I love to keep up with news in my hometown, so I keep the Quad-City Times on my Google Reader. That’s how I found out the great green story of Dennis Osborne Sr., an industrious and wise retiree in Rock Island, IL who’s saving some coin in retirement by greening his lifestyle.
“He choreographed a series of changes to his two-bedroom Rock Island home that allow him to live comfortably while trimming expenses. A few of the more important steps were installing a high-efficiency furnace and air conditioner and a Rinnai tankless water heater.
Osborne’s other updates include:
- using an electric car to get around town.
- planting trees on the south side of the house to block sunlight
- reinsulating to keep heat in
- installing Energy Star appliances
- running the air conditioner only in the evening, to cool the house before bed
- using ceiling fans and opening windows for cross breezes
Going Green for Coin
The thing I love about this article is that it never once mentions that Osborne is an “environmentalist.” He’s not. He’s just a guy who likes to dance, who’s sensible, handy, and, in his retirement, wants to keep more coins in his piggy bank, than dole them out to the utility companies.
Dennis Osborne Sr. is the new electric cowboy, riding into town on his sensible and quiet car, saying with action not words that “less is more.” He is using the principles of his parents generation — Waste Not, Want Not — and the best of the green materials being produced today to formulate my favorite kind of environmentalist: the non-environmentalist.
Unbeknownst, perhaps, to himself, Osborne is going green for cash, a motivation that is much more likely to keep him making changes, than young red-faced activists screaming for change.
Thanks Dennis. You are an excellent example, for my parents, and for regular people everywhere.
