Conscious Consuming – Before you make a purchase, do a quick check to yourself.
Recycle, Recycle, Recycle
By recycling just half of your household waste, you can prevent 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. If your neighborhood does not offer a recycling program, visit Earth 911 and they will help you. Learn more about recycle obscure materials.
Reduce, Reduce, Reduce
Only buy products you need. If you reduce your spending, you will not only be saving money, but you are helping save the environment by consuming less natural resources. Purchase products that are eco-friendly.
Household products
Eliminate Junk Mail
Remove your name from mailing lists. More than 4 million tons, 62,000,000 billion pieces of junk mail are printed yearly. Some sources believe the number is as high as 90 billion pieces. Each person receives over 560 pieces of junk mail each year, over 40% of which never gets opened. Amazingly, 2.8 million cars consume less energy than it takes to produce and dispose of the junk mail. Each year over 100 million trees are destroyed to produce junk mail. Please visit these sites to eliminate your junk mail.
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/index.htm
http://www.41pounds.org/
http://www.obviously.com/junkmail/
Lights
Substitute your current lights with compact fluorescent light bulbs (cfl’s). The CFL bulb needs 60% less energy than a normal light bulb. This easy substitute will prevent approximately 300 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year. If all US households made this substitute, they would prevent over 90 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year. Go to Energy Federation to purchase CFL’s online.
Thermostat
Adjust your thermostat up 2 degrees in the summer and down 2 degrees in the winter.
By taking this simple step, you would prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. Cooling and heating your home makes up approximately half of the your home energy needs. Therefore, you could save a lot of money as well by making this simple adjustment. In fact, investing in a programmable thermostat will most likely pay for itself the first year. By lowering the air conditioning or heat before you go to bed and raising it when you wake up each night, this could save you $100.00 a year. For more suggestions on how to save energy, go to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.
Filters
Filter Cleaning and replacement on your air conditioner and furnace can prevent approximately 350 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year.
Appliances
Invest in Appliances that are Energy Efficient. Choose appliances that have the Energy Star Label them. U.S. households would prevent 175 million tons or carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year.
Water
Placing an insulation blanket around your water heater will prevent 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. If you place the setting to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, you will prevent an additional 550 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. Visit American Water to find out ways to save water.
Electrical Devices
Turn off your lights, computer, TV, and stereo if you are not using them. Simply plug your devices into a power strip and turn that one switch off when you leave. This simple step will prevent thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
Insulate your home
If you do this, you could prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. You also receive the added benefit of saving approximately 25% of your energy bill. For great tips on how to insulate your home, visit Consumer Federation of America.
Energy
Tired of getting electric bills in the mail? Substitute your home’s current power source with renewable power source such as solar or wind. To learn more, go to Green Power Network .
Food
Eating organic local food helps the environment! Producing and transporting food consumes a lot of fuel and energy. Here are the facts:
Watch An Inconvenient Truth
An eye opening movie that should be watched by all.
Plant Trees!!! Link to Become a RainforestMaker
You don’t have to be a treehugger to love trees!
Learn why trees are valuable and important.
The first 5 steps will save you money!!!
As reported by conservation.org, forty percent of all solid waste is generated from a variety of paper products. Office paper comprises a quarter of that waste, and less than 20 percent of office wastepaper in the U.S. is recovered for recycling. Post-consumer content refers to products that have completed their lives as consumer items, and, if not recycled, would otherwise be disposed of as solid waste. One hundred percent post-consumer waste paper stock is made completely from recycled products. When buying paper, remember, the higher the percentage of post consumer waste, the larger the amount of recycled material in the paper stock.
The majority of paper is chlorinated or bleached to a bright white, creating a pollution by-product. Many paper companies now offer a selection of non-chlorinated paper to avoid this. Look for totally chlorine-free paper stocks (TCF); processed chlorine-free paper (PCF) that contains recycled content produced without chlorine or its derivatives; partially processed chlorine-free paper stock (%PCF); and elementally chlorine-free paper stock (ECF), virgin paper produced without chlorine but with chlorine derivatives. Non-chlorinated paper is more natural in color, but is of the same high quality as the bleached variety.
Inflate your tires
Your gas mileage will improve by at least 3%. You will also prevent 20 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere for each gallon of gas that you save. Visit Car Care to learn tips on proper inflation.
Regular Maintenance.
Keeping your car regularly maintained will improve your gas mileage and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. If only 1% of automobile owners regularly maintained their car, they would prevent approximately one billion pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.