25 Easy Daily Greening Decisions- Room by Room Exclusive Home Design

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25 Easy Daily Greening Decisions- Room by Room

Posted April 26th, 2011 by Lilly Kibble No Comments »

Maybe one green change alone cant make this world a greener place, but thousands, millions of ones will. One drop in a bucket hardly makes a splash. But millions of individual drops make an ocean.

Here are 25 ways to green your home- room by room- today:

General

1. What? USE ORGANIC HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS Why? You may think that the air pollution outside is pretty bad. Well according to the Environmental Protection Agency its even worse inside- as much as 5 times worse! Because Americans spend an average of 90% of their time inside, the pollution that you live and sleep with is a problem that you should start to take very seriously. One way that you can make change and lower the toxicity of your home sweet home is by switching to non-chemical cleaning products. Yes, they work really well and they leave a sweet orange, lemon, tea tree or lavender scent instead of an eye burning chemical residue (start thinking twice before you take a bath in a freshly Clorox-clean tub!) Another reason to reduce your use of chemically- infused cleaning products? According to an article in Fast Company magazine, approximately 37 million Americans are sensitive to chemicals, some sensitivities are so serious in fact that there has been a link to the increased number of office employee sick days. Bottom line- Eco cleaning products work and they are better for your health and the environment.

2. What? TURN OFF THE LIGHTS AND SWAP YOUR BULBS OUT Why? Making electricity is responsible the most amount of industrial carbon emissions in the US (39.4 percent according to the US Department of Energy). Keeping our houses flushed with unnatural light takes up 10% home energy use. You can make a noticeable impact on the environment and save money on your electric bill by switching out your bulbs out to fluorescent (CFL). They may more expensive at the point of purchase, but fluorescents last 6-10 times longer than incandescent bulbs and they can cut light energy use by as much as 50%. If you arent a fan of the yellowish light that emanates from fluorescents, try Light Emitting Diodes (LED). LEDs have been used for years to illuminate traffic lights and the small red or green lights in electronics like cell phone chargers without the use of too much energy. They are just starting to be mainstreamed and manufactured for consumer products. LEDs are more expensive than CFLs, but they come in lots of great colors and use 85% less energy than your average household bulb. Not into CFLs or your LED options? You can still make a difference if you just make it a point to turn off unused lights or let the light shine in from behind your window shades. Natural light is healthier anyway.

3. What? STOP JUNK MAIL Why? Would you ever consider cutting down 1.5 trees each year only to turn around and toss them in the trash? Talk about unnecessary destruction of the environment! Well, thats essentially what you are doing by tossing all of that junk mail that piles up in your mailbox. Thankfully there are two very simple things you can do to minimize the junk 1. Visit www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist.com and for $1 you can request to be taken off a nice chunk of junk mail lists. 2. Recycle the junk mail that you do receive. Dont worry about the envelopes with plastic peek windows- they are recyclable too.

Bathroom

4. What? PUT ROCKS IN YOUR TOILET Why? Each flush wastes 3-5 gallons of water. Add that number to the amount of times you use the restroom each day, then add all those unnecessary times when you used your toilet as a waste basket- flushing down a tissue or cigarette butt because you didnt feel like throwing it away. Now multiply that by every member in your family and youve got a lot of good water going down the drain. In fact, the US government believes that we flush approximately 40% of our all household water down the drain. You can easily minimize that waste and make your toilet greener by putting rocks in your toilet tank. If you lift up the lid on the back of your toilet you will notice that it is filled with water. There is also a line that indicates the toilet is filled with the appropriate amount of water (3-5 gallons depending on the toilet). Each time you flush, all of the water empties out into the bowl to clean it, then flush back through the exit pipe. The point of the rocks (you can also use a sand filled sealed water bottle) is to displace some of that water so that the toilet thinks it is holding the requisite 3-5 gallons. Dont worry, as long as you leave at least 2 gallons of water it should still function properly (and if it doesnt, just take out a few rocks).

5. What? WRAP YOUR WATER HEATER Why? Your water heater is always filled with hot water, ready at any moment to shower you with your preferred water temperature. The problem with this scenario is that in order to maintain a constantly hot heater, it is constantly being heated- an ongoing feat especially when the exterior air is very cold. Minimize this unnecessary energy loss by wrapping your water heater. A tremendous amount of heat generated within the heater is lost by the cold air lurking outside. Keep that warmth in by insulating the heater and you will save money and energy.

6. What? TAKE SHORTER SHOWERS Why? You use an average of 2.5 gallons of water for every minute that you shower. Save water in the shower by: 1. Shortening your shower by two minutes 2. Turning off the water while shaving your legs, waiting for your conditioner to soak in, or loofahing your skin.

Laundry Room

7. What? ENERGY STAR FRONT LOADER WASHER AND DRYER Why? Changing all of your home appliance out to Energy Star can save you as much as $600 a year on your electric bill. Choosing a front-loading washing machine can save 50 liters of water per wash compared to your typical top loader. Why? A lot of water is required to fill up a top loading washing machine in order to efficiently wash your clothes. A front loader on the other hand can only hold so much before you risk water pouring out if you open the door mid rinse. Instead of using excessive amount of water, the machine spins your clothes through the water that there.

Not ready for energy star? Wash full loads with warm wash, cold rinse. That way you will save water (since you will be washing more clothes less often), electricity required to warm the water, and therefore you will save money.

8. What? WASH ONLY FULL LOADS OF LAUNDRY Why? Save between 300 and 800 gallons of water a month.

Kitchen

9. What? USE REUSABLE CUPS OR MUGS Why? Exactly how long it takes a Styrofoam cup to decompose is highly debated. But the number is around 2000 years! Choose a mug or glass carafe instead.

10. What? DRINK ORGANIC WINE AND BEER Few sulfates in the red wine- translates to less wine headaches. According to a recently released report, wine and table grapes are charged with expending more agricultural chemicals (nearly 60 million pounds per year) than any other crop in California. That in itself is a reason to drink organic wine!

11. What? TAP YOUR WATER Why? Disposable plastic water bottles create 1.5 million tons of plastic waste a year in the US alone. Because of the prevalence of chemical off-gasing, there is a chance that your premium plastic bottled water is not so clean. Purified water out of the tap can be stored in stainless steel water bottles or glass pitchers for Earth friendly convenience.

12. What? STORE LEFTOVERS IN GLASS REUSABLE CONTAINERS Why? 48 million tons of food is tossed each year. It is estimated that as much as $31 billion worth of perfectly good food finds its way to landfills instead of your (and every other Americans) stomach. Boxing leftovers in glass (instead of plastic) containers will help minimize the waste and help save money.

13. What? USE YOUR MICROWAVE Why? Approximately 5% of your energy bills go to cooking. Aside from cooking your food on a hot rock in the desert, microwaves are one of the most energy efficient, environmentally friendly ways to cook. Compared to a traditional electric oven, a microwave is between 3.5 and 4.8 times more energy efficient than your average electric oven. If you want to talk dollars and cents, you would spend approximately .10 cents each time you cook something in a microwave, compared to .48 cents to cook that same thing in a traditional oven.

Why is there such a drastic energy difference? In order to get an oven to its desired temperature you have to pre-heat it for about 10 minutes. Thats 10 minutes of wasted energy. Cooking time is exponentially more in an oven. Take a potato for example. Depending the type of oven and size of potato, it takes between 30 and 60 minutes at 375 degrees to bake one potato. That doesnt include the pre-heating. Baking a potato in a microwave takes about 5 minutes.

14. What? BE A VEGETARIAN ONCE A WEEK Why? Behind energy, agriculture is responsible for the highest amount of greenhouse gases produced. Cows, sheep, poultry and other livestock are responsible for mass amounts of freshwater use; soil degradation from trampling vegetation and compacting the land with their hooves; waste creation (a total of 1.4 billion tons of manure a year from US farm animals) that seeps into the soil and pollutes surrounding water.

15. What? PAPER OR PLASTIC? HOW ABOUT HEMP? Why? The old paper or plastic debate is less a question of which carrier is good for the environment, but instead- which carrier is better for the environment. Plastic has recently been regarded as the environmentally sound option- for what reason we have no idea. The problem with plastic is that plastic is constructed from petroleum products and toxic chemicals. So toxic in fact that it has been said has been said that 14 percent of US toxic air emissions. If 25% of families used 10 fewer plastic bags a month, we would save over 2.5 billion bags a year. Paper? It is estimated that 900 million trees are cut down each year I order to serve the US paper industry. Those 900 million trees contribute to all virgin paper. But the 10 million paper bags used in the US. Paper may be the best of two evils, but the best option is reusable bags. Hemp, organic cotton, or any type of reusable bags can be used over and over without further damaging the environment.

16. What? BUY FOOD IN BULK Why? Buying food in bulk is a great way to minimize packaging. On average, $1 of every $11 spent on food product pays for packaging. Just make sure to purchase products that have less packaging and you are less likely to waste- if you end up throwing half the food away, you have just negated the bulk buying benefit.

17. What? BUY LOCALLY GROWN FOODS (these are easily found at farmers markets) Why? The average fruit, vegetable, meat, or fish traveled 1,500 miles before finally finding its way to your mouth. Instead of buying food with high embodied energy, buy fresh food from local growers, farmers, or fisheries. If you think about it, you may feel good about yourself for ordering an organic piece of fish from New Zealand at a restaurant. But think about the amount of miles that fish had to fly, and the carbon expended through fuel (not to mention the chemicals expelled in the jet fuel) en route to your restaurant. You may not be directly responsible for that energy expenditure, but the blame is on you through supply and demand. Start selecting local and you can lower your carbon footprint.

Office

18. What? CELL PHONE/BATTERY CHARGING STATION Why? 10% of the average US household your electric is caused by unused electronics that are plugged into the wall. If your family has a lot of cell phones or other portable electronics that require regular charging, establish a charging station situated along a power strip. This way all chargers and batteries can be easily found in the same spot, and, when fully charged, you can energy efficiently switch off the power, avoiding unnecessary vampire electric leakage.

19. What? TURN OFF OR UNPLUG PERSONAL COMPUTERS WHEN NOT IN USE (sleep mode doesnt count) Why? 10% of the average US household your electric is caused by unused electronics that are plugged into the wall. A Google exec once said that electric companies should start buying personal computers for contracted customers. Why? Because personal computers drain an inordinate amount of electricity. To avoid the drain you can do one of several things: 1. Replace your PC with a laptop. Since laptops are both battery powered and engineered to be power efficient, they use substantially less electricity than PCs. 2. Completely power down or unplug your computer when not in use. Sleep mode with the pictures bouncing up and down doesnt count. We know, it takes about 5 minutes for the computer to be fully functional once you restart it which may seem like a waste of time, but how about trying these options: a. If your computer is at home, when you walk by your computer in the morning press the power button, walk past and proceed to do something else (ie use the restroom, make coffee, eat breakfast, read the newspaper). Once you are really ready to use the computer, it will be ready for you. b. If your computer is at the office, walk up to your desk and turn it on. Then, again, turn around and use the restroom or get coffee. Dont need to do either? Unpack your briefcase, open your mail, check your in box. I am sure there is SOMEthing you can do that will take up those 5 minutes and allow your computer to power up.

20. What? UNPLUG ALL UNUSED ELECTRONICS Why? 10% of electric bill is leached by vampire electric use. The reason for the slow vampire leakage is because most electronics are created to power up at the touch of a button. But they need to have enough power running through them in order to instantly respond to your request. You can oftentimes tell if your electronics are oozing electricity if the little red light is on or if the plug is warm. Dont leave TVs on when you arent watching them- simply turning down the noise isnt enough. Unplug toasters, hairdryers, fax machines, printers, electric toothbrushes, dust busters, bread makers, coffee grinders, and any other unused electronics.

21. What? DECREASE YOUR MARGINS You dont need an empty inch and a half on either side of a document. For multiple page documents, decreasing your margins will reduce your page count and save paper.

22. What? FORGET THE COVER PAGE Instead of always including a cover page on faxes, instead us a sticky note on document itself, or, if possible, skip the fax description all together.

23. What? PRINT ON BOTH SIDES OF THE PAPER It is easy to set your photocopier to print double-sided documents. This will cut your paper use in half.

Bedroom

24. What? DONT BUY SYNTHETIC CLOTHES Why? Aside from being a 70s fad, polyester is bad for the environment on both the front and the back end. In the front end, polyester uses about 5 lbs of petrochemicals for every 10 yards of fabric produced (approximately 5 sweat suits). On the back end, polyester is not biodegradable.

25. What? BUY CLOTHES MADE WITH ORGANIC COTTON Why? Approximately 25% of all insecticides and 11% of all pesticides are sprayed on cotton fields (the same cotton that is spun into your favorite comfy t-shirts and underwear). The hard fact- approximately 4.5 million tons of toxic chemicals are sprayed into the air and dumped into the water each year in order to ensure that no insects or pests come near our cotton (I think I would rather the insects and pests). released into the air and water every year. Organic cotton clothing guarantees that no toxic chemicals were involved in the production of your clothes. And they are pretty hip these days too. Let me tell you, if you have itchy, unattractive potato sack styles in mind, you couldnt be more wrong.

What 1 green thing are you doing today?

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