Simple shifts to greener versions of the products you already buy can save you as much as $5,000 a year. Oh, and you’ll reduce the amount of energy you use and how much trash you throw away, too. Here are 13 green tips I’ve made personally that have saved me a bundle of money while making me feel good about doing my part to protect the planet.
Estimated Savings: $5 – $10/yr/bulb x 4 bulbs = $20 – $40/yr
CFLs use 66% less energy than a regular incandescent light bulb and last ten times as long. Plus, each bulb you shift to will save you $5 – $10 per year in electricity costs. That’s as much as $100 over the lifetime of every bulb you buy. Start by switching out bulbs in the four lights you use the most: your kitchen ceiling light, your bathroom ceiling light, two lamps in your living room or family room. Switch to LED lighting, and you’ll save even more on bulbs that last even longer than CFLs.
Estimated Savings: $250 – $500/yr
Bottled water can cost 10,000 times more than tap water! Why? Because you’re paying for all kinds of things BESIDES water: the bottle, the water wasted during the bottling process, the energy used to bottle the water and transport the bottle to your store, the paper label on the bottle, and the bottle cap. Purchase a reusable water bottle for less than $20 and fill it up at home or at work. With these savings, you can buy a water filter for your tap if it makes you feel better, or buy a reusable bottle that comes with its own filter.
Estimated Savings: $1560/yr
This green tip is a big money saver, but you probably never thought it was a planet saver, too. Why is it so eco-friendly to take your own lunch to work? Because you’re not using all the throwaway plastic and paper packaging that a take-out lunch involves, especially if you use a reusable lunch bag and food containers.
Programmable thermostat. Image courtesy of _vikram
Estimated Savings: $150/yr
Every time you adjust the thermostat to reduce your heating or cooling needs, you save money. But remembering to make the adjustment can be a challenge. The beauty of a programmable thermostat is that it does the adjusting for you. Set the controls to moderate temperatures, and enjoy watching your energy bills decrease.
Estimated Savings: $72/yr
Most conventional shower heads and toilets use an excessive amount of water, wasting a precious resource along with your hard-earned dollars. Replace your existing shower head with a high-impact low flow model to enjoy the same quality but using far less water. Older model toilets may use as much as six gallons of water per flush; newer models only need 1.6 gallons (or less) to get the job done.
Estimated Savings: $94/yr
Computers, fax machines, monitors, answering machines, televisions and other electronics are called “vampires” because they keep sucking energy out of the electrical sockets they’re plugged in to even when they’re turned off. In fact, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, electric appliances use 40% of their energy when they’re turned off! You can cut that – and your energy bill – simply by plugging your electronics into an energy-saving power strip.
Estimated Savings: $129/yr
A lot of energy is wasted in winter and summer alike when cooled or heated air escapes through cracks around windows and doors. Caulking windows and weather-stripping doors reduces the losses to everything but your pocketbook.
Estimated Savings: $1050/yr
With gas prices averaging around $2.50 a gallon, every gallon of gas you save puts real money back in your wallet. Burning less gas generates a lot less smog and air pollution, and reduces the impact driving has on climate change, too. If you replace a car that gets only 20 mpg with one that gets 40 mpg, you’ll save $750/yr at today’s gas prices. When prices rise, a fuel efficient car saves you even more. Learn to drive “smart.” Following the speed limit, driving at a consistent speed, keeping the engine tuned up and your tires inflated, will save an additional $300- $500/yr.
Estimated Savings: $225/yr
Gasoline costs for individual trips can really add up. Replace at least one trip a week with a carpool, or shop online, telecommute, bicycle or walk to save fuel and money. You can find many more ways to cut your fuel costs at www.biggreenpurse.com.
Energy Star Energy Guide. Image courtesy of Andy Melton.
Estimated Savings: $100/yr on energy, 7,000+ gallons of water
All ENERGY STAR appliances are designed to save energy, and clothes washers and dishwashers offer the added benefit of saving thousands of gallons of water over conventional models. Plus, many local utilities offer a $50 or $100 rebate when consumers trade in old refrigerators and air conditioners for new ENERGY STAR models.
Estimated Savings: $360/yr
You can save a small fortune by skipping commercial cleaning products and using simple and non-toxic ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. You can clean almost any surface in your home with fragrance-free and biodegradable liquid soap, standard baking soda, hot water, and a sponge. For windows, mirrors and other glass surfaces, use a mixture of vinegar and water, and you’ll pay mere pennies per window to get the shine you want. You can find many green cleaning recipes here.
Estimated Savings: $750/yr
Swap or trade what you already have for what you want. Use our recycling locator find recycling opportunities, or check listings at Craigslist.com, freecycle.org or your own neighborhood list-serv.
Estimated Savings: $350/yr
We all have more stuff than we can use. And we all throw away perfectly good items that someone else could use. From clothing and sports equipment to kitchenware, electronics and furniture, our trash can also generate some treasure. Take advantage of listservs, Ebay and Craigslist to sell what you no longer need or use. And don’t forget that tried-and-true method of keeping your perfectly good stuff in circulation: the neighborhood yard sale!
What green shifts have you made that have saved you money? Do you have other green tips you’d like to share with others? Leave your comments below.
Featured image courtesy of Ken Neoh
Diane MacEachern is a best-selling author, award-winning entrepreneur and mother of two with a Master of Science degree in Natural Resources and the Environment. Glamour magazine calls her an “eco hero” and she recently won the “Image of the Future Prize” from the World Communications Forum, but she’d rather tell you about the passive solar house she helped design and build way back when most people thought “green” was the color a building was painted, not how it was built. She founded biggreenpurse.com because she’s passionate about inspiring consumers to shift their spending to greener products and services to protect themselves and their families while using their marketplace clout to get companies to clean up their act.
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In certain cities across the globe, urban gardening is beginning to take favor over Immaculately manicured green spaces. Image Credit: FreshStudio / Shutterstock
Cities face immense challenges when creating attractive green spaces for their inhabitants, striving to create beautiful, engaging public space while also walking the narrow tightrope of budget and resource allocation. Formerly, city landscaping meant well-tended flowerbeds and the immaculately manicured sprawling green lawn which has become a symbol of wealth and luxury. This type of public green space is attractive, but the truth is that it’s also incredibly wasteful. And yet, a relatively new trend is taking root again — urban gardening in the form of cities being turned into micro food producers. But before we take a look at this movement, lets take a look at how wasteful the current landscaping status-quo is.
Statistics for municipal water use are tough to track down, but the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans use 9 billion gallons of water each and every day, simply to keep their personal outdoor landscapes looking green.
Add municipal water use to this already absurd number and we’re looking at a lot of water going to grow something just so we can cut in a week.
It’s not just the waste of these aesthetic landscapes, it’s also the financial cost borne by taxpayers. It can seem downright frivolous sometimes, prioritizing the installation and maintenance of giant expanses of grass or ornamental flower baskets instead of directing those funds toward improving the health and welfare of its citizens, instead. For ages it’s seemed like an either/or proposition, but a new trend in city planning may have found a way to elegantly balance both.
Urban gardening seeks to reclaim unused or ill-used public spaces and transform them into productive edible gardens which are open to the public or designed to benefit specific social service or non profit groups. Image Credit: Arina P Habich / Shutterstock
Urban agriculture is a unique way for cities to prioritize food over flowers, and a growing number of cities are embracing this concept wholeheartedly. Urban gardening seeks to reclaim unused or ill-used public spaces and transform them into productive edible gardens which are open to the public or designed to benefit specific social service or non profit groups. Some forms of urban gardening look to replace cement or vacant lots with vibrant growth while others try to reframe gardens from just looking good, to tasting good, too.
Wondering what these rich urban gardening projects look like? They truly are as diverse and unique as the vegetable varieties they grow — here are three great examples of urban gardening projects taking root in Europe and North America.
Andernach, Germany, is known as The Edible City, due to their commitment to planting fruits and vegetables on city land, rather than flowers. This initiative officially began in 2010, and has worked to transform over 86,000 square feet of city property into lush vegetable gardens filled with nutrient-rich fruits and vegetable. This urban gardening initiative has met with resounding success, due in large part to incredible community support and involvement. The creative minds behind the project keep community members engaged and interested by continually reinventing the program to feature different plants — planting hundreds of heirloom varieties of tomatoes one year for example, so the public could see and taste the differences between plant types — and constantly innovating and explaining the program.
This creative rethinking of public space wasn’t without its challenges, but an unexpected stumbling block described in an article about The Edible City was that the public was initially quite reluctant to pick the fruits and vegetables as they began to ripen.
The notion of private space and ownership is so deeply ingrained in our modern society that signs had to be put up encouraging people to help themselves to the bounty. In doing so, The Edible City is changing the urban landscape of Andernach but also reframing how its inhabitants think about and use public space.
London, too, is seeking to transform public spaces through urban gardening with a collective called The Edible Bus Stop. Image Credit: The Edible Bus Stop (Instagram)
London, too, is seeking to transform public spaces through urban gardening with a collective called The Edible Bus Stop. Made up of landscape architects, garden designers, horticulturists, artists and activists, this group believes that “a brutal landscape makes for a brutal outlook, and that by taking responsibility for our urban environment, we can improve upon the experience of inner city living”. As anyone who’s spent any significant amount of time within a major city can attest, this idea of a physical environment both reflecting and affecting one’s emotional state is absolutely spot on.
This group works to change drab, dull, and depressing urban spaces with bursts of color and fresh fruit and veggies. As the name would suggest, one of their first projects was to transform three bus stops along the number 322 bus route in London into edible gardens.
It began with one small patch and one bus stop, but the effort quickly bloomed to other spaces as well. The Edible Bus stop group has now expanded their efforts into art installations (check out this fantastic “Roll Out the Barrows” installation, featuring colorful wheelbarrows filled with plants) and pocket gardens which add glimpses of rich green life in the most unexpected spaces.
In another urban gardening success story, Victoria, British Columbia has taken advantage of its location in one of Canada’s most encouraging growing climates to transform part of a public square into a food-producing space. A post on the city’s website explains the initiative, stating,
For the third consecutive year, the City of Victoria is partnering with Our Place Society, whose staff, family members and volunteers will plant, maintain and harvest vegetables and herbs to make meals for its lunch program. Seedlings will be provided by the City and will include oregano, kale, rainbow chard, broccoli, basil, dill, red cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes. Sunflowers will be planted to provide color and food in the garden. Existing plants in the edible garden include large artichoke, fig trees, goumi berries, chives, and thyme.
This is urban gardening with a cause — all the produce will be harvested and donated to the Our Place Society, an organization which serves the poor, disadvantaged and homeless population of the city. Veggies will be featured in their lunch program and meals will be seasoned with herbs from the garden as well. Participants in the program can assist with gardening and harvesting the herbs and vegetables, as well as enjoy the delicious (and nutritious) fruits and vegetables of their labors. The program is designed to connect community members through natural spaces while also raising awareness of food issues.
These initiatives featured in Andenach, London, and Victoria are only three of thousands of urban gardening projects growing around the globe. As issues of food scarcity, resource allocation, responsible water use and how to build vibrant and inclusive communities increases, I think -and hope – we’ll see an increase in these useful green spaces, too.
Feature image credit: LUMOimages / Shutterstock
Madeleine Somerville is the author of
All You Need Is Less: An Eco-Friendly Guide to Guilt-Free Green Living and Stress-Free Simplicity
. She is a writer, wanna-be hippie, and lover of soft cheeses. She lives in Edmonton, Canada with her daughter. You can also find Madeleine at her blog,
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Urban Gardening: Micro Food Producers – July 26, 2016
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Ah, summer! The season of barbecues, picnics, camping, delicious fresh fruit and summertime adventures. One of my favorite things to do through the summer is take a road trip — with family, friends and sometimes even a short solo journey. I find that road trips make for a relatively cheap and easy holiday option, allowing one to explore the interiors of a particular area and marvel at the beauty that summertime brings. Last year, I spent my summer in the Pacific Northwest, and the number of road trips I took increased exponentially. Sometime in the midst of summer and considering how much I was getting out onto the road, I decided that it was only fair to go about my little adventures in a more environmentally responsible manner — a green road trip if you will.
These green road trip tips will keep your next summer road trip as eco-friendly as it is enjoyable. Image Credit: Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock
I’ve always been a pretty accountable and cautious person by nature, and so, I researched ways in which to make my journeys more “green”, and lessen their impact (directly and indirectly) on the beautiful surroundings I often cruised through. Today, I’m going to share with you some green road trip tips to keep your next summer road trip as eco-friendly as it is enjoyable.
Arguably, one of the best ways to keep your trip green is to maximize fuel efficiency. Before embarking on a long journey, make sure your car is fully tuned up. Sometimes overlooked factors, such as your tires not being fully inflated, can reduce fuel efficiency by a significant amount (not to mention, they make driving dangerous). Making sure your car is well maintained and suited for a road trip is vital, as a car in shape will retain its efficiency for a long period of time. More importantly, a well-maintained car aids safety, and safe driving practices are critical for long drives.
If you are renting a car for your trip, then consider renting one that is fuel efficient. I’ve rented cars for longer journeys in the past, and trust me when I say it’s worth paying a little extra to get a vehicle with higher fuel efficiency.
Green road trip tip: avoid packing heavy and bulky items unless absolutely necessary. Image Credit: Youproduction / Shutterstock
Pack only as much as you need. Avoid packing heavy and bulky items unless absolutely necessary, and be sure to empty out your trunk of any items you’ve been storing in there that you won’t need for your summer road trip. Keeping your weight to a minimum will reduce the amount of gas consumed, and also save you some money over time. I recently learned that keeping things on the roof of your car can reduce efficiency up to 25%! Apparently, bike racks and luggage carriers will interfere with efficiency even when empty as they disrupt the aerodynamics of the car.
Planning your route in advance will help you save fuel, as opposed to spontaneously “going where the road takes you”. In terms of the drive itself, here are some easy-to-follow steps that really do make a big difference in staying environmentally friendly:
When possible, opt for cruise control, as this is much better than constantly accelerating and braking.
Don’t idle! I remember driving to Seattle once, and seeing a “Stop Idling” sign at this large intersection. Even though the sign was very visible, most drivers were in fact, idling. Idling is tempting, but in reality consumes a lot of gas in a small amount of time.
Use as little air-conditioning as possible. I find this quite hard to do, especially during the peak of summer, but it’s worth a try during cooler evenings or while driving through long shaded areas.
Apart from the journey itself, the activities you engage in throughout your road trip also contribute to the carbon footprint you leave behind. In terms of food, try and eat local. Consider frequenting farmers’ markets, or eating at local sustainable restaurants. Not only will you be helping the environment, but you’ll get to truly immerse yourself in your new surroundings and get an insider’s perspective. Packing low-carbon snack alternatives in reusable containers is a great way to stay healthy, and also reduce waste.
A great way to see some sights you might otherwise miss is to throw some walking and hiking into your road trip. This saves fuel, and is a fun activity to change things up during a road trip. Instead of using electronic devices to keep your mind occupied during those longer and bleaker drives, or during long pit-stops, try playing a game or two, or interact with fellow travelers. I’ve met some really interesting people at pit-stops, and have found that exchanging stories over a meal with fellow road-trippers is so much more fulfilling than staring at a screen. Even though it doesn’t seem like much, you’ll be saving some electricity, and reducing your personal impact on your surroundings, and who knows — you might even enjoy doing it!
So the next time you’re planning a road trip, think about including these green road trip practices into your journey. After all, half of the enjoyment a road trip brings comes from the beauty of the environments we drive through — so it only makes sense that we do our part in preserving its splendor.
Feature image credit: MNStudio / Shutterstock
Akshata majored in International Political Economy and English Literature and has a passion for traveling and exploring the world. She loves to write, is interested in entrepreneurship and sustainability. Occasionally, she writes about not-so-serious stuff and her daily doings on her blog
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Green Road Trip Tips For The Summer – July 18, 2016
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