Go Greener Tips

Archive for the ‘Green Tips’ Category

This is an awesome teaching video that was put out explaining how we got to the level of consumerism we are at today.

There is hope. Click below to see the real website that is interactive and if you have kids, it is worth watching with them.

It is traditionally a time of excess and merry-making yet there is no reason to forget the plight of the environment at Christmastime. View it as a chance to spread a little Yuletide joy to the planet itself and make this Christmas not just a white one, but a green one too.

The most obvious way of doing your bit for the planet at Christmas is to buy a fake tree. Fake trees are no longer synonymous with tackiness; now they are viewed as practical and sensible by most and in most cases are just as attractive as a real tree. But if you can’t resist a real one, then at the end of the festivities plant it in your garden and use it year after year – then you’ll get the benefit of it’s beauty all year round.

What you put on your tree is important, too. If you can’t resist flashing fairy lights, then use a plug timer and just have them on when needed, and mainly at night. The best option, however, is to decorate using baubles, tinsel and all other associated paraphernalia that looks nice without using a huge amount of electricity. There’s also the benefit that these items look good during the day, whereas fairy lights only really look festive when it’s dark. Also, always turn the lights on when you’re not in the same room – this is a good tip for anything running off electricity.

One area to focus on when trying to make your Christmas more eco-friendly is Christmas cards. Try and reduce the number you send to lessen the impact on the environment, perhaps substituting them for e-cards for non-family members. If you send a lot of cards to colleagues, why not suggest everyone at the office puts the money they would usually spend on cards into a tin and donate it to a charity? That way a charity and the environment benefits. For those cards you do receive, ensure you recycle them correctly instead of just throwing them in the bin.

Essentially, Christmas is a time when you put into practice all those little lifestyle changes that help the environment. It’s easy to get distracted during the festive period and forget to recycle food and cards and to keep electricity usage to a minimum – but remember, waste and electricity usage is in abundance at Christmas, so it’s possibly the most important time of the year to remain vigilant.

There are plenty of things you can do as an individual, and a household, that can reduce the damage done to our environment.

The most effective changes you can make to your lifestyle begin, as all the best things do, at home, and the best part is these changes require nothing more than small alterations to your normal routine. The best way to start is to cut down on your energy uses. There are a variety of ways to do this, but start by always ensuring that appliances that are not in used are switched off at the plug – stand-by is not your friend. The same goes for lighting – if you’re not in the room, switch the light off.

You can also save water and energy by only boiling as much water as you need. A good way to do this is to fill whatever mug you’re going to use with cold water, put it in the kettle, half fill the mug again and add this, and boil. You need slightly more than a full cup as boiling produces steam and causes evaporation. On the same water-saving vein, having a bath is far more eco-friendly than using a shower.

Other small changes that will drastically reduce your energy consumption include relying less on heating – if you’re just a bit chilly, put a jumper on rather than reaching for the dial. And for whatever heating you do use, if you foil back your radiators, you will get more heat into the room for the same energy use.

Outside of the home there are still plenty of options. Check and see if your bank or telecoms provider offers paperless billing. This usually means your bill is sent in full to an email account and this is turn really helps the environment. It is also worth investing in some sturdy, long-term canvas bags to use while shopping for groceries – the carrier bag is one of the worst eco-enemies in use today. Complete eradicate it from your weekly shop and your carbon footprint will go into freefall.

The last, and perhaps most obvious, green friendly tip is the three Rs: recycle, recycle, recycle. Separate all your waste products in their appropriate places, so instead of just putting it all in one bin, split it into categories like food waste, garden waste and plastic and then send it to be recycled.

When it comes to being eco friendly, small changes to one person’s habits can make a huge difference to the earth.

You don’t have to just watch information about being eco-friendly, in the developing green world the very appliances you get your TV fix from can be green themselves.

For every appliance you currently have in home, there is a green counter-part out there somewhere. Everything from televisions, through fridges and microwaves, to computers can be given a green stamp of approval thanks to great initiative eco inventor. It is now more possible than ever to enjoy and profit from the technological age without hurting the environment.

The majority of green appliances work on the basis that they consume far less power than their standard rivals. With a basic appliance, up to 50% of the power available can be being used even if the appliance itself is turned off or on the dreaded stand-by. Green appliances are designed to counteract this, some reducing their energy consumption – when compared to non-eco items – by up to 60%. The less power used, the less of a strain on the planet’s resources, and this can only be a good thing.

There is even the option to eliminate your reliance on electricity and energy totally by replacing certain items for those that use an entirely different source of energy. There is now a multitude of solar-power and wind-up electronics available, from torches to radios, and even mobile phone charges. At present there is no way of fully running a major domestic appliance from solar or wind up energy, but considering the huge leaps in innovation from green inventors in recent years, it is surely only a matter of time.

Becoming eco-friendly can sometimes to be kind to the environment but not to your wallet. Although it’s easy to understand why people may assume purchasing green-specific electronics would be more expensive, this isn’t actually the case. Most appliances are the same price and provide the same features with only a small difference in price. However, this can be saved on your energy bills as you will be using less power in the long run thanks to the unique design of green electronics, so you will actually save more in the long run. Helping you to save the world and to save a few pounds into the bargain.

It’s a time of togetherness, a time of cheer and a time of giving, but it’s easy to forget that Christmas is also a time of gluttony and waste. What with temporary decorations, discarded wrapping paper and unwanted gifts, a huge amount of waste ends up in landfill come January.

But there is a way to enjoy Christmas and at the same time maintain our responsibility to the environment and it doesn’t mean we’re reduced to giving each other lumps of coal in true Ebenezer Scrooge fashion.

Giving greener gifts is one of the best things we can do to make Christmas a little less wasteful. Environmentally friendly gifts have a two fold benefit; they’re less wasteful gifts in their own right, but they also help to spread the green gospel and encourage others to think about green issues too.

Eco-gadgets make great environmentally friendly gifts for the technophiles in your life. Solar gadgets are a particular favourite as they save money as well as reduce your carbon footprint, and are also extremely useful for times when you can’t plug into the mains. The Solio Charger for example, is a simple hand sized solar cell that can be hooked up to most small electrical items such as phones, cameras, and MP3 players.

For the nature lover, how about encouraging your local wildlife with a garden bat box, bug box, or bird feeder? Just make sure you fill it with fair trade nuts and seed!

Recycled gifts are also Green Christmas friendly. Beer guzzlers will appreciate goblets made from recycled beer bottles. Ladies can take pride in their purses made from Cambodian rice sacks, or how about the Choc-O Mini bag made in the Philippines by an award winning women’s cooperative?

With these recycled gifts, not only are you giving new life to waste that would otherwise be burnt, buried or simply litter the streets and waterways, you’re also helping to provide employment to an impoverished part of the world. But it’s not all charity – recycling can be chic too, and many celebrities have been featured in the glossy gossip magazines clutching their eco-bags which has helped to popularise these products.

So this year, instead of dreaming of a white Christmas – why not make it a Green Christmas?

http://WatchMojo.com/ presents… Some tips and suggestions for going green and doing your part to save the environment.