Living Like Ed by Ed Jr. (whitelam books .txt) 📗

some pretty dire environmental predictions to focus everyone’s attention on the harm we are doing to the planet, I believe the message is finally being heard and that more people every day are looking around to see what they can do to live in a more eco-friendly, responsible way. Fortunately, there’s a lot that every single one of us can do. In a nutshell, I believe we need to live simply so that others can simply live. And I’m here to show you how.

People who know me as an actor may not realize that I’ve got another passion that’s at least as important to me: the environment. Sometimes, when people see me at a grocery store or at a farmers’ market selling my Begley’s Best nontoxic cleaning supplies, they’re kind of baffled, wondering if I’ve fallen on hard times. It’s surely a surprise, after seeing me on TV or in movies, to find me standing there hawking cleaning products.

Actually, I still work quite regularly as an actor. But I also make time to sell these nontoxic cleaning supplies—and I put my name on them—because I really believe in them. And if you’ve ever seen my television show, Living with Ed, about how my wife, Rachelle, and our daughter, Hayden, and I live, you know my commitment to living simply, cleanly, and efficiently doesn’t stop there.

I got involved with the environment in 1970, the year the first Earth Day was held. I started recycling, composting, and buying biodegradable soaps and detergents, and I bought my first electric car.

In 1990 I bought a little house that had been built in 1936, long before the phrase energy efficiency was common parlance. I thought, “I’ve been a quote/unquote environmentalist for twenty years now. It’s time for me to go a little further.” I had a book, 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth. I thought, “Let me try all fifty,” figuring maybe half of them would work.

Well, guess what? They all worked. Every last one. Some of the results were subtle, but most were not. I saved energy, and I saved dollars.

It’s been nearly forty years since I took those first small steps. And now I’m ready to share what I’ve learned with you. I’ll start with some of the easy things you can do in your home. Some of these changes are simple. They just require you to establish a new habit. Others involve making a purchase, such as drapes or even a new dishwasher. You may want to make a few of the changes or, like I did, try to implement them all. Either way, I promise you the results will be concrete and they will be worth the effort, both to the environment and to your bottom line. And if that’s the case, where is the down-side, right?

Since I first started down this path, I’ve made many changes in my life. Actually, I’ve used myself as a guinea pig a lot of the time. I’ve tried things like producing solar electricity for my home, driving an electric car, and cooking in a solar oven. I’ve found ways to reduce the amount of trash I produce, ways to reduce the amount of electricity and water that I use, and ways to grow my own food.

This book is designed to help you learn from my experience. After thirty-eight years of doing this, I know what works. I know what saves energy, what saves water—and what saves money! So maybe you can use my life as an example of one way to take this journey.

Of course I don’t expect you to make all these changes right off the bat. It’s really a process. I’ve gone pretty far with this stuff, but you might want to start out small. Either way, I’ll show you a lot of things you can do, from changing the kind of lightbulbs you buy or shopping for organic produce at your local farmers’ market to purchasing a new appliance or vehicle.

The simple fact is, you don’t climb Mount Everest in a single day. First you climb up to base camp. Then you stop there and you get acclimated for a while. After you’ve adjusted to the altitude, then you take the next step and climb a little higher. And then you stop again and get acclimated. And you only climb as high as you are able at each stage.

Becoming environmentally aware—and adjusting your lifestyle to reflect your beliefs and your values—is the same kind of process. You take a small step and you prove to yourself that you can do it. You compare your electric bills and you see that the change you made was good for your wallet. You see how much money you saved and you see how little it affected the quality of your life. In fact, I’ll bet you barely even notice the difference.

When you feel more confident and more comfortable—better acclimated, if you will—you make one or two more changes, and so on and so on.

Six Areas of Your Life

There’s a certain fear factor about “going green.” Many reasonable people think, “Wait a minute. I don’t wanna be shivering in the dark, just so I can save a little energy.”

But that’s not what it’s about. You’ll still be able to have a cool beverage and a warm shower. I’m just gonna show you how to have those things more efficiently.

I sometimes refer to my house as the SS Begley, and Rachelle claims that I run it like I’m the captain of a ship. But it’s all about efficiency, organization, maintenance, and conservation. And my house is just one area of my life where I’ve applied these principles.

My goal is to help you understand the choices you can make to simplify your life, to help the environment, to save energy, and to save money. In the pages that follow I’ll offer suggestions for all six of the areas in our lives where we can be more efficient:

• home

• transportation

• recycling

• energy

• garden and kitchen

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