Ten Simple Steps to Greener Living

As awareness of the civilization’s impact on the environment increases, people are becoming more willing than ever before, to accept clean lifestyles. But some aren’t exactly sure where to begin.

One doesn’t have to start out with leaps and bounds.  Installing a full solar power system on one’s home or switching to a hybrid car would be great. But large steps require planning and financing.  Small steps can be taken right now.

In some cases, your choices might depend on several factors: where you live, the natural resources available to you, your lifestyle, and others. Therefore there is probably no “one-size-fits-all” solution to going green (or at least, greener).

But there are many simple things you can do to live a greener life, through your day-to-day activities, and most of these apply to just about anyone.

1. Learn more about sustainable living

This is the first and most important step in going green. You should read up on the subject of environmentalism, and how your personal carbon footprint can affect global pollution levels. There are plenty of resources available online, and you can visit your local library for books on related topics.

2. Save energy

The most effective way to cut down on your carbon emissions is to conserve on energy in your home. Install energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs, turn off the lights when they aren’t in use, ensure your house is properly insulated and windows are properly sealed, and keep your energy consumption to a minimum. You will save energy and money at the same time.

3. Conserve water

Every drop of tap water you use consumes energy – for transport, filtering, and purification. It might just be water, but a lot of fossil fuel is consumed in processing it. In some places, water itself is scarce. You can turn the tap off while brushing your teeth, switch to more efficient washers and dryers, and collect rain water for use in your garden.

4. Use less fuel for transport

If a hybrid car is not an option at the moment, you can take other steps; walking or biking to work, or whenever you have to travel a short distance. If your work place is too far for a daily bicycle commute, consider using mass transit. You can carpool with a friend or coworker if that works. For long trips, consider the fuel efficiency of your different options.

5. Eat greener food

Eating is one thing everyone has in common. But did you know that eating the type of food can make an impact in the environment? The food industry contributes substantial carbon emissions in the process of shipping their products around the world. When you eat seasonal, local, and organic food, you help to conserve the environment – as well as improve your own health.

6. Buy smart

Instead of buying brand new wooden furniture for your home, you can search for good used furniture online, or even visit garage sales to find what you’re looking for. Think before making a purchase, no matter how big or small it is. Buying grocery items in bulk can save money and conserve on energy and packing materials. Also, be sure to buy high-quality products that will last for a long time and not just wind up in a landfill a year from now.

7. Shop Online

Shopping online is another good way to conserve on fuel. When you receive a purchase by post, the amount of fuel used to ship that purchase is no where near the amount of fuel you would have used to drive to a store and buy it offline. Furthermore, you can also save a considerable amount of time and money by shopping online, and many online stores offer free shipping.

8. Proper waste management

Years ago, many considered waste management to be the main environmental issue of concern. As long as you reduced, reused, and recycled, you were a friend of the environment. Things are not that simple these days, but waste conservation is still a big part of living green. It takes a lot of energy to process and dispose of waste, whether it’s recycled or dumped in a landfill. So conserving on waste is important, even if you do recycle. You should also compost your biodegradable waste materials.

9. Wear the right clothing

Your choice of clothing can make a big impact on the environment. One of the most heavily sprayed crops across the globe is cotton. Chemicals which are used as insecticides harm the environment, and harm people’s health. Fortunately, there are other alternative fabrics available in the market; such as organic cotton, hemp, bamboo, and flax. Try to find and purchase clothing that uses these natural and nontoxic materials. Wearing such clothing is also better for your health.

10. Avoid toxins and chemicals

If you look carefully at many of the products you use every day, such as cleaning and personal care products, you might be quite surprised at the harmful chemicals they are made from. Use products made from natural and nontoxic ingredients.

They aren’t hard to find – even Amazon has an entire section dedicated to green products. This section is called Amazon Green and it includes many household, personal care, home improvement, office, clothing, and grocery items. By shopping at Amazon Green you can find nontoxic and environmentally friendly products more easily, while also saving money and conserving resources by doing your shopping online.

This post was first published on The Green Bean Blog. To continue reading, please visit How to Go Green in Your Day-to-Day Life is a post from:

It doesn’t make sense.

Americans are drinking a billion bottles of water per week, a fact that may not hit so heavily if we recycled religiously.  38 billion empty plastic water bottles end up in landfills every year.

Nearly a quarter of the bottled water we drink comes from the cola companies as recycled, cleaned up tap water.  Those bottled overseas are a little more expensive due to the shipping costs (water is heavy) but more important than the money in shipping costs is that this process costs us as global people valuable resources in gas and electricity.

Our second most popular water bottle brand comes from Fiji, where about half the people lack safe drinking water.   It is easier for a teenager in Arizona to drink Fiji’s finest than it is for a Fiji island native to quench his/her thirst.  Does this sound ridiculous to anyone else?

The question is, then, how do we survive without bottled water?  We’ve become so dependent on it, the public use water fountains are rarely touched and most people wouldn’t drink water out of the tap if you paid them.

Simple solution: Home reverse osmosis systems.  We invest in our homes as a place we trust to live.  We invest in cars as trusted transportation systems.  We invest in insurance both for health and death. And yet  75%  of our body (that being water) is somehow overlooked, or if we do pamper that part of our body, then we are neglecting our green duty.  If you have a home, invest in a reverse osmosis system and treat your body right without filling up landfills.

Solution on a budget:  Water and ice stores are lifesavers.  They’ll fill up your container for about $.25 a gallon.  But be sure to reuse your containters.

Portable Solution: Invest in a Nalgene or CamelBak (BPA-Free) bottles  for travel. Or if you are particular about your water’s purity, try a water bottle purifier.

This post was first published on The Green Bean Blog. To continue reading, please visit Bottled Water on a Water Planet is a post from:

In the most recent environmental news, we’ve heard the number “230” a lot lately. 230 miles per gallon is what General Motors is claiming their new Chevy Volt will get in the city. Sounds incredible, right? Let’s take a closer look at what’s actually behind that number and why it might not be as green as it sounds.

In an article, “The Chevy Volt: Mileage Numerology“, published in the New York Times today, it points out that the number behind this claim is relatively speculative and hard to measure accurately. The vehicle line director for the Volt, Tony Posawatz, suggests that while we’re used to measuring in miles per gallon, plug-in hybrid vehicles may be better measured by cost per mile. He says that the Volt will achieve around two cents per mile (assuming electricity costs 10 cents per kilowatt hour) versus 12 cents a mile for gas-fueled cars at $3.60 a gallon.

Chevy describes the Volt on their website :

Unlike traditional electric cars, Chevy Volt has a revolutionary propulsion system that takes you beyond the power of the battery. It will use a lithium-ion battery with a gasoline-powered, range-extending engine that drives a generator to provide electric power when you drive beyond the 40-mile battery range.

Cheaper to drive and more fuel efficient sounds extremely promising, and it can be. But in order to power the batteries, we need to put more stress and more demand on the grid. A greater demand on the grid will force utilities to provide quick electrons and how they choose to fulfill that need will be a key factor in how green electric cars truly are.

So an important question must be raised: even if electric cars are more efficient and cheaper than gas cars to drive, will we demand clean power to meet all this new stress on our grid? Or will we switch from using oil to burning coal to power the electric car revolution? While the development of batteries gets more federal funding, and models such as the Volt are due out on sales lots by the end of next year, where is the funding and the push for greater renewable energy sources? If we are changing the way we commute to be more environmentally-friendly, shouldn’t our source of energy be clean?

Therefore we need to play catch-up in the renewable energy market and allow solar, wind and other renewable technologies to become a primary source of electricity before we can truly celebrate this transition. Plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles can only be as clean as their fuel source and right now we are still using oil and burning coal in power plants to produce most of our power.

As the momentum builds for plug-in hybrids, let’s also push for a greater investment in clean energy. Before we add a large piece of our transportation to the country’s electrical system, let’s green the grid. If we can use clean energy to power efficient electric vehicles, then the Chevy Volt and the advent of the electric car will truly be, electrifying.

This post was first published on The Green Bean Blog. To continue reading, please visit Chevy Volt : Powering the Future of the Electric Vehicle is a post from: