Minimize your own impact

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Minimize your own impact

The most important thing you can do to

help fight climate change is call on your elected officials to enact policies

that will help solve it. However, you can save money and reduce your own

contribution to global warming by making climate-friendly choices each day.

Here are a few simple tips for living a more climate-friendly life:

 

At Home

Turn down the heat and

air conditioning when you aren't home. Try using a

programmable thermostat or setting your thermostat yourself to 68 degrees while

you are awake and lower it to 60 degrees while you are asleep or away from

home. In the summer, keep the thermostat at 78 degrees while you are at home,

but give your air conditioning a rest when you are away. This will allow you to

save about 10% a year on your home energy costs. If every house in America did

this, our total greenhouse gas production would drop by about 35 million tons

of CO2. This is about the same as taking 6 million cars off of the road.

 

Choose energy efficient

appliances. Because they use less energy, EnergyStar

appliances like refrigerators can reduce carbon pollution, and have a big

impact on your energy bill. Plus, choosing energy efficient products is

easy-just look for the EnergyStar logo. EnergyStar products typically exceed

the federal energy standards by at least fifteen percent. When buying

appliances that use the most energy in your home, like heaters, air

conditioners, water heaters and refrigerators, also use the Energy Guide card

posted on the appliance to help you choose the one with the lowest annual

energy consumption. To learn more about your home's contribution to global

warming, view our famous Black Balloons video (be sure to share it

with your friends!).

 

Warm up your home with

insulation. Was your house constructed before 1980?

If so, it could be one of the 80% of American homes built without enough insulation.

This means your home heating costs could be going through the roof, literally. The North American Insulation Manufacturers Association

has tips for both finding and getting the most out of a contractor to fix this

problem and for doing it yourself.

 

Change your home's air

filters. Heating and cooling uses about half of

the energy in a typical home and can account for about $1,500 a year in annual

costs. Click here to read about how you can

conserve energy by doing some basic home maintenance like replacing air filters

and insulating your heating ducts.

 

Make the switch to

compact florescent bulbs. According to the

government's EnergyStar program, if every American home replaced their five

most-used light fixtures with EnergyStar rated compact fluorescent the savings

would add up to $8 billion annually in energy costs. That's like taking almost

ten million cars off the road. CFL's are widely available, affordable, and they

last ten times longer than traditional bulbs.

 

Wash your clothes with

cold water. If you usually use hot water for your

laundry you can cut your energy consumption in half by choosing warm water, and

up to ninety percent if you choose cold. Your current liquid laundry detergent

should work fine. If not, special cold water detergents are available. Your

shirts and pants should be just as clean, and you'll thank yourself when the

electricity bill arrives.

 

Switch to green power. It is

likely that most of the electricity you use comes from non-renewable sources

like coal. However, there are some utilities that will sell you

climate-friendly electricity like wind, biomass, or solar if you ask for it.

More than 750 utilities in 37 states offer green power products and signing up

can be very easy. To find out what your options are, check out the US Department of Energy map or contact

your local energy company directly. And, when you sign up for green power, ask

your utility when everyone will be getting clean energy, even those who don't

request it. Read more about green power here.

 

On the Go

 

Take public

transportation. One of the best ways to reduce your

impact on the climate is to take a public bus, subway or train instead of

driving. Since you don't have to keep your eyes on the road, you can read, talk

with friends or listen to music while you travel. If just 10% of US passenger

car travel were instead on mass transit, we would save 75 million tons of CO2.

Give public transit a try for one trip a week to start. You may be surprised by

how convenient reducing greenhouse gas emissions can be. If your community

doesn't have many public transportation options, ask for it! Go to a city

council meeting or write your city officials and tell them that good public

transportation options are important to you, and good for the community.

 

Find a carpool buddy at

least once a week. Sharing a ride to work is one of the

most efficient ways to cut down on drive-time emissions. Ask around -- odds are

someone else is heading in the same direction already.

 

Pump up your tires. Eager to

save money at the pump? According to AAA, driving with under-inflated tires can

hurt your vehicle's gas mileage by two to three percent. Over a year, this

could be like wasting an entire tank of gas. To check your tires' pressure:

 

1. Check the inside of the driver's side

door or owner's manual and jot down the double-digit number followed by the

letters " PSI, " which stands for Pounds per Square Inch. This is how

much air your tires were designed to hold.

 

2. Pick up a tire gauge (for about $5)

and use it to measure the air in your tires.

 

3. If it turns out your tires are

under-inflated, visit a gas station for an air touch-up and you'll enjoy an

easier (and more energy-efficient) ride.

 

Go ride a bike -- or

take a walk. Not only is riding a bike or walking a

climate-friendly way to commute, it's good for your health, too. Ride your bike

to work, or use it for short errands. Your local bike shop is an excellent

resource for information on bicycle commuting, the latest bike gadgets and safety

tools, and it can even help you fix up that old three-speeder for trips around

town.

 

At Work

 

Turn off computers and

monitors when not in use. These common pieces of

office equipment consume a lot of electricity. The single most powerful climate

change tool on these machines is the OFF switch. Forget what you've heard about

how powering up equipment repeatedly wears it out. That's old information,

dating back decades. New equipment can be safely switched off and powered back

on when it's needed again. Also, make sure the hibernation and sleep settings

are enabled (click

here to find out how).

 

Ask for motion sensors

in low-traffic areas. In commercial buildings lighting

accounts for more than 40% of electrical energy use, a huge cause of greenhouse

gas production. Using motion and occupancy sensors can cut this use by 10%. Ask

your employer to consider installing motion sensors in lesser traveled

hallways, restrooms, conference rooms, and storage areas.

 

Use a power strip. Office

equipment from faxes to toaster ovens draw energy just by being plugged in.

Save energy by plugging all office equipment into a power strip. When you leave

the office, just flip the off switch on the power strip. You can also use a

power strip at home and save even more.

 

Call maintenance if it's

cold. If it's too hot or too cold, call the

maintenance department since this probably means that the system needs to be

adjusted (and energy is being wasted).

 

Be creative -- anyone

can be a climate champion at work. Don't work in an

office? There is still plenty you can do to protect the climate at your

workplace. Finding ways to save energy offers an opportunity for creativity and

true American out-of-the-box thinking and innovation, and the rewards can be

huge. Click here to learn more about what you

can do at your place of work.

 

Source: wecansolveit.org

-- Diana GonzalezPalmarosa Hand CraftsVisit my shop!www.palmarosa.etsy.comMy Blogwww.confessionsofacraftaholic.blogspot.com