What are some ways to live green, organic and energy efficient?

Question

What are some ways to live green, organic and energy efficient?

Answer 1

I unplug any appliance not being used, turn off lights when not in the room, keep the thermostat turned down in winter, up somewhat in summer, and recycle.

Answer 2

Plant your own garden in the spring to cut down on having to buy all your vegatables. This way when the garden produces you can can and freeze for later use. You can grow straberries in hanging baskets, plant blueberries bushes and apple trees in sunny spots instead shrubberies that do not produce edible fruits. Use compost, a mixture of soil, manure, the vegatable waste from cooking all in a big pile close to where you garden. This soil that you create with these materials are all the fertilizer you need to be earth friendly. To be energy efficient you can turn off lights that you are not using. Have skylights put in to bring more light in to areas that are darker. Plastic sheeting can be applied to the inside windows to cut down on heat loss from the home

Answer 3

Buy a reusable air filter for your house/apartment and just clean as needed.

Buy from the bulk bins at the grocery store using your containers.

Bring your own grocery bag.

Buy products with the least amount of packaging.

Buy or make non-toxic cleaning and personal care products.

Reduce your meat consumption.

Buy local and organic.

Light a beeswax candle instead of turning on a light.

Watch less TV.

Use reusable batteries.

Use cast iron skillets and pots.

Start composting.

Buy used from thrift stores, craigslist, ebay etc

Mend torn or holey clothes.

Use a clean dry cleaner.

Take your hangers back to the dry cleaner.

Buy and use as little plastic as possible.

You can check out what else my fiance and I are doing at our blog http://badhuman.wordpress.com

Answer 4

check out www.yourfamilyfirst.com/mrshall thats what we believe in

Answer 5

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=na...

Answer 6

recycle

one idea of recyling is

-if you mess up on a paper that you printed or did something on..

cut it into fours or whatever and staple them together

you can use them for shopping lists, to-do lists, and reminders

Answer 7

there's a lot of stuff you can do. a lot of advice can be found on http://energystar.gov on a wide range of things you can do around the house.

for yourself, you can eat fresh foods rather than those in the cans or preserved foods, bring your own reusable grocery bag/s when going out to buy groceries, recycle newspapers and cans and bottles at the local recycling shop, you can start your own garden and use your organic garbage as fertilizer (after a process, of course), when you buy stuff like shoes, buy ones that are of high quality (not necessarily expensive), will last a long time, with a timeless classic style. same thing with electronics... make sure they don't conk out on you after just a year.

Answer 8

Live on a hectare of land, with permaculture for your food, a home that is solar heated and does not need air conditioning. recycle (reclaim) all of your waste water. Provide any electricity you need via solar or wind, or if you have a waterfall via your own hydro.

With the above you need not leave home except to earn money and socialize, so cut your travel costs to a minimum by socializing with your neighbors.

Have you public transit, use it instead of a car.

Use a bike or walk where feasible.

Design your use of lighting as well as using efficient lights.

Use appliances that minimize use of power.

Be hospitable and kind to strangers as well as those you know well. Keeping peace at home is a big part of living green.

Answer 9

skyisover.net

has alot of links that help you in your quest of enviormental friendlyness

Answer 10

unplug appliances and plant trees. eat more fruits and veggies. Don't waste food give it to animals.

Answer 11

change all your light bulbs to energy efficient

compost degradable garbage (banana peels, and similar) in a bin in your back yard

install sensors on your porch, garage lights so they turn themselves off

Use water efficient toilets

Hybrid cars

reduce, reuse, recycle

Answer 12

Ride a bike, eat local food, eat less meat, think about your total energy use throughout your pattern of life (at home, at work, at play) and adjust your decison making accordingly.  There are a lot more ways of doing things than we think there are.

The biggest obstacle to living more 'greenly' is the weight of momentum of existing practices.  (ie - we're afraid of change and for example have been led to believe that a car based culture is necessary - it isn't)

Fear of discomfort is the biggest reason why we don't make positive changes in our lives.  I got rid of my car and went to bike only 7 years ago and I don't regret it for a second.  Not only am I helping the environment for everybody but I am healthier myself, I have more energy, I can eat as much as I want without gaining weight and I have more disposable income while working LESS than I used to.

Furthermore I have evolved my diet to include much less meat and processed foods, again not only benefitting the whole world but making me more healthy at the same time.  And it actually costs LESS to eat more healthy.

By the way, I'm NOT a big fan of recycling.  I mean its OK but what it does is allow people to assuage their guilt while not really changing their over-consumptive lifestyels.  (ie - in theory its fine but in practice its more like a giant guilt pill allowing people to rationalize an otherwise extremely wasteful lifestyle)

For me the real three Rs of environmentalism are Reduce, Reduce and Reduce (kinda like the three rules for real estate).  I earn less, I spend less, I eat less and I have more money left over at the end of the day.

For me, environmentalism is more about what you DON'T do than what you do do.  We always want to do things but in the end its really what we avoid doing that is the key.  It doesn't sound very exciting and its not going to sell many products but I believe that that is what is needed to make the world a better place for us all.  We need to reform our ingrained habits of earn and spend just for the sake of it.