7:00am: Read the morning paper online. Reading a year's worth of newspapers on your computer saves 520 pounds of paper, or about three trees per year. (And, no stepping outside in your bathrobe frightening the neighbors)
7:15am: Shower with a low-flow showerhead. Because low-flow showerheads reduce water consumption, they can save up to 10% on water-heating costs. (Alert: money saver!)
8:25am: Pack your lunch in reusable containers. Containers and packaging make up one-third of municipal solid waste, more than any other category. (Again, a money saver. No purchasing baggies or expensive, often-unhealthy, restaurant food for lunch.)
8:45am: Brew a cup of eco-friendly coffee at home and pour into a reusable mug. Because conventional coffee is grown on clear-cut land and requires loads of chemical fertilizers, each household that switches to organic, shade-grown coffee helps protect more than 9,000 square feet of rain forest. Plus, Americans toss out 16 billion disposable paper cups per year. (Eco-friendly coffee is often a better quality brew as well. If you're a coffeehouse addict, purchase their coffee and brew it at home.)
8:50am: Power down before you leave the house. TVs, stereos, chargers, and most appliances with clocks drain energy when they're plugged in - even if they're not on. Its called "standby power" and it accounts for 5% of residential energy, costing US consumers over $4 billion per year. Plug them into power strips that you can switch off easily.
9:00am: Carpool to work. According to the California Air Resources Board, approximately 50% of air pollution comes from automobiles. (Depending on where you work, this can either be really smart or rather difficult. Weigh your options and make changes elsewhere if carpooling is not viable.)
9:30am: At work, fire up your laptop. Laptops require much less energy than desktops. (When your firm makes a change in their technology, suggest laptops all around. Don't forget to donate your used computers to a non-profit or to a school.)
11:00am: Print on both sides of the page, single-space your files and decrease the size of margins. Americans use 5.4 million tons of office paper every year. You use four times less paper when you print single-spaced and on both sides. Save even more by shrinking the margins to .75 inches from the standard inch. (Again, your mileage may vary on this one, depending on layout requirements and readability. But, at the very least keep a basket near the copy machine for accidents and overruns to be used as scratch paper.)
3:30pm: Schedule a conference call with a client instead of a face-to-face meeting. Conference calls cost a fraction of site-to-site travel and save a significant amount of energy. Replacing one cross-country trip with a conference call saves 0.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide and enough energy to power 7,000 hours of videoconferences. (With programs like Skype and the availability of webconferencing, you can still experience face-to-face. Invest in a really good quality web-cam and highest speed connection to make it work at highest efficiency. If your best client is on the fence, spring for a webcam for them, too. Low cost gift for them and it shows your commitment to reducing your carbon footprint.)
5:55pm: Plug your computer into a power strip and switch it off at the end of the day. Over the course of one year, you'll save 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, and reduce standby power loss. (And the boss will love you for working to reduce their energy bill.)
6:00pm: Text your partner to say you're on your way home. Text messages sent from a cell phone use 30 times less energy than sending an email from a desktop computer. (Before you start the car, though... Don't text and drive!)
6:15pm: Bundle your evening errands to save gas and reduce pollution. Starting a car with a warm engine emits one-fifth the pollution created by starting a cold engine. (And you can get to your dinner and movie quicker by effectively planning your time.)
6:20pm: At the gas station, tighten your gas cap. In the US, 147 million gallons of gas evaporate every year from cars with gas caps that are damaged, loose or missing. Make sure your gas cap is tight by turning it until it clicks three times. (My dad told me that I had to tighten the cap or the car would explode. In retrospect, I think he was trying to scare me into doing it. But, since he isn't an 'environmentalist', I'd say it was probably a cost-saving measure. What doesn't evaporate, stays in the tank to work for you.)
6:25pm: At the ATM, say no to a receipt. It takes two billion feet of paper to create receipts for the eight billion ATM transactions that occur each year in America - most of which end up as litter. (Really... are you going to write it down when you get home anyway?)
6:30pm: Take canvas bags to the supermarket. In the US, we use 11 million plastic shopping bags every hour. The trick to using your own bags is to put them back in the car as soon as you've unpacked your groceries - they won't do any good if you leave them at home. (Target offers a $0.5 discount if you bag your items in a recycled bag. Hey, 5 cents is 5 cents.... good for them.)
7:15pm: Before you head to dinner and a movie, print the tickets from your desktop. Movie tickets printed at home are easier to recycle than the paperboard used to print tickets at the theater. (And breeze by the line! That's my favorite part!)
8:00pm: Eat dinner at a restaurant that serves locally grown, organic food. Check gengreenlife.com for a list of eateries and food stores that sell environmentally friendly vittles in your zip code. Or, if you eat at home, choose the right burner and don't preheat the oven until you're ready to cook. If the circumference of the burner is larger than the size of your pan, you're leaking unused heat into the air. The longer an oven is turned on but not used, the more energy it wastes. There's no need to preheat if you're cooking foods for longer than 20 minutes. (Ahh, our grandmas would be so proud of our frugal methods! She don't care what we call it... green, sustainable, eco-friendly. She calls it frugal. And she's right.)
-Kate Hanley, National Geographic Green Guide
One other great idea I found was to create a "Going Green" kit and give as gifts to clients, customers, friends, and family:
- Reusable tote bag
- Stainless steel water bottle
- Travel coffee mug
- BYO-lunch supplies - an insulated carrier, untensils, and aluminum foil (instead of plastic wrap)
- Compact fluorescent light bulb
Have a great week!
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