So, I just read on Treehugger (or Grist, but I think it was TH) about “navy showers”. Apparently this is how they take showers in the navy. It’s really simple: you turn on the water long enough to get yourself completely wet all over, then turn it off while you soap up. Once you’re done soapifying, you turn the water back on and rinse off. Saves a ton of water, and I actually found today that it reduced the amount of time my shower took up significantly as well. You do lose on the comfort of the water cascading over you in a gentle, massaging tumult, but really, how important is that to you compared to saving gallons and gallons of water?
Second, apparently my home state of Massachusetts has enacted immediate legislation to require all large building projects to estimate the energy usage of their project. The developers would then be required to make efforts to reduce that consumption. This means that all new big developments in the state will be more energy efficient than if they hadn’t been thinking of the environment at all. It’s an extremely worthy start, I think.