April 22 was Earth Day and listed below are some suggestions for reducing our environmental footprint at both work and home. Feel free to pass on this information...
Here's our Top 10 list of actions for individuals, organizations and
businesses to take as a first step in reducing your contribution to
global warming. The time to act is now.
Project Switch: Change your light bulbs!
There are now highly efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)
that last for years, use a third of the energy of regular bulbs and
actually produce more light. Look for the government's ENERGY STAR
label, which means the bulb has been tested for quality and efficiency.
While each ENERGY STAR qualified bulb can cost more initially - anywhere
from $4 to $15 a piece - remember that there are two price tags: what
you pay at the register and what you pay in energy costs over the bulb's
lifetime. You may pay more up front, but you will actually save hundreds
of dollars in your household budget over the long term because of their
long life. Five ENERGY STAR light bulbs will save your household at
least $150 over their lifetime.
Here's the impact. If every household in the U.S. replaced a burned-out
bulb with an energy-efficient, ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent
bulb, the cumulative effect is enormous. It would prevent greenhouse gas
emissions equivalent to that from nearly 800,000 cars. It would also
save enough energy to light 2.5 million homes for a year.
There are other, simple things with household lighting you can do to
conserve. Turn off unneeded lights, dim lights when you can and bring
natural sunlight into your home when it is feasible.
But changing those old light bulbs and replacing them with ENERGY STAR
qualified compact fluorescents that can last seven years or more is by
far the best thing you can do.
Drive your car differently – or drive a different car altogether!
The sad truth is that a gas guzzler emits as much CO2 as some homes!
That's the bad news. The good news is that anything you can do to
improve the fuel efficiency of your car will have an impact. On average,
a passenger car emits 11,400 pounds of CO2 each year while a home emits
9,000 pounds of CO2 per person each year in the United States.
Horribly inefficient SUVs, minivans and pickup trucks now make up more
than half of the cars on American roads. The real tragedy is that
automakers could double the current average fuel efficiency of SUVs if
they wanted. Even improving fuel economy from 20 miles-per-gallon to 25
miles-per-gallon would prevent 10 tons of CO2 from being released over a
vehicle's lifetime.
Buying a fuel-efficient car (like a Hybrid) is wonderful. In fact,
replacing your gas-guzzling car with a fuel-efficient one is by far the
best thing you can do, out of all your choices. But not all of us can do
that - at least, not right now. So, in the interim, there are things you
can do with the car you drive now to conserve energy and be more
fuel-efficient.
Drive less. Every year, Americans as a whole drive more miles than they
did the year before. Stop this trend. Telecommuting and public
transportation are great options. Leaving your car at home two days a
week will reduce your CO2 emissions by 1,590 pounds a year. Even piling
multiple errands into one trip helps and if you can walk instead of
drive, even better.
Get your car tuned up. Just a simple tune-up often improves fuel
efficiency. Studies have shown that a poorly tuned engine can increase
fuel consumption by as much as 10-20 percent.
Slow down, don't race your car's engine, and watch your idling. All of
these save on gas (saving you money) and have a big impact on burning
gasoline. You can save gas by turning the engine off and restarting it
again if you expect to idle for more than 30 seconds.
Your house – not too hot, not too cold!
The bad news is that about 42 percent of your household energy costs go
toward just two things - heating and cooling. The good news is that
means you have a lot of room to make a difference and even small changes
can make dramatic improvements in household fuel efficiency.
Replacing older heating and cooling systems with new efficient models
can cut your annual energy costs by 20 percent. So replacing the old
with the new is a wonderful idea, but not very practical for most of us.
Things you can do right now to make sure you're maintaining the right
temperature in your house efficiently include:
Tune up your heating system. By keeping your furnace clean, lubricated
and properly adjusted, you can save up to 5 percent in heating costs.
Clean vents, close unused vents, and change filters in the vents. Again,
just these simple things will save you up to 5 percent in costs.
Buy a programmable thermostat, which can regulate different temperatures
at different times of the day. And if you have one, use it! These
thermostats reduce energy use by 5-30 percent and save you $100-$150 in
energy costs each year.
If one in 10 households serviced heating and cooling systems annually,
cleaned or replaced filters regularly, used a programmable thermostat
and replaced old equipment with ENERGY STAR models it would prevent the
emissions of more than 17 billion pounds of greenhouse gases.
Add two degrees to the AC thermostat in summer, and two degrees in
winter. If everyone did this, the cumulative impact is significant.
Make sure windows and doors are sealed. Again, this will dramatically
improve your household fuel efficiency. Sealing air leaks and adding
insulation can reduce your annual energy bill by 10 percent.
Of course, if you can stand it, by far the best approach is to avoid
using air conditioners. Ceiling fans use 80 percent less energy than
central air conditioners. By only using ceiling fans you can reduce your
annual cooling costs by 10-65 percent. In warm weather run the fan
blades in a counter-clockwise direction to feel 5 degrees cooler. During
the winter set the fan blades to rotate clockwise at a low speed to
force warm air from the ceiling down into the living space.
Tame the refrigerator monster!
Did you know that your friendly refrigerator has a voracious energy
appetite? It is the biggest consumer of electricity among household
appliances and responsible for 10-15 percent of the electricity you use
each year.
Older refrigerators, as a rule, are far less efficient than the newest
ones - as much as 50 percent less efficient. But buying a brand-new,
energy-efficient refrigerator is not always in the cards for most of us.
Fortunately, other things will help.
Don't set the thermostat too high. Lowering the temperature even 1
degree will make a big difference.
If your refrigerator is near a heating vent, or always in the sun, then
change the location, cover up the heating vent near it or cover the
window.
Turn on your "energy saver" switch near the thermostat.
Clean the condenser coil. This one, very simple thing can improve the
efficiency of your refrigerator reducing your annual energy costs by
$20.
Get rid of your second refrigerator. If you don't need it, don't waste
the energy.
Make sure the doors seal properly, and keep the cool in.
Twist the knobs on your other household appliances!
The other big users of energy in your household are your hot water
heater, your washer and dryer, and your dishwasher. Each, in its own
way, can be inefficient. Here are some things to try:
Either turn the hot water heater down to 120 degrees, or turn on the
"energy conservation" setting. Some manufacturers set water heater
thermostats at 140 degrees when most households only require them at 120
or 115 degrees. For each 10 degrees reduction in water temperature, you
can save 3-5 percent in energy costs.
Buy insulation at a local store and insulate your hot water heater and
pipes.
Install a timer on your water heater to turn off at night and on just
before you wake up in the morning.
When possible, wash a few dishes by hand. Over time, that will save a
few loads in the dishwasher, conserving energy.
Don't pre-rinse dishes. Today's detergents are powerful enough to do the
job.
Wait until you have a full load to run the dishwasher.
Wash clothes in warm water, not hot. Ninety percent of the energy used
in operating a washing machine goes toward heating the water that washes
and rinses the clothes. The clothes will be just as clean, and you'll
cut energy use.
Don't over-dry your clothes.
Green plants with less water, more trees to provide shade.
While it is true that planting more trees will help in the short term
because they essentially soak up carbon, they also release carbon
dioxide when they die. So it just postpones the problem. But there are
other reasons to plant trees - as wind breaks to save energy, and as
shade to lower cooling costs. And even the short-term help while we get
our act together is a good thing.
As for plants, do everything you can in your yard and garden to create
ways in which plants use less water. Choose hardier plants, plant things
in groups that need more water and put in mulch to help keep moisture
in. When you mow your grass, make sure you do it smartly - with sharp
blades, and only when the grass needs cutting. Finally, make sure you
water your lawn sparingly. All of these will conserve energy.
Buy Green Energy, and invest in green energy stocks.
Imagine if we ran out of fossil fuels tomorrow, what would we do? Well,
we'd get our electricity from renewable energy, such as solar panels,
geothermal and wind power sources. Many utilities now give consumers the
option to buy "green power." Ask for it!
Learn the truth about nuclear power and natural gas as viable "green"
options. They aren't. Radioactive waste will be a problem for tens of
thousands of years into the future. Even though natural gas emits half
as much CO2 as coal, it is still responsible for 20 percent of CO2
emissions in the United States while only providing us with around 23
percent of the energy consumed. Natural gas can help us make a
transition, but it isn't the solution.
Finally, invest in green stocks and renewable energy companies through
socially responsible funds. They perform just as well (if not better)
than all of the unfiltered funds.
Go organic.
Even with our vast reservoir of scientific knowledge about farming, most
American farmers still spray a billion pounds of pesticides to protect
crops each year.
Now here's the kicker: when chemical pesticides are used to kill pests,
they can also kill microorganisms that keep carbon contained in the
soil. When the microorganisms are gone, the carbon is released into the
atmosphere as CO2. And when those organisms are gone, the soil is no
longer naturally fertile and chemical fertilizers become a necessity,
not a luxury.
But besides going organic - thereby saving the carbon release from soil
- there are other simple things you can do with food that will also make
a difference:
Eat locally grown food. If the food doesn't have to travel far, there's
less CO2 from the trucks that ship it.
Eat fruits and vegetables in season. Again, that saves the enormous
transportation costs.
Plant your own vegetable garden. It's not as hard as you might think.
Buy recycled.
This may sound simple, but it takes less energy to manufacture a
recycled product than a brand new one. So if you and every other
consumer buy recycled products, you'll help create a market, and
conserve energy along the way.
Because many manufacturers don't go out of their way to tout their
recycled products, you should know that aluminum and tin cans, glass
containers, and pulp cardboard have a fair amount of recycled content.
So buy away!
Recycled products can often be considerably cheaper than non-recycled
products. Most recycled paper products are of comparable quality and
cost competitive with virgin paper products.
Finally, before you buy, check to see if the product or its packaging
can be recycled. The recyclable logo (three arrows forming a triangle)
is fairly common now.
Be a minimalist.
We know it's difficult, but in today's consumer economy, an easy way to
conserve energy is to simply use - and buy -- less. Every time you buy
something, energy has gone into getting that product to you. So the less
you buy, the more you save energy-wise. It's a simple equation.
This last item on our Top Ten list may, in fact, be the single biggest
way to make a dent in the global warming problem. Again, we know it
sounds obvious, but buying less things - some of which you just don't
need - changes the energy equation across the board, on every single
consumer product. If everyone used less, the impact would be large
indeed.
So how about some specific things? Here are a few:
Buy in bulk. In short, bulk items use less packaging, which translates
into less energy.
Buy one of something, not 21 of something. You don't need 21 pairs of
shoes, if one pair works just as well.
Go through your closet. Donate or recycle what you really don't need,
then make a pledge not to replace everything you just got rid of.
Buy quality products that will last longer. Over time, you'll obviously
buy fewer products that way.
Be creative in what you use for work, play and leisure. You don't always
have to buy new products for activities. Re-use in creative ways.
Well, that's it - Earth Day Network's Top 10. As we said at the start,
if just a third of us in the United States follow through on most of
what's on this list, we can all collectively make a difference - and
keep greenhouse gas emissions where they might otherwise be if the U.S.
government stepped in and imposed mandatory CO2 caps and fuel-efficiency
standards.
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