Buy In Bulk
The more you buy the better the price, this isn’t a big secret. People have been saving money by buying in bulk for decades. This doesn’t mean you should go buy a whole bunch of stuff you don’t need, but if you do need a lot of one thing buying it in bulk will save you time and money. It also helps the environment by reducing the amount you travel to purchase these products and reduces the amount of packaging necessary for these items. Containers and packaging make up more than 31% of all municipal solid waste, almost 80 million tons in 2006.
The two most popular bulk stores are Costco and Sam’s Club. Chances are there’s one near you so take advantage and start shopping intelligently. Whole Foods stocks bulk items in large bins to save on packaging and environmental harm.
THE FACTS
Containers and packaging make up more than 31% of all municipal solid waste, almost 80 million tons in 2006.
Travel Green by Green571
Whether its business or pleasure, traveling consumes a lot of energy. Fuel efficient and hybrid vehicles are helping to conserve fuel and lower CO2 emissions, but there are many choices you can make with air travel and hotel accommodations that can make a difference for the environment. Here are a few suggestions:
AIR TRAVEL
Business Travel accounts for around 20% of air travel. Cutting out air travel completely would be the most green choice, by either taking the train or video teleconferencing. If neither of those options are feasible, seek out an airline that is environmentally conscious.
Continental Airlines has upgraded its fleet with fuel-efficient planes, in addition to designing green terminals. Virgin Atlantic is using fewer engines for takeoff in addition to experimenting with biofuels. Always opt for direct flights - planes use the most fuel when taking off and landing.
GREEN HOTELS
Marriott is leading the way in the green race. From replacing their light bulbs with CFLs to encouraging guests to reuse towels & sheets, they are conserving both water & energy. Doubletree has followed suit by composting waste & buying local. If you are looking for a boutique hotel, check out Kimpton Hotels, or for upscale luxury, look into the Fairmont Resorts.
TIPS FOR TRAVEL
Bring your own beverage container, or even your own snack on an airplane. Pack light, an extra 10 pounds of luggage per passenger equals an increase in CO2 emissions of more than 3 million tons per year. Choose Green locations, there are many eco-resorts popping up all over the world that use solar power, local ingredients and wind energy.
THE FACTS
Choosing fuel-conscious airlines or eco-friendly hotels not only helps the environment, it saves you money. When airlines use less fuel, flight prices stay low. Hotels with lower water & energy bills can also keep pricing more affordable.
Green Business
The Green movement is creating many new opportunities in business. We are about to undergo one of the greatest socially driven changes in our country’s history. While we often talk about doing things to help the environment, it doesn’t mean you can’t come up with a Green business idea and help yourself at the same time. Green minded companies are the way of the future, and large investing companies such as Goldman Sachs have already set aside $1.5 billion to privately invest in green companies. Find a way to profit from a Green business and YOU could be the next millionaire story.
THE FACTS
Goldman Sachs has already set aside $1.5 billion to privately invest in green companies.
Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (CFLs) Save Energy
For over 100 years we’ve lit our homes with what are called “incandescent” bulbs. These are the pear shaped bulbs you’re used to seeing around your home. The problem is, they are incredibly inefficient. Only 5% of the energy supplied to them is converted into light. Compact Fluorescent Bulbs, or CFLs, are basically a smaller version of the fluorescent bulbs you see on the ceiling of your school or office. CFLs use 75% less electricity then traditional incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. Are they more expensive? Yes… around $4 a bulb but the investment will pay for itself 10 times over during the life of the bulb. If you’re looking to green your home this is about as easy as its going to get! Just buy CFLs over traditional next time you need to replace a few light bulbs.
THE FACTS
CFLs use 75% less electricity then traditional incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.
Building Green with Green571
In today’s green movement there are many new building products made from recycled materials, as well as products that help a home conserve energy. Taking advantage of these products when you build a home can save you money in the long run as well as help the environment.
ALTERNATIVE WOOD
60% of all the trees we log domestically are used to build houses. The average new 2,000 square foot home requires an entire clear cut acre worth of wood to build, that’s around 1000 trees! A growing number of consumers, builders, and architects are turning to a variety of more environmentally conscious wood flooring choices rather than choosing recently milled oak or maple. Some look to fast-growing bamboo harvested from Southeast Asia or to tiles of cork, made from the bark of oak trees in the Mediterranean. Another green option is wood that has been cut from forests managed sustainably. This is wood that has been certified by the U.S. Forest Stewardship Council, a Washington-based nonprofit group backed by industry and environmental organizations and affiliated with a similar international organization.
AVOIDING VINYL
Vinyl is less expensive and easier to maintain than most home siding materials, but that comes with an environmental price. The production of vinyl is incredibly toxic and the byproducts of that production often make it into our soil and water. If possible, opt for wood or brick over vinyl.
USE LOWS VOC PAINT
VOC stands for “volatile organic compounds”, compounds often found in paint that have been known to cause health issues including cancer. So next time you paint a room in your home, do yourself a favor and ask for low VOC paint.
THE FACTS
The average new 2,000 square foot home requires an entire clear cut acre worth of wood to build, that’s around 1000 trees.
Bring Your Own Shopping Bag to the Store
Here’s something I think we all know, any grocery store shopping bag is bad for the environment… paper OR plastic. The solution is to bring your own shopping bags with you to the store. Not only will you help the environment by not using paper or plastic bags, but you can also save money because many stores offer a 5 or even 10 cent discount for every bag you don’t use. That averages out to $52 dollars a year if you avoid using 10 standard grocery bags a week.
All major food stores offer clothe reusable shopping bags made from recycled materials. You may have to pay a few dollars for them, but you can use them over and over again. If you pay $2 for a clothe shopping bag, and normally average the use of 10 standard grocery bags a week that $2 clothe bag will pay for itself in only 2 weeks with the 10 cent discount. A great site for reusable bags is Delight.com, click to learn more.
AVOID PLASTIC BAGS
Between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are used in our country every year! 30 billion of them end up littering our streets and sidewalks eventually making their way into our sewers, rivers, and oceans. Plastic bags never completely biodegrade, they only photodegrade which means the sunlight breaks them down into tiny pieces. The problem is these tiny pieces end up in the stomachs of birds and marine life and remain there forever. They can even make their way back to your dinner plate!
AVOID PAPER BAGS
You think plastic bags are bad? Paper are even worse. Every paper bag takes more energy to make and creates more waste than TWO plastic bags. So next time they ask paper or plastic, answer neither… and have your own bags with you.
THE FACTS
Many countries have banned or placed heavy taxes on the use of plastic bags including Ireland, Australia, and South Africa. US cities have also began to ban their use including San Francisco whose banned the use of plastic bags since March 2007.
Bring Your Lunch by Green571
Bring your own food with you whenever possible. Creating a meal at home is cheaper and healthier than eating out. Pack a lunch before school, work, or before a long car trip. You’ll lose weight, feel better, and save money all while helping the environment. We spend over $130 billion dollars every year on fast or take-out food. Not only is fast food loaded with fat, sodium and carbohydrates, it is also very bad for the environment. While it may be convenient for us out on the road, getting that food to every fast food restaurant on every highway exit in the country consumes millions of gallons of fuel a year. And that’s not the only problem. Fast food packaging creates 1. 7 million tons of trash every year in the form of boxes, plastic or paper bags, plastic forks, etc.
THE FACTS
Fast food packaging creates 1. 7 million tons of trash every year in the form of boxes, plastic or paper bags and plastic forks.
Say No to Bottled Water by Green571
According to a recent study, Americans spent $15 billion dollars on bottled water in 2006. Transporting that much water requires moving 1 billion bottles of water a day. You could run 100,000 cars for a year on that amount of oil required to mae the plastic used for bottled water. What’s worse, is that 9 out of 10 plastic water bottles are simply thrown away ending up in our landfills and waterways.
IS BOTTLED WATER REALLY BETTER FOR YOU?
We drink bottled water because we think its healthier, but that really isn’t the case. 24% of bottled water is simply purified tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi. They called this product Aquafina and it costs 2,500 times more than normal tap water. Products like Evian and FIJI are even worse, they cost 10,000 times more than normal tap water. Let’s think about it like this. The USDA recommends we drink 8 to 12 cups of water a day. That equates to $2,500 a year if you only drink Aquafina and $10,000 a year if you only drink FIJI. The yearly cost for tap water? $1 dollar…
What’s worse is the federal standards are actually higher on tap water than they are on bottled water. So if there was ever a no brainer its this… buy a reusable water container, for example Nalgene, and drink tap water. If you want it purified they buy a $30 purifier for your tap or $15 dollar Brita purifier for your refrigerator. You’ll save a lot of money and help the environment a great deal.
THE FACTS
The USDA recommends we drink 8 to 12 cups of water a day. That equates to $2,500 a year if you only drink Aquafina and $10,000 a year if you only drink FIJI. The yearly cost for tap water? $1 dollar…
The Benefits of Biodiesel
Biodiesel is a renewable fuel made from vegetable or animal fat, is nontoxic, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by a phenomenal 75%. Any diesel car or truck made since the mid 1990s can run on refined biodiesel. The industry that uses the most diesel fuel is the trucking industry, and its a very big industry. In 2007, commercial trucks traveled 114.1 billion miles around the United States using 50 billion gallons of diesel fuel. On average a long haul truck driver travels 43,000 miles every year. The problem is the average truck gets 5 miles per gallon!
Diesel Cars
The good news about diesel engines is that generally get better fuel economy than normal gas engines. Although they are not common, there are still many diesel powered cars available to the average consumer. For example, a Volkswagen Jetta TDI get 38 mpg and can run completely on biodiesel. There are many other diesel powered cars available today as well. Remember, biodiesel is renewable fuel and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by a phenomenal 75%.
CO2 emissions
Nothing contributes more to global warming that CO2 emissions from our vehicles. Americans love their cars, and today they are bigger and faster than they’ve ever been. According to the Federal Highway Administration, there are 241 million cars and trucks on the road in the United States, 53% of which are trucks, vans, SUVs, or minivans. The United States accounts for 30% of the world’s automobiles and require 8.2 million barrels of oil a day to operate them. That’s 11% of the world’s daily oil consumption. All that fuel we burn fills the air with 1,300 million tons of CO2 each year.
The impact this has on our planet is immeasurable. According to the United Nations Human Development Report released in November 2007, the automobile sector accounts for 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere. Greenhouse Gas emissions are what cause global warming and put our planet, our futures, and the life’s of our children in great danger. The average fuel economy in the United States is 20.2 miles per gallon, compared to 35 mpg in Europe. The reason why is we love our trucks and SUVs, which only average 18 miles per gallon. Compare that to a Honda Civic at 36 mpg or a Toyota Matrix at 33 mpg, its easy to see why we burn so much fuel. Not to mention you can save a lot of money if your car has high fuel economy. Let’s say you drive 20,000 miles a year. At $4 a gallon, if your SUV gets 18 mpg compared to a 35 mpg car you’ll spend $2,159 more on fuel every year by driving an SUV. Another option is to purchase a Hybrid, which use both electric power and fuel.
THE FACTS
In 2007, commercial trucks traveled 114.1 billion miles through the United States and 50 billion gallons of diesel fuel. On average a long haul truck driver travels 43,000 miles every year. The problem is the average truck gets 5 miles per gallon!
Pay Your Bills Online
There aren’t many things on this site that make more sense than paying your bills online. Not only is it free, its faster and saves you the hassle of writing checks and mailing your bills. It also saves millions of trees a year from being harvested for paper. Every major credit card, utility and cell phone company has a site to pay your bill online. Stamps are up to 42 cents a stamp. Paying your bills online will save you over $100 a year on stamps alone.
AUTOMATIC PAYMENT
Let’s face it, there is nothing more annoying than “payin’ the bills”. Now you can set up automatic bill payment online for every utility bill you pay. The money is automatically drawn from your checking or saving account which means you’ll never miss a payment or receive a low credit score for late payment. As long as you still monitor your bills to make sure they are accurate, automatic bill payment is a Godsend!
ONLINE STATEMENTS
Paying your bills online isn’t the only no-brainer. We now have the option to receive our statements online via email. If everyone in the our country received their statements online instead of through the mail, we’d save 18.5 million trees from being harvested every year. It also gives you the ability to save your statements on your computer in seconds, eliminating the need to file away your statements in a file cabinet. If you need to view a statement for whatever reason, its right there on your hard drive.
THE FACTS
Receiving your statements online would save enough wood to build 216,000 homes every year.
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