7 Easy Tips On How To Live Green

July 6, 2010 | By In living green | Comments(0)

Living green doesn’t mean you have to wave goodbye to all the niceties and luxuries of modern life. In fact, once you start to investigate the advantages of living a greener life, you may well discover all sorts of extra pleasures. Your taste buds will certainly notice and it’s highly likely your wallet will as well.

There are plenty of things you can do which will help you to live green without total sacrifice. Here are seven tips that are quick and easy for you to implement. Most of them will barely change the way you operate but will help save the environment, especially if you can gradually persuade your friends to do the same things.

1. Re-use the bags you get every time you shop are good for more than one trip. Re-use them or, better yet, buy a “bag for life” and use that. Collectively, we use millions of plastic bags on a daily basis. Saving a couple bags here and there may not seem to make a difference, but as more and more people do this, the savings will mount up.

2. Re-cycle as much as you can. You probably already have a recycling collection service. If not, look out for recycling places local to you and drop off your newspapers, bottles, cans, etc next time you are passing. Don’t make a special trip though. For larger items, if they’re still usable then look up Freecycle for your local area. They offer a great way to give unwanted items a new, welcoming home.

3. Eat local produce. Especially if it’s bought fresh from a Farmer’s Market. You’ll notice the difference in taste. And if you buy just what you need (rather than the supersize pack your grocery store normally sells) it probably won’t cost much more. Plus you’ll save all those miles that the often tasteless food your grocery store stocks has been forced to travel.

4. Turn off unused appliances at the socket. Standby mode still uses lots of energy. Cut your fuel bills by turning off televisions and other items when they’re not in use. That includes your computer’s monitor as well. Screensavers only stop the screen from getting burned in images. Energy saving mode cuts power usage but nowhere near as much as the on/off switch does.

5. Wash your clothes at a lower temperature. Modern detergents work fine at lower temperatures. Or throw away the detergent in favor of Eco washing balls, saving on the fossil fuels that are used for most modern detergents as well as cutting your washing costs without compromising wash quality.

6. Turn down your thermostat in the winter (and turn it up in the summer if you use air-conditioning). One or two degrees difference is barely noticeable, except when the fuel bill arrives. When you get used to the new, lower temperature, turn it down another degree or two!

7. Compost waste if you have a garden, saving on fertilizer cost and giving your plants a treatment they’ll love.

For more easy to follow tips on how to live green check out my guide. There’s plenty of easy to use information that can often save you money as well as help save the planet when you start to live green without wearing a sack cloth and ashes.
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Steps Families Can Take to Living Green

July 5, 2010 | By In living green | Comments(0)

I do not consider myself to be a huge environmentalist but, I am proud to say that I saved my allowance to join Greenpeace in the 80s. As an adult, I now realize the importance of having an awareness about our impact on the earth and sharing this with our children.

We may not be able to save our planet from every black cloud, but it is important to be responsible and respectful to the earth on a daily basis.

There are simple steps that we can all take to help live in a more green, earth friendly way. We do not have to change our lives drastically and with a few adjustments, nothing will seem to be different (for the exception of the land fills not being as full, our energy and water bills not being quite as high, and our knowing that we are doing our part in living a conscious and environmentally friendly way).

The following is a list of simple steps that families can take to living green. It is not a complete list, but a starting point. The important thing here is that parents and caregivers discuss these steps and ENFORCE them. If parents teach children to live green at an early age, children will naturally respect the earth.

I know there are many more things we can do, so I encourage you to please send us your great tips too! The earth thanks you and so do we!

Steps to Living Green:

1. Turn off the lights and the TV when you are not in the room. Better yet, turn the TV off all together and grab a book!

2. Get energy efficient appliances. This will help save on your electric bills as well as helping the environment!

3. Change out all of your old incandescent light bulbs with the new energy efficient florescent bulbs. They not only save you money, but time- you do not need to replace them as often and there is less waste from needing fewer bulbs!

4. There is one thing that is better than these new energy saving light bulbs and that is natural light. If it is light out, open the shades and catch some rays! Natural sun light helps with seasonal depression and vitamin D!

5. Recycle all of your plastic and glass bottles and aluminum cans. We have been hearing this for years, so do it! Every little bit counts.

6. Get a water purifying filtration system, or just a container with a filter like a Britta and STOP using those plastic water bottles!

7. Buy a kitchen timer and put it next to each shower in your home. Take the 4 minute shower. One minute for shampoo, one for soap, one for conditioner and one to rinse. Shave with the water off in between soaping and rinsing. This is HUGE in helping with water consumption, especially if you have more than one child taking showers. Better yet, take showers with more than one person at a time and still keep it to minutes! Make it a game!

8. Turn the water off while brushing teeth and while washing hands. After a quick initial rinse, turn the water off during lather and turn on again for a thorough rinse to finish up. For extra dirty hands, use a washcloth to remove dirt, not running water!

9. Recycle toilet paper and towel rolls. Better yet, if your kids are in preschool or grade school, save up the rolls and give them to the school. Kids can always make great art or science projects using paper towel and toilet paper rolls!

10. Fix leaky faucets as soon as the start to leak. Do not procrastinate on this kind of stuff. It not only costs you money, but wastes way more water than you realize.

11. Switch your household cleaners, dish soaps and hand soaps to environmentally friendly ones. The chemicals in bleaches and harsh chemicals are not only bad for earth, they are bad for you! Think cancer and fertility issues, not that much fun.

12. Every time that you go to the store to stock up on supplies for the house or office, look for recycled or green products. This way, you will know you are at least trying to be green!

13. Organic is the way to go. Buy from local farmers if you can and buy most, if not all of your produce from the organic section. Again, this not only benefits the earth, but your body does not need all of those pesticides and chemicals- more cancer and infertility, yuck!

14. Even shampoos and cosmetics companies are starting to go green. And these products are actually good! Give them a try!

15. Be open to trying new things that are green. The more open you are, the sooner you will find out that this whole green movement is kind of fun and definitely makes you feel like you are being responsible! What could feel better than that?

Britt Michaelian, MA is the founder and CEO of Responsible Family Company. Her DVD, Care for Kids: The Essential Guide to Preparing Caregivers educates caregivers about medical emergencies. Sign up for her newsletter to receive a free Child Safety Report at http://www.responsiblefamily.com
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