The Bite:
Muzak, awkward silences, and children who press the buttons for all the floors: these are a few of our least favorite things. A surefire way to avoid these elevator nuisances and save energy? Take the stairs instead.
Can you climb your way to green?
06.19.2006
Submitted by idealbite on Mon, 06/19/2006 - 5:00pm.
The Benefits:
- Climb your way to buns of steel. No surprises here: climbing stairs burns up to 10 times more calories than standing in an elevator.
- Spend less time just staring at your watch. The average person squanders as many as 62 minutes a day waiting (in elevators, traffic, lines).
- Conserve energy. Depending on type, capacity and usage, an elevator’s yearly energy usage can equal the energy used to power 7 homes annually.
Personally Speaking:
If left taking the elevator, Heather likes to stand and stare at the person next to her until they start to squirm. (Or, if that person is Jen, until Jen smacks her).
Wanna Try:
Be careful in security-prone offices so that you don’t find yourself locked in the stairwell, hollering for help. Other than that, just do it.
- For more intense exercise, try climbing two steps at a time; it’ll tone your thighs and butt right up.
- Calorie Calculator - determine how many calories you burn simply by climbing stairs.
Cocktail Fact
Cows can travel up but not down stairs, because of the way their knees are shaped.
Bang For The Bite
If 10,000 Biters climbed a stairway 3 floors every day for a year (rather than taking the elevator), we’d save enough energy to power 4 homes over the same period of time.
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