Shannon Koenig and I met this morning to talk about conservation. We met through Sustainable Arlington, a grassroots effort to promote planet-friendly consciousness and practices in our town.

The meeting was an outgrowth of previous discussions, but today's topic was mine. I'm very drawn to gadgetry and other technology, but there is absolutely no question that the No. 1 priority for anyone interested in sustainability should be conservation. Just take less. Use less. Spend less. It offers a bigger payoff than solar or wind or geothermal. We will need all those, but before we spend a penny on any of them, we should wring every bit of waste and profligacy out of our current practices.

(Please note: I believe in this wholeheartedly, and we've done a lot at our house to do our part, but I'm still plenty profligate. We're in progress, yes, but we could do a lot more, and we could take on these changes sooner. We don't claim perfection at all, and my intention isn't to preach. It's to ask others to join us, and perhaps to influence us for the better.)

One good thing about promoting conservation is that, in the end, it will save money for whomever takes it on. And those who take it on most enthusiastically will save the most money. That's a lot easier sell than spouting off about planet-saving, even if it's completely true.

There is also a strong case for conservation in the name of justice, which most Americans treasure. And yet, Americans use far more of the earth's resources than we are entitled to just by a head count: The obvious case is that we are 5 percent of the world's population and use 25 percent of the petroleum, but other examples abound. It's sweet for us "haves," but would we stand for this sort of unfair distribution if it weren't us? Can we really expect the rest of the world, especially those who don't have enough, just to say, "that's cool. You go."? Of course not. We wouldn't.

In preparation for the next Sustainable Arlington meeting, I committed to assembling a list of the best conservation techniques, as a basis for what we might promote, if we, as a group, decide to take this on as our primary initiative. (I'm just one member, and not, I wouldn't say, even a particularly influential one.) The obvious ones are things like low-flow shower heads and compact fluorescent light bulbs, but they're as limited as they are easy.

What would you put on the list? What might help persuade you to conserve more. Please share your thoughts in the comments section.