go green go!

The rewards far outweigh any “inconvenience,” you may have along the way.  Limiting your carbon footprint saves your health, your money and the earth.  To get you started, I’ve put together a short list of things you can do to begin your green journey today.

Ways to limit your carbon footprint

•Change your light bulbs to the CFL light bulbs (the swirly looking ones.)  They use one quarter of electricity and last longer than the regular bulbs. 

If everyone changed just one light bulb in their home we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year!

•Bring your own shopping bags to the stores.  You can find reusable shopping bags just about everywhere now. My favorite still remains the Envirosax.  It’s like the Mary Poppins bag; I’m always amazed at how much fits in there.

•Get a recycling bin.  By recycling you limit the amount of waste that gets put in our landfills.

•Stop buying bottled water.  Buy a filter and drink from the faucet. If bottled water is a must for you and your family switch to a delivery system.  The big plastic bottles are recyclable and you’ll still have your favorite drinking water on hand.  The waste and damage to the environment from individual plastic water bottles is too high.

•Unplug your electronics when not in use. Have you ever noticed those little lights that are on near the outlet (computer, chargers etc,) or the “time” thats displayed on your electronics (microwaves, DVD players etc) even though you aren’t using them?  These are known as vampire devices and 40% of the electricity that your home electronics use is consumed while these devices are turned off!  Save yourself money and help the environment at the same time. Unplug when not in use.

•Turn the water off when brushing your teeth. Fill up a small glass of water to rinse your mouth out instead of letting the water run and you’ll save over 8 gallons of water.

•Set your thermostat.  You can save anywhere between 5-15% off of your electric bill by setting your thermostat while you are away. If you are going to be out running errands, at work or even on vacation you’ll want your thermostat to reflect that.  For spring and summer set your thermostat to 80°F and for fall and winter 60°F. A programmable thermostat can start to cool or heat your home just before you come home. Saving you time, money and energy while your away.