Going green really works!

KH came in excitedly the other day waving the electricity bill. "See!" he said smugly. "Told you we would save money!"

Turns out the bill was reduced by $90 since we've stopped using airconditioning at night. KH thinks it can probably go down further since the sum only reflects the full month's usage, but the kids only stopped using airconditioning about two weeks of the month.

I'm pretty impressed I have to say. $90 or say $100 saved a month means $1200 saved a year! Enough to pay for at least two trips up to Malaysia in one year!

For houses in the same category as ours ie landed property/condominiums, we have always been slightly below the national average. But this month, we've dropped by almost 40% in the bar chart comparison!

Suffice to say we're pretty inspired and more enthusiastic than ever in keeping up these non-aircon efforts. If the govt would reward people for going green eg recycling above a certain level (by weight) a month by giving rebates (regardless of housing size!) then our efforts to go green might see larger and more enthusiastic response from the public. Same for not using plastic bags. If stores would be willing to give a discount for not using plastic bags, perhaps you'd see greater success in the population in this area. Come to think about it, perhaps rebates should also be given if households can limit their energy consumption to below a certain level? That would encourage more people to conserve energy.

Yes, it's all linked to money incentives and material rewards, but I'm practical and Singaporean enough to say that in this land at least, money speaks louder than any inspiring green speech or campaign to 'encourage' or even fearsome images of what life might be like, from a global warming projection, if we kept on with our current lifestyles.