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Quarter 4, 2009 Contents
Greening Your Business Greening Your Business newsletter is a quarterly e-newsletter containing stories, resources and ideas for established businesses that details how you can reduce their environmental impact. This newsletter serves those looking for ways to modify corporate attitude for reducing carbon footprint – a corporate "grass-roots" movement, if you will. Visit our website at Greening YourBusiness.com to connect with other subscribers. We are always interested in new green solutions and the progress of your green business. |
Uncommon ways to "Go Green" in your home by Jennifer Ross It's time to take the next step. Recycling paper and plastic is commendable, but there are many other ways we can recycle or cut energy waste in our own homes that are easy and cost effective. We all know about using rechargeable batteries and installing programmable thermostats. Here are just a few of the other things I do in my own household to be more green. First and foremost, pare down, but don't throw things away just yet! Think about the last time you had to move. It was a daunting task, wasn't it? The shear amount of stuff we accumulate over a lifetime is absurd. And where does it all go? Not to be morbid, but we can't take it with us, so a lot of it will end up in the trash after family has taken what they'd like to keep. So nip it in the bud. Start with forcing yourself to stop buying things on impulse. Make lists before shopping and stick to them. Go through the closets and the basement and weed out the things that are getting worse for wear or that haven't been used in the last six months. Instead of throwing things away, see that they get another use. For example, take clothes and shoes to a consignment store, or donate them to Goodwill or a homeless shelter. Take items that you'd normally toss, such as old bedding, towels, blankets and rugs to your local animal shelter where they can be used to make the animals more comfortable. And for larger items like furniture, put them on Craigslist to either sell or give away for free. Craigslist is a great resource. I had a few items that I was afraid I'd have to throw out, but then I found a man on Craigslist that comes out and picks up junk metal items, strips them down and recycles them. For free, he picked up an old plastic coated closet organizer, a broken weight bench and a broken window unit air conditioner and recycled these things that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Another great way to have a greener home is to make your own laundry detergent. It's easy and more affordable, at about ten cents a load. Simply Google a recipe for either a powder or a liquid detergent and follow the steps. This is also a great thing to do if you or anyone in your home has allergies to perfume additives, since there aren't any. There is much less detergent required to wash a load than there is using store bought brands, and when a batch is made, it lasts for over a year. And as a fabric softener, plain old distilled white vinegar is incredible. It keeps whites white and amazingly, darks dark, since it doesn't leave residue in the clothes like fabric softeners tend to do. The third tip is to cook in bulk. It takes quite a bit of energy to heat the oven, so take one day or evening and do your baking for the week. This way, the stove doesn't have to cool down and then reheat all over again the next day. Not to mention, it's very nice to come home and not have to cook an entire meal every night. Making your home greener doesn't necessarily mean you have to live uncomfortably, or spend a ton of money on things like solar panels. There are many, many ways easy and inexpensive ways to do our parts to clean up this world for future generations. We just have to be willing to make the change. |
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