Who
would have thought you could actually save money while helping
save the planet. Just by adopting some of these simple methods
in and around your home could help lower your energy bill
by more than 30%.
Weatherize Your
Home - Insulate and weatherize
your home.
Properly insulating your walls and ceilings can save
25% of your home heating bill and 2,000 pounds of carbon
dioxide a year. Caulking and weather-stripping can save
another 1,700 pounds per year. Energy
Efficient has more information on how to better
insulate your home.
62.
Replace Old Appliances
- Choose energy efficient appliances when making new
purchases.
Look for the Energy
Star label on new appliances to choose the most
efficient models available.
63.
Tell Congress to
act
The McCain Lieberman Climate Stewardship and Innovation
Act would set a firm limit on carbon dioxide emissions
and then use free market incentives to lower costs,
promote efficiency and spur innovation. Tell
your representative to support it.
64.
Make sure your voice
is heard!
Americans must have a stronger commitment from their
government in order to stop global warming and implement
solutions and such a commitment won’t come without
a dramatic increase in citizen lobbying for new laws
with teeth. Get
the facts about U.S. politicians and candidates
at Project Vote Smart and The
League of Conservation Voters. Make sure your voice
is heard by voting!
65.
Share this list!
Send this page via e-mail
to your buddies, digg
it, add it to your favourite bookmark site (like
del.icio.us); and if you're a blogger, blog it: the
more people you will manage to enlighten, the greater
YOUR help to save the planet will be (but please take
action on first person too)!
66.
GET A GOLD LAUNDRY
STAR
An Energy Star-qualified washing machine uses 50 percent
less energy and could reduce your utility bills by $110
annually. Standard machines use about 40 gallons of
water per wash; most Energy Star machines use only 18
to 25 gallons, thus also saving water. Whenever possible,
wash your clothes in cold water using cold-water detergents
(designed to remove soils at low temperatures). And
do your laundry only when you have a full load. If you
must do a small load, adjust the water level accordingly.
67.
BUILD GREEN
Before embarking on any home remodeling, make sure your
architect has green credentials. Although there is no
national organization of green architects in the U.S.
, that doesn't mean you can't get an architect who will
build along sustainable lines. Ask where he or she sources
materials, and request that energy-saving devices, such
as solar paneling, be installed. Visit directory.greenbuilder.com
or environmentalhomecenter.com
for more green-building information.
68.
BUY EGGS IN CARDBOARD
CARTONS Cardboard egg cartons are normally made
from recycled paper, which biodegrades relatively quickly,
and are also again recyclable—Styrofoam or plastic
cartons take a much longer time to biodegrade and their
manufacture produces harmful by-products.
69.
Fix things that
leak - A steady faucet drip can waste 20 gallons
of water a day. Leaky toilets are even worse, wasting
upward of 100 gallons a day. Since toilet leaks are
generally silent, check for them regularly by removing
the tank cover and adding food coloring. If the toilet
is leaking (and 20 percent of them usually are), color
will appear in the bowl within 30 minutes.
70.
STOP THE WATER
By leaving the water running while you brush your teeth,
you can waste 150 gallons of water per month—that's
1,800 gallons a year! Turning the water off while you
brush can save several gallons of water per minute.
Also pay attention to this water-saving principle while
shaving or washing your face.
71.
DON'T BE A BUTT
TOSSER About 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are
littered worldwide each year—making them the most-littered
item. The myth that cigarette filters are biodegradable
is just that, a myth. Although the filters do eventually
decompose, they release harmful chemicals that enter
the earth's land and water during the decaying process.
There is nothing earth-friendly about the breakdown.
If you must smoke, carry a 35-mm. film canister to store
your used butts in until you can properly discard them.
72.
AVOID DISPOSABLE
GOODS Institute a mug policy in your office.
Americans throw away some 25 billion polystyrene cups
every year, most of which end up in landfills. Refill
your water bottles once or twice, and make your coffee
in a ceramic mug. If you bring in cutlery from home,
you will also cut down on those pesky plastic forks,
knives, and spoons.
73.
GROW YOUR OWN GARDEN
In 1826, J. C. Loudon wrote in An Encyclopaedia of Gardening,
"For all things produced in a garden, whether salads
or fruits, a poor man that has one of his own will eat
better than a rich man that has none." To start
a vegetable garden costs nothing but a few packs of
seeds and rudimentary garden implements, and it saves
enormous amounts of money, to say nothing of the food
miles and the packaging that go into supplying you with
fresh fruits and vegetables. Of course, a vegetable
garden is only productive for part of the year, but
it is amazing how long that growing season lasts and
how much you can produce from one small patch.
74.
Rain
Barrel CONSERVE WATER IN YOUR GARDEN Attach a
barrel to your downspout that will collect rain from
your roof's eaves. Your plants will thank you: rainwater
is better for your garden, as the chlorine in tap water
can inhibit plant growth. You can also save six gallons
every minute of watering simply by attaching a trigger
nozzle to your hose so that you use water only when
it's needed. In addition, if you grow your grass a little
longer, it will stay greener and require less water
than a closely mowed lawn.
75.
GET AN ELECTRIC
LAWN MOWER Surrender your gas lawn mower. Gasoline
lawn mowers are among the dirtiest of modern machines.
A study funded by the Swedish E.P.A. found that using
a four-horsepower lawn mower for an hour causes the
same amount of pollution as driving a car 93 miles.
The trouble with gas lawn mowers is that they not only
emit a disproportionate amount of CO2, they are also
responsible for releasing carcinogens such as polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons into the air. Retire the noisy
monster and buy an electric or manual model. Better
still, reduce the number of times you mow per season
and let some of your lawn grow wild, which has added
benefits for bugs, butterflies, and birds. For more
information, visit greengrasscutters.com.
76.
DISCOVER YOUR CARBON
FOOTPRINT If you think you're already pretty
green, determine your carbon footprint: a measurement
of how your lifestyle choices affect carbon emissions.
Your footprint will take into account your habits, the
food you eat, your gas and electricity usage, your car
and air mileage. Your score will be compared to the
average figures for your county. These online tests
aim to help you estimate your own carbon emissions and
calculate how much of the planet's resources are required
to sustain your lifestyle. They may motivate you to
make changes, helping you set simple goals to reduce
your negative impact on the planet. To learn about your
carbon footprint, go to carbonfootprint.com/calculator.html.
77.
GREEN GRILLING -
If you have a charcoal barbecue grill, make sure your
charcoal comes from a sustainable source. Enormous areas
of tropical rainforest are destroyed every year to produce
the 900,000 tons of charcoal burned annually in the
U.S. Chimney starters are the most environmentally friendly
solution to lighting charcoal. They use only a couple
of pieces of newspaper, meaning you can avoid the gas-flavored
meat that accompanies barbecues started with lighter
fluid or fire starters. If you are replacing your grill,
remember that using a gas, rather than charcoal, grill
is the most environmentally friendly way to barbecue.
It avoids forest destruction and doesn't add to local
air pollution.
78.
Green Your Coffee
and Tea - Coffee is the world’s
most commonly traded commodity after crude oil, and
tea is the world’s most consumed beverage after
water. So if tea and coffee are up there with oil and
water on the world stage, we know there must be a lot
at stake here. One thing that’s definitely at
stake is our desire to get a tasty, healthy, perky,
fairly-traded, and eco-friendly brew to sip. Here’s
a quick spin through some of the finer points of green
coffee and tea connoisseurship. Top
10 Tips
79.
Hot Chocolate
- Since man cannot live on coffee alone, God created
hot chocolate. Find some certified organic and fair
trade certified hot chocolate and start time traveling.
80.
Coffee is the second
most valuable commodity in the world after petroleum,
and the U.S. is the world’s biggest coffee importer.
According to the World Bank, 17 to 20 million families
grow coffee around the world. (link)
According to the Organic Trade Association, sales
of organic coffee amounted to $89 million in the U.S.
in 2005, a 40.4 percent increase over the previous year.
81.
Starbucks is North
America’s largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified
coffee. In 2005, Starbucks purchased 11.5 million
pounds of Certified coffee (compared with 4.8 million
pounds in 2004). Although this is a small percentage
of their sales, it represents approximately 10% of global
Fair Trade coffee imports. (PDF
link)
82.
A simple concept
that belies a much more complicated system underneath
(if, in fact, this is more than just a design concept
at this point). The
Whole House Switch by designer Jack Godfrey Wood
is used to turn off all non-essential power in a house
from one central location.
83
Get off the bottle-
By many measures, bottled water is a scam. In most first-world
countries, the tap water is provided by a government
utility and is tested regularly. (You
can look up your water in the National Tap Water Quality
Database.) Not only is it more expensive per gallon
than gasoline, bottled water incurs a huge carbon footprint
from its transportation, and the discarded
bottles are a blight. If your water at home tastes
funny, try an activated charcoal or ceramic filter.
(NY Times) An estimated 47 million gallons of oil are
used to produce the bottles that Americans drink each
year. You can invest in a water filter at home/work
and also drink out of a reuseable container. Most Bottled
Water Containers never make it to a recycling bin and
therefore millions of plastic bottles end up in landfills.
84.
Go beyond the lawn
Naturalize it using locally
appropriate plants that are hardy and don’t
need a lot of water. If you have to water, do it during
the coolest part of the day or at night to minimize
evaporation. Here is a useful calculator
to figure out landscape water use. Xeriscaping is a
method of landscaping that utilizes only native and
low water plants. It is an especially appropriate approach
for states like California and Arizona where people
often plant lawns like they live in Florida despite
living in the desert.
85.
Harvest your greywater
Water that has been used at least once but is still
clean enough for other jobs is called greywater. Water
from sinks, showers, dishwashers, and clothes washers
are the most common household examples. (Toilet water
is often called “blackwater” and needs a
different level of treatment before it can be reused.)
Greywater can be recycled with practical plumbing systems
like the
Aqus, or with simple practices such as emptying
the fish tank in the garden instead of the sink. The
bottom line? One way or another, avoid putting water
down the drain when you can use it for something else.
86.
Write to "magazine
publishers" and let them know you want to read
your magazines digital. You can download magazines
through a service like "Zinio",
http://www.zinio.com in the US alone, 95% of the
old forests are gone. The average American uses over
700 pounds of paper each year and more than 90% of printing/writing
paper made in the US comes from virgin tree fiber.
87.
Plastic food containers
like NaturesPLAstic™
are better for the environment. You should ask your
supermarket, restaurant, deli to use these types of
products. Unlike the traditional plastics of today,
such as OPS (oriented polystyrene) and PET (polyethylene
terephalate), is completely recyclable under composting
conditions. In just 45 days, NaturesPLAstic™ will
return to nature at more than 4,000 commercial composting
facilities nationwide.
88.
Add Insulation to
Your Home - Many builders don't include enough
insulation when building your house to really get the
best energy efficiency. Adding insulation to the walls,
ceiling and attic can help keep your house cooler in
the summer and warmer in the winter. Again, a home energy
audit is a good method of determining where additional
insulation would best serve your home.
Savings: 2000 pounds of carbon dioxide and $245 per
year.
89.
Buy Credits For
or Use Green Energy - Some electric companies
offer green energy credits that help offset the cost
of research, development and installation of renewable
energy sources such as wind and solar. Some cities have
the option to choose your energy provider. In many cases
one or more of the providers use only renewable energy
sources. Find
out more about green energy credits...
90.
Buy a Push mower
- I have always paid a neighborhood kid to cut
our grass, but I was getting a little pudgy so I started
doing it. I bought a manual push mower. It's incredibly
easy to use, especially on our small yard. The key is
to make sure you don't let your grass get too long,
or it does become more difficult to cut. I hate the
sound and smell of gas mowers so the silence of the
push mower is music to my ears.
