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Get involved — Make a commitment!
At work and at home, all of us have opportunities to help lighten our impact on the planet. But sometimes, even though we know it’s the right thing to do and we want to do the right thing, we have a hard time getting started.
So, here are some tips and ideas to get started reducing our environmental footprint. One time can become two times. Two times can become three times. Soon it can become every time! It takes about three weeks to form a habit. How about we all give one of these ideas a try!
Create Green
 Help create a green world!
- Teach kids about the environment.
- Learn about water scarcity.
- Avoid overnight shipping, which burns the most fossil fuels per item. Ground transportation means less fuel use and pollution.
- Go to your local library instead of buying new books.
- At holidays and birthdays, give your family and friends the gift of saving the earth. Donate to their favorite environmental group, foundation, or organization.
- Plant a forest and feed a family while you’re at it.
- Purchase one case of water and provide clean water to 24 people (for over twenty years).
- Go zero! Log on to the Conservation Fund’s Carbon Zero Calculator; you can measure and then offset your carbon dioxide emissions by planting trees.
- Learn about threats to ocean life and help Greenpeace take action.
- Find your local watershed and learn how to protect it.
Eat Green
Ideas for eating green and healthy.
Live Green
Things you can do at home.
- Recycle. Recycle your newspapers.
- Lower your thermostat.
- Buy a programmable thermostat.
- Wash towels after several uses.
- Do full loads of laundry and set the rinse cycle to “cold.”
- Use low-flow faucets, showerheads, and toilets.
- Don’t run the water when brushing your teeth.
- Limit the length of your showers. Even better, take a “navy shower,” shutting off the water while soaping up and shampooing.
- Whenever you can, try using green products.
- Buy products that use recyclable materials whenever possible.
- Shop smart. Choose eco-smart products.
- Check out Cheap, Clean, and Green for green cleaning products
- Opt for eco-friendly and holistic health products
- Buy locally made products and locally produced services.
- Go paperless. Consider reading your newspaper and magazine subscriptions online. Switch to electronic banking and credit card payment, too.
- Put your money where your mouth is—invest in green investments. Web sites like Co-op America's National Green Pages™ can help.
- Recycle your technology. Dell, Hewlett Packard, Apple, and IBM, among others, offer recycling programs.
- Opt into a clean energy program. Check out the Green Power Network at the US Department of Energy.
- Give away your goods and find new ones at FreeCycle.
- Landscape with native plants. Check out the article on the EPA website.
- Consider organic cleaning products like vinegar, borax, and baking soda.
- Bring your own bags to the grocery store. Given a choice between plastic and paper, opt for paper. If you use plastic grocery bags, recycle them for doggie poop bags or for small trash can liners.
- Get off junk mail lists. GreenDimes can get you started.
- Increase your home's energy efficiency by upgrading your fireplace.
- Where does money leak out of your house? Take the Whole House Quiz to find out.
- Turn off energy strips and surge protectors when not in use (especially overnight).
- Unplug your cell phone charger from the wall when not using it.
- Turn off lights and electronics when you leave the room.
- Buy compact fluorescent light bulbs.
- Start a compost in your back yard.
Move Green
Transportation tips to help the environment.
- Car pool or use mass transit.
- Consider a car sharing service.
- 58% of car trips are under 5 miles and 25% are less than 2 miles, just because you have a car doesn’t mean you have to drive it all the time, try walking, biking, or skating when you can, its good for you and the planet.
- Remove any extra wind resisting items from your car, such as the roof rack and you will save on fuel while improving air quality.
- Consider buying a fuel-efficient car or a hybrid.
- Turn your car off if you’re going to be idle for more than one minute.
- Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration, and hard braking) wastes gas. For every 5 mph over 60 mph, you will use about an extra 7% more gas! Driving the speed limit keeps you save and can lower your highway gas mileage 33%.
- Walk up instead of drive-through. Chances are, you’ll be in and out faster than you would if you were still waiting in the drive-thru.
- Get regular oil changes, and check your air and fuel filters at the same time. Replacing a dirty air filter can improve gas mileage by as much as 10 percent.
- If you change your own oil, make sure to dispose of it properly, a single quart of used engine oil can pollute 250,000 gallons of ground water!
- If its hot, try to re-fuel during the cooler times of the day like evening, this helps to prevent the gas fumes from heating up and creating excess ozone.
- Don’t “top off’ the tank; it cancels the benefits of pumps with anti-pollution devices.
- Make the most of your trips by combining your errands into a single drive. Starting a car after it's been sitting for more than an hour up causes 5x more pollution than when the engine's already warm!
- Keep your vehicle’s tires inflated to the proper pressure. For every three pounds that your tires are below their recommended pressure, your fuel economy drops one percent.
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