January 4th in Lists, Opinion, Reducing by Cyrus . Leave a comment.
100+ steps to a green home
The green movement is becoming less and less of a movement and more and more of a way of life. We all want a green home, and there are lots of ways to get there. We have sorted through the silly, the pointless and the too expensive to get down to the real ways to get a green home.
Taking any number of these steps will help you transform your home into a thriving, environmentally friendly habitat.
- Buy Local
- Buy Organic
- Buy free range/cage-free
- Avoid packaging
- Do your research on products
- Insulate or additionally insulate your home
- Drive less
- Make your own cleaning products
- Wash clothes in cold water
- Get a dishwasher
- Convert to CFL bulbs from incandescent
- Avoid greenwashing
- Recycle
- Eat less meat
- Eat no meat
- Reuse instead of buying new
- Use Craigslist
- Sell that extra car
- Ride your bike
- Take a staycation
- Turn your computer off
- Cancel your newspaper delivery and read it online
- Offset your carbon footprint
- Rake your leaves, don’t blow them
- Get a reel mower (and ditch the gas one)
- Start composting
- Repurpose old things
- Shop at garage sales, not stores
- Turn down the heat
- Turn down (up) the air conditioner
- Eliminate phantom energy waste
- Use power strips and turn them off at night
- Shut doors to unused rooms
- Stop printing things you don’t absolutely need
- Use coupons
- Make a donation to an environmental program
- Convert your 2 stroke engines to 4 stroke
- Mow your lawn less
- Start a flower garden
- Grow your own food
- Paint instead of renovate
- Use low VOC paint
- Buy energy star appliances (only when you absolutely need a new appliance)
- Don’t buy a hybrid (huh??)
- Telecommute
- Buy organic dog food
- Ditch the paper cups for coffee and bring a mug to work
- Dry your clothes on a rack
- Dry your clothes on a clothesline
- Seal up your home to stop heating (and cooling) the outdoors
- Turn your AC completely off (we need heat to survive, we don’t need cold)
- Wrap your water heater in one of those silver blanket things
- Install a timer on your water heater so you only have hot water when you typically need it or…
- Install a tankless (on demand) water heater
- Convert to electric hot water and/or heat and…
- Install solar panels or…
- Install a wind turbine or…
- Buy clean energy from your utility provider
- Get netflix (instead of driving to Blockbuster) or…
- Even better: download your movies
- Cancel your junk mail and extra catalogs and magazines (the mail system is incredibly inefficient)
- Give gift certificates for birthdays and holidays instead of shipping presents
- Give to an environmental charity instead of buying “things”
- Only run that dishwasher when full
- Use electricity during off-peak demand times whenever possible (avoid mornings and evenings)
- Clear off the top of your fridge (both inside and out)
- Fill up your freezer (it’s more efficient when full)
- Clean your fridge’s rear-end (the coils should be clear of dust and pet hair)
- Take the bus
- Start or utilize a ride-sharing program
- Work four 10 hour days instead of five 8 hour days (cuts your commute waste)
- Stop buying bottled water – bring a water bottle of tap water
- Buy a filter if you can’t stand the taste
- Turn off the TV and…
- get some exercise
- Turn off those extra lights or…
- Install some light timers
- Turn off those holiday lights at night
- Turn off those fans
- Turn down up the refrigerator temperature
- Host your website with a green web host
- Print with an eco-font
- Reuse an older cell phone or…
- Buy a used one or…
- Stick with the one you’ve got
- Read by candlelight (instead of electric light)
- Light a fire (in a fireplace or something)
- Keep plastics out of the microwave or…
- Ditch plastics altogether and switch to glass containers
- Bring leftovers, don’t buy your lunch every day
- Recycle your metal, even old electrical wire and computers (did you know you could do that??)
- Don’t burn yard waste (let it rot… seriously)
- Eat less (a lot of a human’s carbon footprint comes from growing, processing, preparing, cooking and *cough* disposing of food waste)
- Don’t even think about using paper plates
- Drink green wine
- Don’t host a progressive party (it’s wasteful to drive lots of people from place to place)
- Send an e-vite
- Serve and buy seasonal food (can YOUR region grow strawberries in January?!?)
- Join a CSA Farm (community sustained agriculture)
- Read this blog!
- Keep your car instead of upgrading
- Shovel snow instead of plowing or snowblowing
- Turn the TV OFF (we already said this once but it’s double-important)
Do you have an idea for making a green home? Post it here as a comment.
This article is CROWD SOURCED! What does that mean? Our goal is to grow this list, and for each item to have a link to a helpful resource. For example, if you have a resource for #91, recycling your metal, post it here as a comment and we’ll try to create a link for you.
Sources/Additional Resources:
Image credit: souzablog.com
January 7, 2010
Very thorough list, thanks.
January 13, 2010
Great listing steps for a green house. Now-a-days all of us need green house to save the environment from pollution.
A tree will consume 30kgs of pollution in a year. The steps 4 & 13 are important.
Thank You for these steps!!
January 13, 2010
We try to do what we can by turning off all the lights when not being used.
January 18, 2010
Great! Thanks for all the tips. That’s a lot of really great ideas. And it really is about seeing the whole picture and these tips show that. Being green truly is the new black! And we should all be happy for that. Thanks for the great, informative post.
January 24, 2010
I came across this surfing Google
March 5, 2010
Great post. This will really help people who find ways on how to lessen their electric bills. Be green, be clean.
March 17, 2010
Thanks for the great post!
March 20, 2010
I enjoyed reading this post about 100+ steps to a green home « Hippie Magazine. Really interesting. I will come back to visit this blog again.
April 12, 2010
Great Post!
Awesome pic!!!
April 16, 2010
I like no. 25 Drink green wine
April 16, 2010
Use low or NO VOC paint.. Yay!!!!
April 30, 2010
It’s much easier for those who are building their homes from scratch. A lot of green measures can be implemented right away.
May 5, 2010
Gene, when there is a will, there is a way. Not to mention it will bring up the value of the home.
May 20, 2010
Thanks for a list. It is good to built a green home, initially it will exceed the building cost but at later stage you will save money
May 26, 2010
Looking through this list its interesting to see how technology makes it easier to lead a green lifestyle.
May 30, 2010
Wow it is amazing how many ways there are to get on the green road. In fact it is quite embarrassing when you look down the list to see how simple some of the things are and yet I have never done them. Well things will be changing in my household and I am loking forward to becoming much greener over the coming months.
May 30, 2010
Thanks for the comment James. Be Green!
June 10, 2010
That is one big green list. I never thought that by doing such simple things I would be helping the environment. I mean seriously? You know what I think we should all do to get started with the green lifestyle? Read more of Hippie Magazine
June 11, 2010
Buy and burn soy candles which are all natural and do not pollute your home. Paraffin candles give off toxins such as benzene and toluene.
June 16, 2010
I didn’t know a dishwasher was more green than washing dishes by hand. What’s the difference if I may ask?
June 16, 2010
Hi ‘Survival Blanket’
This fact assumes you run the water while you wash dishes. If that’s the case, a dishwasher uses less hot water than running the faucet continuously.
Cheers,
Cyrus
June 17, 2010
Excellent concept. I would like to best work from you in the future as well.
Thanks for sharing with us.
July 12, 2010
Something I found that works well is strategic placement of salt lamps… they use less electricity than regular lamps and purify the air somewhat.
July 19, 2010
Certainly some great advice. I’ll come back once i’ve tried a number of these things and let you know my results. Namely in terms of how much my energy usage goes down i hope!
July 19, 2010
Hey Park Home,
Thanks for the comment. We’d love to hear back on how these tips work out for you, and if you have any of your own to add.
July 24, 2010
Thank you so muc for this 100+ tips to building a green home. A wonderful environmental friendly site that really encourage everyone to go green
August 5, 2010
SO true! So true! Green home is now a way of life. Though only in some countries! There is a lot of work to do in the poorer countries as this is where excessive population is often greater and some of the “hand me downs” and therefore less than perfect practices. Examples, are outdated medication, plastic products, fuel methods and so on.
August 6, 2010
Great comments here.
August 8, 2010
Thanks for the great list. Been going more-and-more green at my house the last year or so. It interesting that once I started to be more efficient I now feel guilty NOT doing it.
August 9, 2010
Green is definitely the way to go. Thanks for the great list. I’m going to put a few into action right away.
August 15, 2010
I’m already doing the first three. I’ll work on adding a few more from the list. Thanks for the great information.
August 17, 2010
Thrifty and creative people have long known the value of repurposing. In a time when many people are seeking to stretch an already tight budget, or want to develop a greener lifestyle, learning to repurpose simply makes sense.
August 18, 2010
Let’s go for green! Insulating the house will give more protection to the house and more convenience to the family. Most importantly, plant trees or the least make a flower garden,that will give fresh air.
August 20, 2010
I love lists like these. This is something I could share with some of our clients!
August 24, 2010
This is indeed a topic which has been ignored by many experts & professionals. Green home is really a great long term steps for a better world to live in. Thanks for this lists.
August 27, 2010
what a long list.. but i love it
thanks for sharing this
August 30, 2010
When throwing away garbage, know what is recyclable, consumable, and able to be composted. Also, when you purchase food
or other items, be conscious as to how much waste it will produce. Separate your garbage, and be aware of what is toxic and should be disposed of with specific care.
August 31, 2010
This has some great stuff. I think you should add eat green tomatoes on there though!
In high School my biology teacher use to ride his bike everyday except for when it was rainy or bitter cold. I thought that was awesome. He was getting a great workout and help out the environment. I would really like to start doing that.