On this page, I consider sustainable living options for people in various circumstances (people with kids, people living in apartments, people who like gadgets, etc.)

Previous sustainable living

This month, the focus is on sustainable apartment living.

In several respects, people living in apartments are already doing well on the sustainable living front. In particular, the size of apartments is generally smaller than stand alone dwellings, which greatly reduces the ecological footprint of the apartment dweller. It's also possible for apartments to be more energy efficient. That's why ecological footprint quizzes like this one ask both about the size of your dwelling and what type of dwelling it is.

There are two key differences for apartment dwellers- lack of a yard, and less control over apartment design. Lack of a yard makes it challenging to compost, and less control over apartment design could make it harder to install energy and water efficient appliances and fixtures.

For instance, you might be living in a stylish apartment in part of an old house. Stylishness aside, however, the house is drafty, and you have electric heat. You also have an old, water inefficient toilet. You're using large amounts of energy to heat the place in the winter and using up quite a bit of water every time you flush the toilet. What to do?

When it comes to appliances and fixtures you have several general options.

Adapt the appliance or fixture in some way that doesn't permanently change it. You could go this route with an old toilet, by adding a brick, or a bottle of water to the tank. Similarly, you could replace the regular shower head with a low flow shower head, and keep the original for replacing if you decide to move out. With respect to drafts, you could temporarily put plastic over the window frames, and use draft stoppers in front of doors.
Use the appliance less. This might work well with appliances like washers and dryers. You could do full loads, which would reduce the amount you use the appliances. In the case of clothes dryers, you could get a drying rack and air drying some of your clothes. This also has the advantage of keeping your clothes in better shape. However, using the appliance less isn't much of an option for fixtures like baseboard heaters- unless you've already taken other measures to reduce the draft.
Suggest alternatives to your landlady/landlord: In some cases, you might be able to argue new appliances or different fixtures will be cost-saving in the long run. If you go this route, it would help to have the facts and figures on hand.

With respect to composting, there are some slightly more avant guard composting methods that might work for apartments. I'm in the process of testing some of these out now, and I'll be sure to report on them as I try them out. See some of the early entries in my enviro-journal for a description of my most recent indoor composting adventure.

Generally speaking, sustainable apartment living may require a bit more out of the box thinking. However, as I've said at the top of the page, you are starting out in a good place due to your smaller living space and potentially more energy efficient building.