5 Ways to Go Green Today

Here are five simple tips that you can get started on today for becoming more environmentally friendly by using less fossil fuel-based energy. Another advantage for you – these steps will also save you hundreds of dollars in the long-run.

1. Use Solar-Powered Chargers. Solar-powered chargers for portable electronic devices are constantly getting less expensive and more efficient at transforming sunlight into electricity to charge your cell phones, mp3 players, and laptops. You’ll never have to plug in your electronics again, plus these panels are portable, meaning you can use them wherever you can get a few hours of sunlight. Many reviewers have suggested charging your gadgets while you’re driving, so that you can still have easy access to them while they’re charging.
2. Collect Rainwater. You can buy a rain barrel designed especially for the purpose of catching rain water (usually placed under a gutter), or you can just put out empty containers before it rains. Of course, you don’t want to drink rainwater, but it can be used perfectly well for watering plants, washing off outdoor furniture, and even for flushing toilets. Cover the containers once there is water in them, because otherwise the stagnant water will draw mosquitoes.
3. Grow Your Own Food. Some edible plants are more suited than others to be grown in small spaces, but herbs, tomatoes, and strawberries are among the most popular foods to grow if you have access to at least a small balcony. If you only have a window, most herbs will receive enough sunlight there to survive, and you might want to consider buying an indoor gardening device that makes the process completely automated and helps the plants flourish under grow lights. I have the AeroGrow indoor garden, and have grown the herbs pack with it with great success, and I know they also have a tomato and a strawberry pack, among others. I have written an extensive post about choosing and growing herbs in containers.
4. Use Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs. You’ve probably heard about these energy-efficient light bulbs in the media. They use 75% less energy than normal light bulbs will providing the same amount of light. I prefer them not only because of the fossil fuels and energy costs saved, but because their light is warm and white, not yellow like most light bulbs. They are made to last about five years, and you can save hundreds on your energy bill if you replace all bulbs in your house with these when they burn out.
5. Insulate Your Home. Most homes in the US that are as young as ten years old are under-insulated, meaning that heat is transferring much faster than it should, increasing your heating and cooling bills more than it should. Proper insulation will lower your bills as well as reducing fossil fuel-based energy used in generating them, and extends the life of your air conditioners and home heating devices, so you have to buy them less often. For more on insulating your home, Lowe’s has a great article on insulating your home and what materials you will need.

These are all suggestions that you can take action on today. Make the decision today to leave less of a carbon footprint on our world, and you will not regret it.

Tags: container gardening, environment, food, herbs, self-suficiency

This entry was posted on Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 8:51 am and is filed under Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.