Inspiration from Abroad: Cool Things from Overseas We Should Be Doing Here

Traveling is such a wonderful way to generate new ideas. Living in America, many times I catch myself thinking about what a great country this is, and all of the high tech innovations that have occurred in the last ten years. I value our high speed internet, our cell phones, and our social media as agents of change. The use of Google Maps and GPS has created opportunities to explore our world and monitor its changes like never before. American women and men are creating new ways to reuse, reduce and recycle our old materials and create biodegradable packing material so we put less of our stuff into landfills. I know, I know. I am a bit of an Amero-centric rube.

So that is why I was so fascinated to travel to South Korea and see all of the efficient ways that they are saving the environment better than we are. It's the little, everyday things that fascinate me so much, because they would be so easy to implement here. And their implementation would signal a cultural shift for the US, a shift toward making sustainability a part of each day. With small changes in our water use or transportation, we would be reminded every time we flushed the toilet or turned on the shower or boarded a train of the need to conserve water and energy. Conservation would become simply a fact of life, not a fringe topic.

The first thing I fell in love with in Korea were the bathroom showers. The simplicity of having a shower head connected to the sink faucet astonished me - why were we not doing this over here? I loved the tiled floors and tiled walls of the bathroom. I loved the fact that I could simply be in the bathroom getting ready for the day and take a quick shower by the sink. The water savings were obvious  - if I washed my face first, or if I were a guy shaved my face first, I eliminated that running water loss from the shower. Then, as I used the shower, I would simply turn the faucet off when I did not need running water. In fact, my habit became reversed. I only turned the faucet on when I NEEDED running water. The serenity of a quite standing shower by the sink with no running water was beautifully serenaded by the gentle bird calls and sleepy city noises wafting their way in through the open window. My mind and memory floated out the window across oceans and times to my smaller bathroom back home. I looked across skies at my own window longingly, wishing that it had a gentle standing shower to serenade on a cool quite morning.

Posting pictures of my new shower to facebook, my friends jokingly told me they would be much cleaner if they could run a quick shower while sitting on the toilet.....

Tankless water heaters are much more common overseas than in America. Though the heating mechanisms are similar and the actual heating of the water is not more energy efficient, the tankless system conserves energy by not losing heat to standing water. Standing water will overtime drop in temperature, causing the tank to reheat itself to maintain a constant temperature. Tankless heaters do not lose heat to standing water or standing pipe water, and thereby conserve the energy that would otherwise be lost to reheating.

That wasn't the only bathroom innovation I liked. Though we are beginning to have these here, two-option flush toilets were much more prevalent in South Korea than in America. Almost every toilet I used in a public place had an option for a high volume flush or a low volume flush. Again, if we had this simple change over here in America, it would not only save water, but it would be a reminder every time we used the bathroom that our individual choices matter in the need for conservation.


In general, the efficiency of the hostel comforted and calmed me. It reminded me that sometimes we do not need so many things to be healthy and content. Sometimes pleasant company and good coffee is enough....

I'm a natural train rider. Growing up in Boston, I would ride trains all afternoon to get from A to B to C to Z. Public transportation is an active experience - you have to pay attention to your surroundings, keep yourself safe, talk to fellow passengers, and sometimes run to catch the train. Plus you get to look at the scenery or read or catch up on homework! On the opposite side is driving. Driving is isolated, suffocating, and stressful. You are alone with your own head suffering the indignities of the road. If the train is late, at least you get to complain to other people about it!

I love a grand train ride. I love the feeling of being a dignified passenger with somewhere to go, yet relaxing and enjoying my traveling experience. The KTX train in South Korea gave me that experience. I was able to sleep, read, and get some work done. Every time I thought to myself, gee I'm a little thirsty, an attendant with a rolling cart of drinks and snacks would come down the aisle. The most incredible thing about this train is that it runs approximately every seventeen minutes. If you miss one, just take the next one It is roughly 147 miles from Seoul to Daegu, and it took about two hours by high speed train. It only cost roughly US $45, which is so cheap by our standards. In contrast, it is approximately 139 miles from Philadelphia to Washington, DC, and it takes 2 hrs and 14 minutes by high speed train, but costs at least US $150!!!! Plus it only runs every couple of hours, not minutes. This puts a high speed commuter train out of the reach of millions of Americans. If you compare it to driving, it only takes two and a half miles to drive, and costs only about US $20 in gas and tolls (www.rome2rio.com). Which would you choose? Exactly. Amtrak is in a lose-lose situation right now, with not enough ridership to lower costs, and not low-enough costs to increase ridership. We do not invest enough of our government money in public transportation and high speed trains. This is in part because the government is not being pressured to produce trains for its population. Americans will always take a car over a train. Why is it such a big deal that Joe Biden rides the train? Shouldn't everyone who lives outside of Washington ride the train? The government of Korea saw the congested traffic patterns on its major freeways and decided as early as the 1970s that it had to provide a high speed train option, to help move the country's citizens and keep the economy moving. If we want the American economy to keep growing during the reality of conservation, we need a more high tech high speed train line. All across the country rail infrastructure is breaking down. We need this investment in our future.

Also, finally, there was free wifi in many places. It's becoming more common in restaurants in the Eastern US, but it is standard in Korea for there to be free wifi in public places. There was wifi on the train, at the conference, at the hostel, and at the hotel. We should end this debate in this country about whether or not internet is a utility and embrace the fact that it is a public service which will serve to further our growth.