January 4th in Lists, Opinion, Reducing by Dusty . 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
October 27, 2010
Well said. Thanks for the comment.
October 27, 2010
when choosing to buy a dog house, always choose wood based dog house or if you can afford one, choose steel based.*’
October 28, 2010
Reduce paper. When printing, use both sides of a piece of paper in order to conserve. Keep a scrap paper pile for misprinted or unnecessary documents to either print on or write on. Try to reuse envelopes as many times as possible to cut down on waste. Also, consider purchasing a mesh or cloth coffee filter as opposed to disposable paper filters.
October 28, 2010
Living Green means making conscious choices in your lifestyle that not only reduce, but also enhance your impact on the environment. It also means recognizing that each and every action does indeed count. Be aware of what electronics stay plugged in all the time in your home. Plug a power strip into a busy wall outlet and then simply switch off the power strip when you leave home to turn off all of your unused appliances and electronics at once. Leaving things on-like a video game system or a computer not in sleep mode can use up a lot of power.
November 22, 2010
This 100 steps of green movement is very much helpful to us. As having green environment is really cool and can take away all stress then doing it all are the great ways to make successful.
Thanks a lot for sharing this informative and useful article to us.
December 9, 2010
Living green does not necessarily mean going out and buying a hybrid car; you can reduce your energy and gas consumption without having to buy a whole new vehicle by being a conscious driver. Take the bus: While not all cities have extensive subway or train systems, almost all cities do have a bus line. Check the schedule and see if there’s a bus stop by you, and if it goes to work, school, or other places you frequent. Paying a buck or two for bus fare is a lot cheaper than paying two to three bucks for a gallon of gas.
December 20, 2010
Going green is not our choice anymore, it is our responsibility. That is why it is so important to try and do the small things that can help change the outlook of our planet. In fact, many of the things we can do, we actually already do!
January 1, 2011
The use of Eco-friendly products as well as materials is witnessing a continuous increase since it helps in reducing pollution and global warming. Therefore, it is the moral responsibility of every individual to contribute towards making their environment healthy and clean. You can make your contribution by using environment-friendly products for renovating or building your home. Not only are these products beneficial to human beings, but also for the environment. If each one of us understands the importance of such products, our planet would definitely become a healthier place to live in. So, it is advisable to use such products for your own benefit as well as for the benefit of the mankind.
January 3, 2011
Great article.
I think it’s time for everyone to start being more envirement friendly and more effecient and a great way to start is by following these steps that you’ve provided.
I hope people will consider this and follow this lists. Living more green will also save a lot of money.
Regards.
January 8, 2011
It’s a rewarding day for everyone finding the value in “going green” for themselves and embraces eco awareness in their life. The positive impact on the environment is exponential with more and more people seeking eco awareness in their personal lives and in their work.
January 13, 2011
Great steps, now we just have to convince 95% of the rest of the world to follow these steps and the world might actually go Green!
January 19, 2011
Live by example. In the past, people lived as they were taught, and in those days, not a lot of consideration was placed on living green. Turn those thoughts around and teach your children how to live green. A benefit to this is a continued commitment to protect the planet and ourselves. Conserving the forests to protect endangered species will enable future generations to view the magnificent species Earth has to offer.
January 30, 2011
Unfortunately BIG Business especially in some places (US note) will take no heed of green policies..shame on them! Theres an ideal world and a real one..
April 5, 2011
Living Green means making conscious choices in your lifestyle that not only reduce, but also enhance your impact on the environment. It also means recognizing that each and every action does indeed count. Thank you.
July 11, 2011
Here’s a tip. Get “rid” of your pets. Stats show that 2 medium size dogs have the same carbon footprint as a large SUV. And guinea pig has the same carbon footprint as a large HDTV.
How the green movement will reconcile their love for animals and the carbon they produce I do not know!
August 1, 2011
These tips will be reminder for us to take care our motherly nature and make our surroundings clean. Living with a good nature and breath a fresh air is very comfortable and can take away our stress. Its not yet too late to protect our nature from destruction, lets us start that in our own self. Thanks for the informative tips.
November 21, 2011
Great Article…Amazing how such simple changes to ones lifestyle can have a major impact on our planet. I think our ancestors were just more aware of the environment naturally than we our today in this modern fast-paced world. Great to have posts like these out there in the web!