Lets work together on a household basis to ensure our kids will be proud of the way we acted and not ashamed and doomed.

1) Turn off Computers / Tv’s / Stereos / Lights when not in use. –This is a big one. Standby lights and devices left on use about 10% of all electricity in your home. By simply turning devices all the way off or turning unnecessary appliances off you can save a tonne on you’re electricity bill and reduce your dependency on the grid. Be sure when buying new appliances that they have a good Energy Star rating and turn all the way off instead of going into standby.

2) Defrost food in the fridge to use less energy. –Helps reduce the amount of energy your fridge uses by adding cold products to the fridge environment instead of the counter top. This also works the other way by allowing leftovers to cool down on the countertop and then moving them into the fridge when they get down to a reasonable temperature instead of forcing the fridge to work harder to cool down a hot meal.

3) Use the water from your dehumidifier to water your plants. –North America and Canada in particular is extremely spoiled when it comes to water. Monopolizing on nearly 80% of the worlds fresh water we have to begin conserving this resource as rapidly as we are currently wasting it. Small conservation attempts like using water vapor pulled from the air to water household plant instead of simply emptying it in the sink can go a long way to helping conserve.

4) Use a box or cloth bag for groceries to avoid plastic bags. –Plastic bags take years to biodegrade and make up a large portion of landfills, not to mention space underneath the sink. The truth is we generally do not need these bags about 80% of the time. Every time I pick up 1 or 2 things at a convenience store I have to tell them I do not want a bag. When I get groceries I use a cardboard box leftover from the grocery deliveries. I can fit all my groceries in 1 easy to carry box and can recycle the box afterwards. It seems like a small thing, but I guarantee that stash of plastic bags under the sink gets very large, very quickly.

5) Use rain buckets and electric mowers for grass maintenance during the summer. –Simple yet effective rain buckets gather water as it rains so that it can be used when things dry up. Millions of gallons of freshwater are pumped into North American laws every summer I could not even begin to try to explain that to other areas of the world plaqued by drought that live on approximately 1.5 liters of water a day. Another interesting thing about lawns is the amount of GHG emissions from lawnmowers. A standard lawnmower running for 15 minutes produces as much GHG as 40 late model cars running for the same amount of time. By using rain buckets and an electric lawnmower we can drastically reduce our ecological footprint while still having a nice lawn.

6) Fix instead of replace. – With the amount of stores and products thrust at us everyday it is easy to forget that seemingly broken things can most often be fixed fairly easily. My favorite store (War-Mart) thrives on this. By selling shiny new products cheap they fool the customer into thinking the new product is any better then the old one, problem is in a few months the new one is in the same sad state as the older one. Say you are at your computer desk and it’s a couple of years old and it’s a little more wobbly then it used to be and that keyboard tray stopped working almost right away. How easy would it be to head over to Ikea and fork out a couple hundred on a new desk? Or you could go to the garage find a screwdriver tighten up the bolts, install a new keyboard tray and restore the desk to nearly new condition.

7) Use Public transit. –Limiting driving by using public transit can greatly reduce your emissions as well as fuel consumption.($$$) Taking public transit is a low cost alternative to commuting and is most often much faster for downtown centers.

Buy a house plant. –Probably not going to suck up a large portion of GHG’s but will improve air quality and make your house environment more enjoyable. Owning and maintaining plants also gives insight into how plants work and a profound respect for Mother Nature.

9) Carpool –When commuting large distances organizing a car pool can have many advantages. It decreases fuel consumption and emissions for all people involved. You get a break from driving 5 times a week to only 1 or 2. You have a car full of people and can entertain each other. When you consider:

“The usual mode of transportation for travel to work is Car, truck, van, as driver 73.8% and as a passenger only 6.9%”. –Statistics Canada

You can see the potential for organized carpooling to reduce automobile emissions by almost half.

10) Insulation and weather stripping. –By ensuring that your home is air tight you reduce the load on your heater and air conditioner. Keeping the cool or warm air in the house and the opposite air out greatly improves the efficiency of your home. For a small investment of $20 to $200 dollars you can make sure that your doors and windows are properly sealed and save hundreds on your electricity bill.

Bonus) The 2 degree factor / thermostat. –Lowering your homes temperature by 2 degrees in the winter and raising it 2 degrees in the summer can have an enormous impact on both your emissions and electricity cost. Likewise installing a programmable thermostat that automatically adjusts to use less energy when you are away from the home can reduce the use of wasted energy to heat / cool a vacant home.

Have an idea not on the list have something to say about an idea? Leave it in a comment below : )

-Jeff Radecki – Editor / admin.