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 First, take a carbon footprint
checkup of your own life to see where — and how heavily — you stand
on the earth. Online, head to MyFootprint.org or SafeClimate.net/calculator
to play the numbers game.
Swap out your incandescent lightbulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs.
“They use about 66 percent less energy, and they last 10 times
longer,” says Anca Novacovici, president of Eco-Coach. Worry not —
bulb technology is finally catching up to your design aesthetic. The
latest compact fluorescent bulbs don’t throw off that odd blue light,
and they even look like their incandescent counterparts, so your lamp
shades will continue to sit snugly.
Recycle — seriously. Yes, it’s almost painful to say it to you,
because of course you already separate out the paper and the plastic,
right? But just in case you don’t, soda cans make it clear why you
should: Aluminum has a 99 percent recycling rate. “You can recycle it
forever,” says Novacovici. And recycling just one little aluminum can
saves the same amount of energy it would take to run a TV for three
full hours. One can!
Put the kibosh on junk mail and catalogs (as much as possible). Direct
marketers send out about 60 catalogs for every man, woman, and child
in the United States annually, according to Novacovici. And all that
junk mail? There’s 100 million trees’ worth sent out per year, which
is “equal to deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every
four months,” says Wise. Stop in at the Direct Marketing Association’s
Consumer Assistance site (www.dma consumers.org/cgi/offmailing) to
opt out of mailings from the association’s members, and visit the
Center for a New American Dream’s “Declare Your Independence from Junk
Mail” page (www.newdream.org/junkmail/index.php).
Paper or plastic? Go fabric instead and you could keep up to 1,500
plastic bags per year from making their way into landfills, says Wise,
adding, “It takes 1,000 years for plastic bags to biodegrade.”
Layer on clothes instead of giving your thermostat an extra twist. Take
your thermostat down a mere two degrees this winter (and up two in the
summer) and you’ll save 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year. And if
the environmental benefit isn’t enough to get that thermostat moving,
just think how much money you’ll save. “Being green doesn’t take more
green,” says Wise. “You can actually save a lot of money.”
Give power cords a tug. There’s still a little something surging through
all those electric cords around your house after you turn off your
appliances. “Between 10 and 40 percent of energy used is actually used
when the appliance is turned off but still plugged in,” says Novacovici.
Take public transportation when you travel, or if you must drive, rent a
hybrid vehicle. How much does a hybrid really save? A Toyota Prius emits
four tons of greenhouse gases and uses 7.4 barrels of petroleum per
year, while a Toyota Camry emits 7.7 tons of greenhouse gases and uses
14.3 barrels of petroleum annually.
Lend your voice to the earth by encouraging your local representatives
“to support a national mandatory cap on global-warming pollution,” says
Ben Dunham, staff attorney for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
“The biggest step … an individual can take is to [ask] their member of
Congress to support a science-based solution to global warming.” Two
bills currently under consideration in Congress are the Safe Climate Act
in the House of Representatives and, in the Senate, the Global Warming
Pollution Reduction Act. |
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The Green Book: The
Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time by
Elizabeth Rogers, $13 (Three Rivers Press)
The Lazy
Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living by
Josh Dorfman, $15 (Stewart, Tabori & Chang)
The Live Earth
Global Warming Survival Handbook: 77 Essential Skills to Stop Climate
Change by David de Rothschild, $15 (Rodale)
National Geographic’s
“The Green Guide” newsletter
www.thegreenguide.com
Plenty magazine
www.plentymag.com
Green home tips from ApartmentTherapy.com
www.green.apartmenttherapy.com
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