This is my list of “Daily Green Tips”.  These are not all MY brilliant ideas, but rather I have found a number of resources online and different applications that give great daily tip ideas and I want to share them with you here:

~ Bring in your own coffee mug for refills when going to your local coffee shop.

~ Install rain barrels to water your plants.

~ Paying bills online saves on postage and trees.  If we all do it, we can cut 1.6 billion tons of waste per year.

~ As you prepare for going back to school, check out these great new lunch sacks that have the ice pack built into them: PackIt lunch bags.

~ A birthday party can be great fun and green too!

~ Using programmable thermostats automatically adjust your home’s temperature while you are at work.  A 2 degree difference can prevent 1-ton of CO2 per year.

~ Landscape with native plants to use less water and have easier care.

~ Using green plants in your office/home improve air quality, absorb toxic gasses from equipment and maintain humidity.

~ Give your car a tune-up.  For every 100,000 people who get a tune-up this year it will eliminate 60 tons of CO2.

~ An old 2-stroke grass mower pollutes as much as 40 cars!  A push mower is clean and provides a good workout.

~ Driving 10 miles less this year than last can prevent 500 lbs. of CO2 from polluting the atmosphere.

~ Purchase recycled products.  These consume less production energy- Paper 55%, Glass-33%, Aluminum-90%.

~ Unplug all electronic devices when not in use.  When plugged-in, they will continue to use electricity, even if switched to off.  You can use a power strip with an off switch to do this easily and for more devices at once.

~ Check-out Active Ion’s Ionator and HOM systems to use plain tap water and make a great cleaning.

~ Summer is here!  Now is the time to dry your clothes using a clothesline.  Line-drying makes your clothes smell fresh and clean, and can prevent 600 lbs. of CO2 over six months.

~ When you’re in the market for a new computer, consider a laptop.  It saves space, goes anywhere and uses five times less energy than desktop models.

~ Instead of sending old rugs to the landfill check with local animal shelters to see if they can use them.  Old towels, blankets, and sheets are also appreciated.

~ When trying to kill yard weeds, try these natural remedies instead of chemicals: boiling water, saline, lemon juice, white vinegar, and of course you can pull them by hand.

~ Start a program where you buy in bulk and share the extras with friends and family.  All participants will save money and reduce packaging and gas costs.

~ Take your own reusable coffee mug each time you go get coffee.

~ If each home replaced one light bulb with a CFL or other Energy Star bulb, enough power would be saved to light 3 million homes for a year.

~ Wash clothes less frequently (only when needed) and in cold water and you can save tremendous water and electricity.  Cold water alone can save 2 lbs of CO2 per load compared to hot water.

~ Help Recycle today: Make double-sided copies and print on both sides of your paper.  Always try to use recycle paper.

~ Wrap your water heater in an insulated blanket and you’ll eliminate 1,000 pounds of CO2 in a year.  You can eliminate another 550 pounds by lowering it’s temperature to 120F.

Greenfully Yours,

Beary B. Green

Ambassador of Green for Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes

References (not all inclusive):

Go Green iPhone Application

Greenlivingtips.com

Earthshare.org