lifestyle

My wife an I have been very satisfied PhillyCarShare members for over three years. It’s always been convenient and originally kept us from needing a second car, and recently has enabled us to eliminate car ownership from our lives completely. We’ve noticed some changes in our transportation habits since joining including taking public transportation more often, walking or biking more often and driving much less when we do use on of the shared cars.

We joke that our weekends have become much more efficient because we thoroughly plan out trips to Lowes/Home Depot, IKEA or other destinations that require us to use a car due to hauling requirements (it’s hard to carry lumber on my motorcycle and don’t even get me started on the flat packed ikea furniture). We have turned what used to be 6 hour, life-sucking excursions into very intense but rewarding 45-60 minute trips to the dreaded home stores.

Anyways, the point of this post is to post some rather impressive numbers that I just received in my inbox from PhillyCarShare that they have calculated from recent survey results to back up that many others are experiencing the same changes in lifestyle that we have. These are not actual numbers but based on their surveys. Still, even if they are off by 20% or so, they are still impressive numbers. Keep it up PhillyCarShare!

From my inbox:

Don’t tell Toyota, but…since joining PhillyCarShare….

• You own 12,810 fewer cars. Wow! That’s about 2,000 fewer cars in Rittenhouse Square alone! 1,100 fewer in University City…you get the idea. Seriously, we did a recount – used all our fingers and toes. This is real. According to you, without PhillyCarShare you would have owned 23,610 cars. Now you tell us you own just 10,800 cars. Amazing.

Fewer cars means less pollution from auto manufacturing. But it gets better. You haven’t just traded mile for mile, bopping around in PhillyCarShare’s fun Mini Coopers instead of driving your old car.

• You drive 42% fewer miles. Our math gurus tell us that means 26 million fewer miles since PhillyCarShare’s inception.

• You’ve logged 4 million miles in hybrids that pollute 90% less than conventional vehicles. Wow!

• You’ve saved 1.6 million gallons of gas from driving hybrids and driving less.

• Former car owners are choosing more earth-friendly travel options:40% walk more, 34% ride public transit more, 18% bike more, 13% take taxis more.

• You’re pumping an extra $90 million annually into Philadelphia’s economy – money that stays here rather than flowing into the global auto industry. We estimate that each former car owner saves about $4,000 per year. That really adds up.

Here is the first article I’ve seen on the new green home stores I wrote about in this post a few weeks ago. It gives a bit more background on the founders.

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/15528

There has been lot of talk about Philadelphia becoming a greener city lately to catch up with the likes of Chicago and NYC. One good sign of late was the opening of three new environmental home stores in the Philadelphia area. Below is a brief description of each in no particular order and I plan to have pictures or each store’s show rooms soon.

The first store is The Environmental Homestore which just opened its second location in Mount Airy. Todd Ballantyne is the owner and started this store at his home in Lansdale, PA by converting his garage into a show room.

I visited Todd about 2 months ago on a green home tour and he toured us around both his home and the garage show room. Both looked great and proved that Todd had gotten his hands dirty and tested most of the products himself.

Todd is very knowledgeable about sustainable building and home products. He has clearly done his research on all of his products and can go into great detail about such issues as what makes one low-VOC paint much “greener” than another.

I recently bought some low-VOC stain and sealer for my first green project in our new loft apartment and was very pleased with the service and product. Tracy helped me pick the stain I needed and knew that the ebony Bioshield stain I ordered needed additional tinting in order to come out black rather than simply dark brown.

I’m looking forward to checking out their new Mount Airy store which just opened and is quite a bit closer to me (I don’t like to leave the city if I don’t have to).

The next store is Greenable who has been in the planning stages of opening a store for a number of months. They just opened their store last weekend and I was fortunate enough to attend their grand opening party last Friday. I say fortunate because they supplied free beer, wine and food which scores points in my book every time.

The best part about their store for me is the location in Old City on Market St. in between Front and 2nd. This is less than a block away from where my wife works and only three train stops from our home.

The store is still coming together and they claim to have the widest selection of green products in the Philadelphia area. Another nice thing about Greenable is that they offer services as well as products. They have an interior designer on staff to help you with your green decorating or remodel and have a good network of consultants and architects as well.

Finally there is the Green Depot which has a nice online store and has recently opened a new store in Philadelphia. This is their third physical location with the first two being in Brooklyn and Massachusetts.

I can’t tell you a lot about their store as I have not had the opportunity to visit any of their locations or speak with the owners. The certainly have a nice online presence with a very wide selection of products for both residential and commercial use. When I find out more I’ll let you know.

So Philly, now you don’t have an excuse for not using sustainable and green materials in your home. You have three new stores to choose from and I can guarantee you that you’ll find much better service at all three than you would at any local Lowes or Home Depot!