important announcement: Since May, we have been sharing...

This action guide explores choices for batteries that are powerful enough to start car engines and operate tools. In each of our action guides, we cram crucial details for sustainability that you...

I just want to say one word to you, just one word. Are you listening.

There’s a good reason massive machines like locomotives and mining equipment use electric motors instead of combustion engines: burning gas or diesel just doesn’t provide as much power with as much...

Before cold climate heat pumps were invented, people would get excited about increasing the annual utilization efficiency of their fuel-burning heating systems from 0. 8 to 0.

Heating a well-designed new home with a gas-burning furnace or boiler is like lighting birthday candles with a flamethrower. That might seem a little extreme, but consider the fact that a...

When we think about air pollution, most of us imagine a smokestack or a tailpipe. But according to a growing body of scientific evidence, we’re exposed to more pollution indoors than outdoors, even...

This year, Texans and Californians have once again been asked to use less electricity during heat waves—and grid managers have prepared plans for rolling outages to prevent public power grids from...

Windows are responsible for 8. 6% of all energy used by buildings across the United States and 25% to 30% of the energy used to heat or cool residential buildings.

LED lighting is a beacon on the pathway to sustainable energy. Last century, the 60-watt, 75-watt, or 100-watt “incandescent” (glowing hot) light bulbs we could buy could double as electric space...

How quickly we use energy is one of our biggest net positive or negative impacts on our world. The slower we consume energy, the better.

Bicycles are best for sustainability, but when pedaling is a problem, a good option is public transit—where it exists. Unfortunately, almost half of the North American population cannot take a public...

In the near future, we’ll fly on sunshine, using electric motors powered by batteries storing solar energy to move people and packages through the air. The “airspace blueprint” for all-electric air...

In 2022, the United States crossed the tipping point of 5% of sales leading to mass adoption of fully battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Within ten years, not driving electric will be odd.

Pedal power is phenomenal, but it’s even more fun electrified. Small motors and batteries can easily be added to bicycles and other lightweight vehicles.

Every time I see a cyclist, I think of H. G.

It’s summer, time to get outside and move your body. (Unless you’re in a scorched place on the planet where this could be hazardous to your health.

In a sustainable goods economy, we can close landfills and incinerators because we compost and recycle the materials we use. But until we reach the goal of 100% sustainable goods and 100% rates of...

North Americans could eliminate about half of what we send to landfills, by getting better at just one thing. Thanks for reading Fred Horch's Field Notes for Sustainability.

Sustainability is about making the world better for everyone, now and far into the future. We’re all on a journey to sustainability, together.

Do you wish your community were better at recycling. Here’s a proposed pilot project you can try in your own home, organization or neighborhood to show how recycling can be done well.

No one likes to be told what to eat. What we put into our own mouths to grow our own bodies is the most personal of choices.

What actually gets recycled. Metal and cardboard, but not plastic no matter how much we may wish it so.

Here’s a quick take on recycling for Rotarians—and anyone else who is interested in the issue: it makes great sense to recycle metal and clean cardboard. The value of recycling anything else...

When I asked, “What are your sustainability goals. ” I wasn’t expecting, “Making my own soap.

So last week when I launched Field Notes for Sustainability and let people know that I’m working on a Handbook for Sustainability, I asked friends and family, “What are your sustainability goals. How...

I know what I want you to know about being sustainable, but what do you actually need to know. Imagine you want to help save the planet.

Being sustainable is making the world better for everyone, now and in the future. If you are superbly sustainable, you leave the world better than you found it.

When are you switching to electricity for heating and driving. I ask because the sooner the better.