100 Things Individuals Can Do To Help Our Planet

 

1. Use energy star appliances and furnaces. When purchasing new appliances and furnaces, look for the Energy Star label. If every household in the U.S. used energy star appliances and furnaces, we would save $15 billion in energy costs and eliminate 175 million tons of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.
2. Sign-up for clean energy or green energy through your utility company. Currently, more than ½ the electricity in the U.S. comes from polluting coal-fired power plants and they are the single largest source of heat-trapping gas.
3. Get a home energy audit by the utility company, like CL&P.
4. Decrease your thermostat by two degrees in the winter and increase it by two degrees in the summer.
5. Install a programmable thermostat that will automatically lower the temperature at night and raise it in the morning.
6. Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner regularly.
7. Have your furnace and central air conditioning inspected and cleaned annually to make sure it is running at maximum efficiency.
8. Consider alternative heating sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, etc.
9. Check your heating/air conditioning ducts for air leaks and seal with mastic, butyl tape, foil tape, or other heat approved tapes.
10. Close closet doors in all rooms that are being heated or cooled to decrease the amount of space that needs to be heated and cooled.
11. Dust or vacuum the heating and cooling vents, radiators, and baseboard heaters regularly to prevent dust buildup. This will cut down on heat loss.
12. Place heat resistant radiator reflective panels between the radiators and walls to reflect heat back into the room.
13. Make sure all radiators, electric baseboards, and heating vents are not blocked by furniture, rugs, or drapes.
14. Don’t use the fireplace to heat your home, as the fireplace sucks warm air out of the house.
15. Close the fireplace damper when not in use, as it can draw out as much as 25% of the heated or cooled air.
16. Caulk around the sill plate where the foundation and house meet.
17. Keep the window coverings closed during the day in hot weather to keep the house cooler.
18. Keep drapes and shades on the south and west sides open during the daytime winter months to allow sunlight to enter.
19. Close drapes and shades at night to help reduce heat loss during the winter.
20. Install a whole-house fan instead of air conditioning to cool your home.
21. Install new, high-performance double-paned windows. Look for the Energy Star and EnergyGuide labels.
22. Install storm windows over single-pane windows.
23. Insulate your home’s walls and ceilings if they are not insulated.
24. Insulate the attic. Most homes should have between R-22 and R-49 insulation in the attic.
25. Insulate hot and cold water pipes attached to the hot water heater.
26. Insulate windows and doors. They can be caulked to prevent drafts.
27. Install rubber gaskets behind outlet and switch plates on exterior walls.
28. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket.
29. Replace your old water heater with a more efficient tank-less model.
30. Set your hot water heater at no more than 120 degrees. By doing so, 15% of your water heating energy will be saved.
31. Use less hot water, as it takes a lot of energy to heat the water. Wash your clothes in cold water.
32. Install a $10 low-flow showerhead.
33. Shorten the time it takes you to take a shower. Turn off the water when shampooing and lathering. Take showers, not baths.
34. Don’t leave the water running when you brush your teeth, shave, etc.
35. Fix any leaky faucets or pipes right away to prevent wasting of water and increased water and electricity and/or heating bills.
36. Switch to low-flow toilets.
37. Attach a low-flow aerator to your kitchen faucet to mix air into the stream and decrease water usage.
38. Use a clothesline or drying rack instead of a dryer whenever possible. You can save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide when you air dry your clothes for 6 months out of the year.
39. Clean your dryer filter and exhaust regularly. When it is clogged, the dryer works harder and uses more energy.
40. Use washable cloths instead of paper towels to clean kitchen surfaces, dishware, and clean-up messes.
41. Unplug all appliances, computers, stereos, etc. when not in use. Even when turned off, things like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy.
42. Wait until 8 pm to use major appliances, such as washers, dishwashers, and dryers, to decrease peak load times.
43. Put computers in standby or shutdown mode when not in use.
44. Recycle your electronics, such as TV’s, stereos, computers, and cell phones.
45. Charge your cell phone in the car, as this uses renewable battery energy, not electricity.
46. Use a surge protector for multiple electronics or appliances. They all can be unplugged with the flip of a switch.
47. Use dimmer switches and be sure to turn them off completely when not in use.
48. Use outdoor lights with a photo sensor or timer so they automatically turn off during the day.
49. Turn off all lights when not in use.
50. Don’t light an entire room when task lighting will do.
51. Use three way bulbs where low lighting is often not necessary.
52. Use natural light during the day by placing work areas near windows.
53. Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs. If every U.S. household did this, we could reduce global warming pollution by more than 90 billion pounds over the life of the bulbs; the same as taking 6.3 million cars of f the road.
54. Use green cleaning products, such as the “Green Works” products for household cleaning.
55. Unplug your extra freezer or refrigerator if rarely used.
56. Don’t leave the refrigerator door open. Get what you want quickly and shut the door.
57. Clean your refrigerator regularly, including the coils on the back. Dust and dirt strain the compressor and use more enery.
58. Do the dollar bill test on your oven and refrigerator doors. If you can easily pull a dollar bill through, the door gasket needs to be replaced.
59. Place your refrigerator and freezer away from direct sunlight or heating sources, including the oven, dishwasher, and radiators, etc.
60. Cover foods and liquids in the refrigerator to prevent moisture buildup that causes the refrigerator to work harder.
61. Increase the temperature in your refrigerator by 5-10 degrees to decrease energy use. Recommended temperature in the fresh food compartment is 37-40 degrees.
62. Keep the freezer section of your refrigerator at 5 degrees. A separate freezer for long term storage should be kept at 0 degrees.
63. Run your dishwasher only when full and use the energy saving setting (light rather than heavy wash and air dry instead of heat).
64. Don’t pre-rinse dishes before loading them into the dishwasher.
65. Use cooking pots with lids to cook the food faster and cheaper and help decrease energy consumption by up to 30%.
66. Use pots and pans that match the size of burner you’re using to prevent wasting of heat.
67. Avoid opening the oven door when cooking, as it wastes heat and energy.
68. Don’t line oven racks with foil. This causes the oven to work overtime and it blocks heat flow.

69. 69.   Use the microwave instead of the oven, as it cooks faster and uses less energy.

70. Use a pressure cooker as it cuts cooking time and energy by 33%.
71. Compost food waste, etc. This reduces the amount of waste we send to landfills and burn sites.
72. Buy locally grown and produced food. The average meal in the United States travels 1,200 miles from the farm to your plate. Buying locally will save fuel and keep money in your community.
73. Seek out and support farmer’s markets.
74. Buy fresh foods intsead of frozen. Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce.
75. Buy organic foods as much as possible. Organic soils capture and store carbon dioxide at much higher levels than soils from conventional farms.
76. Have a vegetable garden in your own yard to grow your own produce.
77. Buy groceries, paper products, etc. in bulk whenever possible to decrease the number of trips to the store.
78. Use reusable cloth bags for grocery shopping instead of paper or plastic bags.
79. Replace the use of plastic wrap and aluminum foil with washable containers with lids.
80. Let your grass grow and don’t mow as often. The grass will do better if it grows to 2 1/2 inches at a time.
81. Compost or use the grass clippings as mulch instead of throwing them out.
82. Plant a tree. Trees help by storing carbon dioxide, provide shade, reduce energy bills and fossil fuel use. A single tree will absorb 1 ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.
83. Recycle rain water by collecting it and using to water your garden, etc.
84. Avoid heavily packaged products. You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.
85. Eat less meat. Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.
86. Use mass transit whenever possible. Think before you drive. Ride a bike, walk, and/or car pool whenever possible.
87. Start a carpool with your co-workers or classmates. Sharing a ride with someone just 2 days a week will reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 1,590 pounds a year.
88. Buy an energy efficient vehicle. (Hybrid is the most efficient currently) Each gallon of gas used, releases 25 pounds of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
89. Get your car tuned up on a regular basis and check your tires weekly to make sure they’re properly inflated. These actions will help limit the amount of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere.
90. Drive sensibly. Speeding, rapid acceleration and braking waste gasoline.
91. Buy good wood by checking the labels to indicate the source of the lumber. Supporting forests that are managed in a sustainable fashion makes sense for biodiversity and for the climate also.
92. Recycle all newspapers, magazines, junk mail, plastics, cans, and bottles. You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide a year by recycling half of the waste your household generates.
93. Buy recycled products. It takes less 70 to 90% less energy to make recycled paper and it prevents the loss of forests worldwide.
94. Refill each plastic water bottle for one week with tap water and use a filter, or better yet, don’t buy plastic water bottles at all.
95. Reusing things: find new life for items that would normally be thrown away.
96. Write or call legislators to encourage them to support legislation for renewable and new energy sources.
97. Write or call legislators to urge the U.S. to sign onto the Kyote Protocal.
98. Go see the documentary on global climate change, “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore.
99. Don’t ever think you’re not important to our Earth.
100. Start by doing ONE THING and you will be making a big difference.