Saving energy saves money. Reducing your energy use will reduce your gas and electricity bills (which frees up funds for other, more meaningful things). It also benefits the environment and your health in a variety of ways. For example, using less electricity reduces power plant emissions from burning fossil fuels, which reduces air and water pollution, and that helps protect everyone’s health and our shared natural resources. It also reduces the emission of greenhouse gases that are contributing to climate change.
This checklist outlines a number of ways that you can conserve energy at home (or at work), by changing your household (or workplace) products and practices related to Heating and Cooling, Appliances and Equipment, Lighting, etc. Most of these strategies are easy and low- or no-cost, and saving energy helps save you money down the road.
HEATING AND COOLING
- Program/adjust your thermostat to provide less heating or cooling at night and during the daytime hours when your home/building is not occupied. If you don’t know how to change the settings on your programmable thermostat, read the manual or ask someone for assistance.
- On hot and sunny days, cover your windows by closing the shades, blinds, opaque curtains, or shutters; and turn off any lights that aren’t needed (especially any lamps that are using conventional incandescent bulbs, as they emit a surprising amount of heat). Avoid running the oven, stove, dishwasher, or washing machine (or opening the refrigerator a lot) on hot days, and especially during the hottest hours of the day. And if you live in an area that regularly has hot summers, consider adding shade trees, awnings, or overhangs (particularly outside of west-facing windows) and putting a light-colored roof on your home when it’s time to replace the roof (and a light-colored driveway material if you need to repave your driveway).
- Avoid or minimize your use of air conditioning, when possible. Air conditioners use a lot of energy, making them expensive to use. In warm weather, try using ceiling fans, floor fans, or a “whole house” attic fan (or in dry regions, an evaporative “swamp” cooler) instead of AC. On cool nights, open the windows to let the cool air in, and then close the windows by 9 AM to keep the cool air inside. These options can often provide adequate cooling.
- Follow the recommended maintenance procedures for your heating and cooling systems. Replace or clean air filters as specified in the owner’s manuals. Have your furnace or air conditioner serviced if it isn’t operating properly or efficiently.
- Keep your heating/cooling vents dusted.
- Keep furniture, curtains, and other objects away from heater/air conditioning outlets, to allow conditioned air to flow freely into the room.
- Make sure your windows close properly. Fix any broken window panes, seals, or latches.
- Don’t leave the heat or air conditioning on if you open a window.
- Weatherize your doors and windows by using weather stripping or seals to minimize air leaks and drafts.
- Make sure your home is well insulated. Insulate your hot water pipes and water heater, and add insulation (if needed) to your attic, walls, or basement.
- Hire a home performance contractor to do a home energy audit; they will inspect your home and identify any inefficiencies and seal up air leaks. In many homes, fixing air leaks can save more energy and money than installing a high-efficiency furnace. (One very experienced company that offers these services in California is Advanced Home Energy, formerly called Recurve.) You can search here for a contractor near you who has been accredited by the Building Performance Institute. If you live in California, check out the information provided by Energy Upgrade California.
When purchasing a new furnace, air conditioner, ceiling fan, water heater, windows, or doors, choose products that have a high Energy Star efficiency rating. (For windows, at a minimum, make sure you choose double-paned glass.)
Please continue reading. The rest of this post includes tips on lighting, appliances, electronics, and more:
[CLICK HERE to CONTINUE]
May 29, 2013
You can find fresh, daily morsels of information and inspiration on The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page. Anyone can view the page, even if they don’t have a Facebook account. But if you do have an account, we hope you’ll click on the Like button (if you haven’t already “Liked” the page).
Please visit the Page to get a sense of the wide variety of topics that it covers, and you are welcome to comment on the posts and share your own recommended links.
Here’s a sampling of topics that we’ve spotlighted on the page over the last month or so:
- Mosaic’s successful solar crowdfunding platform
- Hybrid Vehicle Scorecard
- Global Green’s K-12 Green School Makeover grants
- The ultra-green, newly built Bullitt Center in Seattle
- Fossil Free: a divestment campaign for campus endowments
- Farmigo.com: a virtual farmer’s market that delivers to workplaces, schools +
- Webinar on community/neighborhood/bulk solar projects
- How to opt out of receiving the printed Yellow Pages
- New books: Clean Break; Carbon Zero; etc.
- New films: You’ve Been Trumped; Promised Land; etc.
- Organizations: 350.org, Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, etc.
- Cartoons, photos, graphics
- Great quotations from Martin Luther King Jr., John Burroughs, Rachel Carson, Ross Gelbspan, Mary Oliver, etc.
January 21, 2013
Conserving water is becoming increasingly important, and it has become a necessity in areas that are suffering from drought. According to the UN, by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water-stressed conditions, as a result of water shortages from climate change and rising levels of water use due to a growing population.
Reducing your water use will not only lower your water bills and help prevent potential water shortages. It also reduces the strain on municipal water systems and infrastructure (e.g., sewer, water treatment and distribution), which helps reduce the energy, maintenance, and the associated taxes required to run and expand those systems. Using less water can also save you money on your energy bill, because electricity or gas is used to heat your water. Water conservation also leaves more water available for critical uses, such as drinking, growing food, and fighting fires; and it keeps more water in lakes, rivers, and streams for aquatic species and other wildlife.
These are some of the ways that you can reduce your household water use, both indoors and outdoors:
INDOORS:
- Replace your toilets, faucets, and showerheads with high-efficiency (WaterSense labeled) plumbing fixtures, or at least add aerators to your faucets, and if you have an old toilet, put a small water bottle (filled with water, with the cap on) into the toilet tank for displacement. Switching to high-effiiency fixtures results in significant water savings.
- Do not let faucets run longer than is necessary for your task. Don’t leave it running while brushing your teeth, shaving, or soaping up your hands or dishes. And when you turn a faucet off, make sure that it is turned all the way off.
- Try to take short showers, and/or don’t take a shower every day (if you aren’t really dirty—from work, exercise, recreation, etc.).
- When using a clothes washer or dishwasher, only wash fairly full loads (or select a light-load setting for small loads). If you’re buying a new washer, select a high-efficiency (Energy Star) and water-saving model. Front-loading washing machines are much more efficient than top-loading machines.
- Wash dirty dishes immediately or soak them before hand-washing, so that they can be washed off more easily and quickly (requiring less water).
- If a faucet is dripping or if your toilet is running (for too long after it has been flushed), have the leak fixed right away. A leaking toilet can waste more than 50 gallons of water each day, and a dripping faucet or showerhead can waste up to 1,000 gallons of water per week (according to ResourceVenture.org). Also check for washing machine or dishwasher leaks (usually found where the hose is connected to the machine or at the shut-off valve). Familiarize yourself with the water shut-offs behind your toilet, sinks, and washing machine, as well as the water shut-off for the entire house, so that you know how to turn off the water when needed.
- As the saying goes, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.” There’s generally no need to flush a toilet after it’s only been peed in one time. Hold off on flushing until the toilet has been peed in 2-3 times or has been used for “doing #2.”
- Compare your water bills (or water meter readings) from month to month and from year to year, to monitor the results of your conservation efforts and to look for any sudden spikes in water use, which could be caused by leaks.
OUTDOORS (yard / lawn / garden):
- Water your yard/garden during the coolest, least windy, and/or least sunny time of the day (usually overnight or early morning, ideally after midnight / before dawn) to avoid losing a lot of water via evaporation. And be sure to avoid over-watering; many plants do not need to be watered every day, and some rarely need to be watered at all.
- When you add new plants, trees, or other vegetation, select drought-tolerant or native/adapted plants that require little, if any, irrigation. To get information on how to choose the best plants for your area, click here.
- Putting mulch (including fallen leaves or wood chips) on your garden or landscaped areas can help the soil retain moisture longer.
- Turf grass typically requires much more water than groundcover or shrubs, so the less lawn area you have, the less watering you will need to do. If adding or reseeding grass areas, select a drought-tolerant, native grass variety or consider replacing the grass area with groundcover or native plants. As an added bonus, most types of groundcovers and some types of grasses will only grow a few inches tall, so they would rarely if ever need to be mowed.
- If you are installing an irrigation system, choose a high-efficiency irrigation system. Drip, micro, and bubbler irrigation systems are more efficient than spray or sprinkler irrigation, because they deliver water directly to plants’ roots, minimizing evaporative water loss. If you use a hose to water, use a shut-off/trigger nozzle on it so that the hose doesn’t continue to run when it isn’t aimed at the plants to be watered.
- If you have an irrigation system or sprinklers, make sure that all spray or drip spouts are oriented in such a way that they are watering planted areas only and are not watering the sides of buildings, pathways or other paved areas. In addition to wasting water, allowing water to pool up on pavement can make it slippery to walk on an can degrade the pavement over time.
- Also, for irrigation systems, perform (or have an irrigation specialist perform) regular system checks and maintenance, to make sure there are no leaking heads, pipes, or valves. Make sure the irrigation system is not watering the lawn/yard/garden during (or immediately preceding or following) rainy days. Even on dry days, make sure the system is not over-watering the plants or over-saturating the soil. If the irrigation timer runs on a battery, make sure it is working and change the battery as needed; if the battery is dead, the system could allow non-stop watering (which would waste a lot of water). Re-program the system seasonally and as necessary to adjust to weather conditions. Winterize the system before the first frost of each year. If issues arise, consider hiring an irrigation professional to do an irrigation audit.
- Consider adding rainwater collection barrels/tanks at downspouts (or a bucket in your shower or yard, or a greywater system) for use in watering your yard/garden.
- Sweep your sidewalks and driveway (and other paved areas), rather than hosing them down.
- Avoid washing your car frequently, and if/when you must wash it, take it to a carwash that recycles its water.
At a broader level, two of the most effective ways to reduce water use (indirectly but significantly) are: to reduce your energy use (because the generation of electricity typically requires enormous amounts of water), and to reduce or eliminate your consumption of meat (because raising meat animals, especially corn-fed factory-farmed beef cows, requires enormous amounts of water) as well as your consumption of milk and other dairy products (and also non-dairy soy milk, almond milk, and rice milk), which are also water-intensive to produce.
For more information on water conservation, visit these websites:
August 30, 2012
Please take a look at The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page to see our daily green blurbs and links. You can view the page even if you don’t have a Facebook account. But if you do have an account, we hope you’ll click on the Like button (if you haven’t already “Liked” the page).
Visit the Page to get a sense of the wide variety of topics that it covers, and feel free to comment on the posts or add your own.
Here’s a sampling of topics that we’ve spotlighted on the page over the last month or so:
- One Planet Living principles
- The Great Animal Orchestra, a new book by Bernie Krause
- 2012 Cleantech Forum
- Buckminster Fuller Challenge 2012 semi-finalists
- The Future of Hope, a film about Iceland
- Waking the Green Tiger, a film about China
- Urban Roots, a film about Detroit
- Physicians for Social Responsibility
- Rural Renewable Energy Alliance
- Good Jobs, Green Jobs regional conferences
- Wastewater treatment technology that uses renewable energy
- Evolve electric motorcycles and scooters
- Better World Books
- GMO food labeling
- The growth of clean energy markets
- The top B Corp businesses
- TED talks (e.g. urban farming and enterprise in a school in the Bronx)
- Quotations from Thomas Edison, Wendell Berry, Barbara Kingsolver, etc.
March 27, 2012
About a year ago, I posted a piece with tips, ideas, and considerations for selecting green gifts. Here’s a summary recap of the 7 types of gifts I suggested in that post:
- Non-“stuff” (e.g., activities, services, or donations, rather than products)
- Homemade, handmade, or homegrown stuff
- Locally made or Fair Trade goods
- Products with green attributes or purposes
- Re-gifted items or lightly used finds
- Eminently useful things
- Small stuff
Take a look at last year’s post to see the specific ideas that I suggested within each of those categories. This year, I’d like to supplement those suggestions with a few more. In addition to the criteria listed above, you also might want to consider choosing the following types of gifts:
Products (or services) made and sold by small, independent (and ideally local) businesses, rather than national chains or multi-national corporations. Or at least try to buy things that were Made in the USA (or whichever country you live in) to help boost the domestic economy.- Goods made or sold by companies that are members of the 1% for the Planet campaign: “a growing global movement of 1,395 companies [as of Nov. 2011] that donate 1% of their sales to a network of 2,691 environmental organizations worldwide.”
Goods made or sold by Certified B Corporations (or Benefit Corporations), which “are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.” As of Nov. 7, 2011, there are 451 Certified B Corporations. That number will be growing, as more companies achieve this certification and as more states pass laws establishing the legitimacy of Benefit Corporations. One of the Founding B Corporations is BetterWorldBooks.
Speaking of books, here are a few green-themed books that might interest some of the people on your gift list:
Also, I might as well mention a few green product brands that are personal favorites of mine: Newman’s Own Organics; Seeds of Change; Sustainable Seed Co.; Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds; and Patagonia. I am not getting paid to recommend any of these companies.
Lastly, here are some online resources for additional information on green products and reducing wasteful consumption:
Related posts:
Greener, More Gratifying Gifts (added November 2015)
Green Goods: Beneficial Products and Gifts (added November 2012)
Good Duds: Sustainable and Responsible Clothing (added October 2013)
Benefit Corporations and B Corps: Businesses for the Common Good (added July 2013)
Lesser-Known Organizations that are Worthy of Support (added December 2012)
November 8, 2011
Take a peek at The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page to see our daily blurbs and links. Anyone can view the page, whether or not you have a Facebook account. But if you do have an account, be sure to click on the “Like” button to join our growing online community (if you haven’t already); then you should be able to see The Green Spotlight’s posts in your daily Facebook news feed.
Please visit the Page to get a sense of the wide variety of topics that are featured. Here’s a sampling of a few of the solutions, efforts, and success stories that we’ve spotlighted on the page in recent weeks:
- the electric DeLorean, coming out in 2013
- LEED for Homes Awards: this year’s winning projects
- hybrid wind/solar systems
- Reinventing Fire, the new book by Amory Lovins
- Earthjustice
- Global Community Monitor
- Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
- Green Corps’ Field School for Environmental Organizing
- Silent Spring Institute
- Arctic Live
- Revenge of the Electric Car (new documentary)
- CleanTech Open: this year’s finalists and Forum
- Brower Youth Awards: videos and info about this year’s winners
- Solar Decathlon home design competition’s winning projects
- DIY solar installations in Ypsilanti, Michigan
- how to size a solar PV system for charging an electric car
- B Corporation legislation passed in California
- quotations from Ray Anderson, Buckminster Fuller, Annie Dillard, and others
October 26, 2011
Most conventional paints and coatings contain and emit Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Some types of VOCs contribute to smog, and many VOCs are emitted or “offgassed” indoors and contribute to indoor air pollution. VOCs can cause respiratory problems and some are known carcinogens.
I have written a 4-page overview of VOCs and other toxicity issues related to paints and other types of coatings. For the free download, just click on this link:
Fortunately, almost every major paint manufacturer (and retailer) now has a low-VOC or zero-VOC product line. Most of these products are also low-odor, as some VOCs are responsible for to that noxious “new paint smell.”
I maintain an online product listing of Low-VOC and Zero-VOC Wall Paints, which I recently updated. The listing includes natural paints (e.g., plant- or mineral-based), as well as more conventional synthetic (e.g., latex/acrylic) paints.
A few paint manufacturers, such as AFM Safecoat and YOLO Colorhouse formulate their entire line of paints and primers to be low- or zero-VOC and low-toxic. While most low-VOC paints are interior paints, some brands (including those two) also offer low-VOC exterior paints.
My listing indicates which paint lines have been Green Seal certified or SCS Indoor Advantage Gold certified. GreenGuard also certifies paints; it has a basic Indoor Air Quality Certified program, as well as a more stringent Children and Schools Certified program. All of these certification programs are primarily focused on testing products’ VOC emissions.
Unfortunately, synthetic paints often contain other toxic compounds, beyond VOCs, such as phthalates (which are endocrine-disrupting chemicals), propylene glycol and glycol ethers (PGEs), certain heavy metals, and toxic biocides or fungicides. (Green Seal’s certification standard prohibits the use of some of those compounds.) See this Pharos article for additional information on paint toxicity.
September 26, 2011
The sustainability of one’s home depends as much (if not more) on its location as on how the house is built. If you’re looking to buy land or to buy (or rent) a house, consider sustainability criteria when comparing the locations of different properties.
The following are some of the key “location efficiency” issues to consider. (Some of them only apply to buying land that you plan to build on.) Try to choose a spot that meets at least some of these criteria:
Seek a property that…
…is located close to your (and your family’s) jobs and schools; close to shops, parks, civic buildings, and other services and amenities your family regularly uses; and close to public transit stops—ideally within walking distance (i.e., less than 1/4 mile, or 1/2-mile max.). Living in close proximity to such things will save you gas, money, and driving time; reduce your stress level and your odds of getting in a car accident; and also reduce traffic and air pollution!- ...has been built on before. It’s best to choose a property that has an existing house or other structures that can be renovated and reused. (If a structure is unsafe or beyond repair and must be demolished, have it deconstructed carefully so that you can recycle, reuse, donate, or sell its salvageable materials; and then rebuild on its original foundation or footprint.)
- …is an infill site (i.e., surrounded by other developed parcels) that is already (or can easily be) hooked up to existing infrastructure for roads, water, wastewater, and utility lines (to reduce the costs, resource waste, and sprawl associated with extending or building new infrastructure)—unless you’re planning to live entirely off-grid (with on-site power, water, and wastewater treatment). If you are planning to live off-grid, be sure that the property has a good source of ample, clean water on site, as well as adequate solar access and/or wind (or biomass) resources for generating your own electricity.
And AVOID buying or building on a property that…
- …is within a floodplain zone; on or very close to a known earthquake fault; on coastal land that’s at (or near) sea level, vulnerable to erosion, or located in a tsunami zone or an area that has regular hurricanes; in a high-wildfire-risk area or a region that gets life-threatening heat waves or extreme droughts (i.e., areas at risk of becoming uninhabitable);
- …is a Greenfield site (i.e., land that has never been developed / cleared / built on before);
- …contains sensitive habitat, endangered species, wetlands, or prime agricultural land (unless you preserve the key areas for continued agricultural use or conservation, whichever is applicable); or
- …consists of steep slopes (often defined as slopes with a grade of 15% or more), which would need to be substantially graded to enable development of the site. The grading and development of steep slopes can cause soil erosion and increased stormwater runoff, which in turn can cause water pollution, flooding, and potentially mudslides.
Living in an environmentally sensible and sustainable location has numerous benefits. You can reap significant financial savings (e.g., by reducing the amount of driving you have to do; or by avoiding or minimizing the need to build new infrastructure or to do extensive site grading). Location efficiency can also yield broad, collective benefits for society and our shared environment, such as:
- reducing sprawl-related automobile dependence, traffic, and air pollution;
- protecting public health, environmental health, and the climate;
- conserving natural resources, habitat, and open space; and
- contributing to the creation of livable, walkable, healthy, and vibrant neighborhoods that enhance your community’s quality of life and local economic opportunities.
June 3, 2011
Please take a look at The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page to see our daily green blurbs and links. You can view the page even if you don’t have a Facebook account. But if you do have an account, click on the “Like” button (if you’re not already connected to page); then you will be able to see The Green Spotlight’s posts in your Facebook news feed.
Visit the Page to get a sense of the wide variety of topics that it covers, and feel free to comment on the posts.
Here’s a sampling of topics that we’ve spotlighted on the page in recent weeks:
- new films, including The Economics of Happiness; Bag It; Flow; and Queen of the Sun
- a new environmental news website: This Week in Earth
- videos about the achievements of this year’s Goldman Prize winners (from the U.S., El Salvador, Germany, etc.)
- video about the NRDC’s Growing Green Awards winners
- AIA’s Top Ten Green Projects award-winning buildings
- organic gardening tips for weed and pest control
- driving tips to save gas and money
- a new Green Jobs report, and an interactive map of clean energy companies
- online action to oppose uranium mining in the Grand Canyon
- a summer tour of organic food and farming in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
- dog and cat toys made from natural, renewable materials
- new thin-film solar products, and a mobile solar power generator
- the story of a North Carolina farm started by a family inspired into action by the film Food, Inc.
- the story of two 15-year-old Girl Scouts who are calling Kellogg’s on its use of palm oil in Girl Scout cookies and other products
May 5, 2011
