Going Green
1: Paying bills online saves time, postage and trees. If everyone switches to online banking, we’ll cut 1.6 billion tons of waste and 2.1 million tons of CO2 a year!
2: Save energy and increase the life of your computer by putting it to sleep (hibernate) during the day instead of using screensavers. At night, turn it off completely.
3: Take your own ceramic coffee mug each time you go get coffee. Think of all the paper cups you’ll prevent from ending up in the landfill.
4: Use power strips to conserve energy. One flick of the switch cuts off energy to several different electronic devices–as if they were all unplugged at once.
5: Give your car a tune-up. It improves mileage and reduces pollution. Every 100,000 people who get their vehicles tuned-up this year will eliminate 60 tons of CO2.
6: Drive green. Save 55 gallons of gas a year and prevent 1,200 lbs of CO2 by maintaining a steady driving pace and choosing routes with the least idling.
7: Fact: Each year, power plants emit 100 million tons of carbon dioxide to run AC units. Tip: Turn up the AC and use a fan or close the blinds to keep cooler in the warmer months.
8: Use public transportation whenever possible. Every year, public transportation reduces gasoline consumption by 1.4 billion gallons— that’s equal to 108 million full tanks of gas.
9: Use reusable containers to pack your lunch. Reusable containers keep disposable plastic bags and packaging out of our landfills, oceans and habitats.
10. Buy recycled products. By buying recycled, you’ll consume 55% less energy for paper products, 33% less energy for glass and 90% less energy for aluminum.
11. Unplug your appliances when you’re away on vacation. Residential households in the U.S. spend more than 5 billion dollars annually on standby power alone-which is 5% of all the electricity consumed across the country
12. Recycle your newspapers whenever you can. Each year, 10 million tons of newspaper are not recycled, but thrown away in landfills. If we changed this habit together, we could save up to 75 million trees.
13. If just 10 percent of U.S. households attached shut off nozzles to their outdoor hoses, we’d save enough water to fill over 128,000 bathtubs – everyday
14. Don’t throw away metal hangers! Recycle by returning them to the dry cleaners when you drop off your next load.
15. Fact: A typical office generates about 1.5 pounds of waste paper per employee, per day. Tip: Think before you print. Send documents electronically.
16. Set your outside lights on timers or motion sensors. Reducing usage on a single outdoor floodlight can save you up to $120 a year in energy costs.
17. Consumers will throw out about 400 million electronics this year. Sell, donate, or recycle your old electronics rather than throwing it away. Check your area for drop off locations.
18. Switching to CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) eliminates 300 lbs. of CO2 a year. If everyone switches to CFLs, that’s like eliminating 7 million cars from the road.
19. Next time you travel, consider a permanent tag for your luggage. If travelers in the U.S. stopped using paper luggage tags during their trips, 60 million sheets of paper could be saved per year
20. Most baking instructions tell you to preheat your oven. Never do so for more than 10 minutes. If everybody reduced their oven time by an hour per year, we’d save enough energy to bake a billion cookies.