Top 10 Ways to Live Green

1. Recy­cle
2. Turn down the thermostat
3. Turn off lights when leav­ing a room
4. Turn off the water when brush­ing your teeth
5. Unplug appli­ances and elec­tron­ics that are not fre­quently used
6. Wash laun­dry in cold water
7. When it’s time to replace the light bulb, switch to com­pact flu­o­res­cent bulbs
8. Drive less, walk/bike more
9. Bring your own bags with you to the store
10. Plant a tree!

Addi­tional Liv­ing Green Tips…

Check your tire pres­sure. Increase your gas mileage by keep­ing your tires prop­erly inflated.

Clean your lint fil­ter. Reduce fire haz­ard, increase dryer effi­ciency, and save money.

Use safe bot­tles. Opt for BPA-free bot­tles to avoid tox­ins in the body and in the environment.

Pay bills online. It’s usu­ally free, and you can sign up for email reminders so you won’t be late.

Unplug. 40% of the elec­tric­ity used to power home elec­tron­ics is con­sumed while they’re turned off.

Buy local. It’s fresher: Pro­duce shipped from out­side the coun­try trav­els up to two weeks before it arrives in gro­cery stores.

Exer­cise out­side. Gyms over­load on A/C, and most train­ing machines use elec­tric­ity too.

Light soy can­dles. The oil byprod­ucts in most can­dles can’t hold a flame to options like soy, since they burn longer and take less of a toll on the planet.

Com­post your garbage. Keep biodegrad­able food waste out of land­fills with easy in-home gadgets.

Use cloth nap­kins. It’s actu­ally cheaper to throw cloth nap­kins in the wash than to buy paper ones.

Drive effi­ciently. At 45mph and above, save gas by rolling your win­dows up and turn­ing on the fan for some fresh air.

Use reusable bags. Over 100 bil­lion plas­tic bags are thrown away every year.

Drink fil­tered tap water with a reusable water bot­tle. By switch­ing to fil­tered water from a faucet mount water fil­tra­tion sys­tem and a reusable bot­tle, each per­son can help save the planet from up to 3,200 plas­tic water bot­tles a year.

Go low-flow. Change your shower head, toi­let, and faucets to low-flow and still main­tain water pressure.

Cut the cat­a­logs. All those cat­a­logs require more than 53 mil­lion trees and 56 bil­lion gal­lons of waste­water to produce.

Give up paper tow­els. Wash­ing tow­els uses less energy.

Put on a sweater. Save money and energy by adding lay­ers rather than turn­ing up the heat.

Adjust your lawn mower. Longer grass retains water bet­ter so raise your lawn mower to a higher setting.

Use a rain bar­rel. These con­tain­ers col­lect nat­ural rain­wa­ter that you can use to water your gar­den & plants which do not require treated tap water.

Use green clean­ing prod­ucts. Less toxic and biodegradable.

Bike or walk. Save gas, save money & save the environment.

Turn off the A/C. Save energy by open­ing a win­dow or turn­ing on a fan.

Turn off water while brush­ing. Turn­ing off the water between rinses can save at least two gal­lons in one brush­ing session.

Take shorter show­ers. Help to save money & con­serve water.

Use a clothes­line. Turn off the dryer, your clothes will smell fresh and look beautiful.

Wash laun­dry in cold water. Hot water requires more energy.

Use Energy Star prod­ucts. Choose bet­ter effi­ciency when upgrad­ing appliances.

Use Com­pact Flu­o­res­cent Light Bulbs. Bet­ter light using less energy.

Turn off the lights. Make a habit of turn­ing off the light every time you leave a room.

Put out­side lights on a timer. More reli­able and will save energy.

Replace fil­ters. Clean and replace air fil­ters regularly.

Add insu­la­tion to your house. To help pre­vent heat loss.

Use a push mower. No pol­lu­tion PLUS a free workout!

Brown bag your lunch. Carry in a reusable sack with wash­able utensils.

Email. Com­mu­ni­cate more effi­ciently and save the trees.

Donate or recy­cle equip­ment. Com­put­ers, phones and office equip­ment can all be recycled.

Use recharge­able bat­ter­ies.

Install solar pan­els. Heat your home the nat­ural way.

Shrink your car­bon foot­print. Make changes at home to reduce your use of fos­sil fuels.

Water respon­si­bly. Water your lawn only in the AM or PM using a soaker hose con­nected to your rain bar­rel, not dur­ing the day when it evaporates.

Fill it up before turn­ing it on. Wash only full loads of laun­dry and dishes.

Change to reusable cof­fee fil­ters. Change from paper to reusable filters.

Bring your own cof­fee cup. If you pre­fer to buy your cof­fee out, bring your own cup.

Don’t let it drip! Save water by fix­ing leaky pipes.

Turn off your screen saver. Save energy by turn­ing off your monitor’s power but­ton when you step away from the computer.

Share a ride. Take pub­lic trans­porta­tion or car­pool when possible.

Cruise Con­trol. Drive at a more con­sis­tent speed and save fuel.

Slow down. Reduc­ing your speed saves gas.

Upgrade your ther­mo­stat. Take con­trol of the tem­per­a­ture with a pro­gram­ma­ble thermostat.

Apply weath­er­strip­ping to doors and win­dows. Cre­at­ing a tight seal will keep heat and air con­di­tion­ing inside.

Choose hand pow­ered or elec­tric tools. Bet­ter for you, bet­ter for the environment.

Walk the golf course. Get extra exer­cise and reduce the car­bon foot­print of your hobby. If you have to ride, stay on the path and share a cart with sev­eral other golfers.

Use nat­ural fer­til­iz­ers. These release nutri­ents slowly and are bet­ter for the envi­ron­ment. Con­sider mak­ing your own with a com­post bin.

Wear sun­glasses. Reduc­ing sun expo­sure can help reduce the chance of cataracts and other eye damage.

Clean out the dryer lint. Save energy and improve efficiency.

Reuse bot­tles. Find another pur­pose for old bot­tles before recy­cling, such as mak­ing a rain gauge with your child.

Use both sides of the paper. At the office re-purpose old doc­u­ments and scrap paper.

Reduce employee travel. Uti­lize video­con­fer­enc­ing and other tech solu­tions for meetings.

Use matches instead of lighters. Card­board matches are more eco-friendly.

Stop paper state­ments. Many banks and other com­pa­nies now offer elec­tronic statements.

Use a broom instead of a hose to clean your dri­ve­way and side­walk and save water every time.

Col­lect the water you use for rins­ing fruits and veg­eta­bles, then reuse it to water houseplants.

When clean­ing out fish tanks, give the nutrient-rich water to your plants.

Col­lect water from your roof to water your garden.

Soak don’t rinse. Soak pots and pans instead of let­ting the water run while you scrape them clean.

Recir­cu­late. Make sure your swim­ming pools, foun­tains, and ponds are equipped with recir­cu­lat­ing pumps.

Insu­late hot water pipes for more imme­di­ate hot water at the faucet and for energy savings.

Wash Spot out­side. Wash your pets out­doors in an area of your lawn that needs water, but make sure the soap does not run down the storm drain into the stream.

Reuse plas­tic zip­per bags. Just wash them out in your dish water and hang to dry before their sec­ond, third, or fifti­eth use.

Reduce your lunch foot­print. Pack your lunch or left­overs in a reusable con­tainer, not a dis­pos­able bag.