Tip 6: A Paperless Lifestyle

With Earth Day right around the corner, it's a perfect time to try out a paperless lifestyle. Not only will you stop the senseless slaughtering of defenseless trees but you'll save money too.

Try some of the tips below to reduce paper usage in your daily life. The environment will thank you.

• Paper Bills - Opt to get as many of your household bills like credit cards, electricity, phone, Internet, etc., e-mailed to you. This will also minimize the time and energy you spend sitting in front of the shredder.
• Printing - Whether you're at home or work, stop and think twice before you hit the print button. You'll save yourself and the company you work for some money.
• Paper Cups - Don't add to landfill waste by using paper cups at home or at work. Instead use your own mug or drinking glass that you can wash and reuse.
• Paper Towels - Instead of using paper towels, be more Eco-friendly and use dish towel that can be washed and used again.
• Catalog Shopping - Cancel those catalogs that you get in the mail and do more shopping online. I can hear the trees thanking you already.
• Shopping Bags - Invest in reusable grocery bags instead of coming home with an arm full of paper bags. Just think of all the space you'll have because you won't be folding and storing bags.

For more green tips stop by The Green Guide.

Tip 7: Green Appliances

There are several ways to make your home and life more green and energy efficient. This ranges from the kinds of materials you use for house cleaning to the items you throw away or recycle. However, the biggest sources of energy consumption in our day-to-day routines comes from the appliances we use around the house. Here are a few tips about electrical appliances, whether you're on the market for new ones or looking to make your current items more energy efficient.

Water Heaters

Water heaters account for about 1/5 of your total monthly energy consumption, so anyway that you can lower the amount of energy it uses is helpful. Less hot water is the key. A few ways you can do this are by simply conserving the amount of hot water you use by doing things like taking shorter showers, or you can install new shower heads that limit the amount of water that comes through. Another useful home remedy is to turn down the thermostat on your hot water heater down to 120-130 degrees, lowering the overall temperature.

Refrigerator/Freezer

Your refrigeration and freezer units are two big culprits in the energy consumption game. Why is that? Well, mostly because they're always on. After the AC and the water heater, the refrigerator is the largest energy hog in your house.

With that in mind, make sure to get an ENERGY STAR product, to know that what you have ranks well for energy efficiency. In addition, a top-and-bottom refrigerator/freezer combo is much more tame with energy use than a side-by-side unit. On average, side-by-side units consume a good bit more electricity.

Washer and Dryer

Once again, an ENERGY STAR washer is definitely the way to go. Beyond that, though, front loading washers and dryers can cut your energy use for those machines by as much as half. Washing with cold water can further cut down on what it takes to clean your clothes.

When it comes to drying, however, finding a machine with moisture sensors can really cut down on your unnecessary drying time, as the machine will shut off when it senses that the clothes are already dry. In the end, though, the most energy efficient way to dry your clothes is a good old fashioned clothesline in the backyard.

Air Conditioning

This is the number one energy consumer in the household. The best way to conserve energy when dealing with an air conditioner is to use ceiling fans regularly, as well as regularly replacing air filters.

Many times, it's the amount of off/on usage that the air conditioner unit has that drives up the dollars. Turning the AC off when you're not at home can do wonders on the monthly bill. In addition, during the winter, switching ceiling fans to reverse so they pull up cold air can save some money. 

Hopefully these tips can help any of you out there looking for new appliances for your household, or just looking to shave some cash off of each bill. For more detailed information about home appliances and their energy consumption, be sure to check out Green Living Ideas and Mother Earth News.

Whole Foods Challenges You to Make a Green Change

As part of their effort to educate Americans on how saving money can also save the planet, Whole Foods Market has teamed up with Bosch Home Appliances, a 2009 Energy Star Partner of the Year, for a 30-day call-to-action campaign to reinforce the idea that environmental responsibility can go hand in hand with economic recovery.

“Make a Green Change” is part of the U.S. Department of Energy's national Energy Star “Make a Cool Change” effort. During the month of April, Whole Foods stores will be Earth Month Action Centers. People who visit the stores will be encouraged to take home a free Make a Green Change: 30 Ways in 30 Days calendar, which was created to encourage one lifestyle change per day during Earth Month that can save money and better protect the environment for the whole year and beyond.

The calendar invites customers to visit Whole Foods’ Web site for more eco tips. It also features an Energy Star savings calculator to show how much their fridge costs to run compared with an Energy Star model. You can also enter to win a variety of earth-friendly prizes, including a brand new Bosch Evolution ENERGY STAR^® qualified refrigerator stocked with goodies from Whole Foods.You can also test your green knowledge to find out just how eco-savvy you really are, and learn some new tips for improving your own conservation habits.

Tip 8: Green Eating

Eco eating anyone? In the name of eating healthy and being a bit more environmentally conscious, I've dug up some interesting tips on how to grub down a little greener. Best part is, you can certainly save a few dollars by adjusting your grocery shopping habits.

Here are some green eating tips to get you started:

• Shop weekly and plan you meals ahead of time. This helps eliminate food waste that comes with shopping in bulk, and will also help you plan and cook weekly meals with fresher ingredients versus boxed foods.
• Eat organic: You're helping eliminate chemical pesticides, reducing the impact on local land and water and eliminating overly processed foods from your diet. Win, win and more win.
• Reduce your consumption of boxed foods. Excess packaging is never good for the environment, considering landfills are already teeming with plastics and other waste, and not all packaging materials you find at the store are recyclable.
• Shop at the local farmers market, where you're cutting down on packaging, the negative climate impact of transporting said goods and also supporting local farming.
• Reducing meat consumption lowers the impact on the local ecosystem, namely the water and grain it requires to produce meat for the market. If you are a meat eater, try to focus on organic meats that aren't loaded with antibiotics and hormones, all of which are harmful to both the body and the land the animals are raised on.
• Cook just enough to consume, reuse and eat leftovers.
• Focus on the core, essential ingredients such as green veggies, eggs, grains, etc. to mix and match and create healthy, fresh meals.
• Eliminate wasteful cooking habits—use only as much water as needed and focus on dishes that can cook simultaneously with fewer ingredients to help reduce energy consumption.

There are a plenty of additional green and healthy eating tips out there. Our energy conservation section is loaded with green tips. For addition green eating nuggets, I would suggest also checking out Tree Hugger, Whole Foods and one of my personal faves, Noshtopia.

Tip 9: Reducing Wasteful Water Habits

In the spirit of the approaching Earth Day, and in addition to being a bit greener in general, I've dug some great tips on reducing wasteful water practices. Obviously the environment will thank you kindly, but your banking account could seem a bit more robust as well. Who knew being green could save you some green?

• Check all piping in your home for leaks (toilet, faucets, water heater).
• Reduce warm and hot-water washing by using cold cycles instead. I've previously mentioned reducing the cost of laundry in Saving Energy and Cutting Costs at Home.
• Focus on reducing the core wasteful practices—flushing the toilet repeatedly or throwing trash into said toilet, leaving the faucet running while brushing teeth or washing face, longer showers, etc.
• For the men out there, go traditional with your shaving routine. I heat water in a cup before shaving so that I'm not running the faucet throughout the process of making myself mantacular.
• Wash full loads of dishes and clothes to reduce the number of weekly washes.
• Mulch around trees, bushes and flower beds to help absorb run-off and slow evaporation. See natural lawn care tips for more information on watering in an eco-friendly manner.

For more green tips and advice at home, work and more, see our section on energy conservation.

Tip 10: Jump on that Green Bandwagon

For those of us who have not gotten on the green bandwagon and are wanting to cut expenses in light of the economic downturn, now’s the perfect time. Here are some ways to kick start an environmentally friendly lifestyle while saving money.

• Decrease paper towel use. Yes, I know this sounds difficult to the liberal paper towel users out there, including myself. The trick is to keep a clean rag in easy-to-reach places at all times and remove those paper towels from sight. The best part is you don’t have to buy new rags, just make some by cutting old t-shirts into squares.
• Print only when necessary. We’re all guilty of pushing the print button repeatedly without much thought. Take 10 seconds to evaluate if what you’re about to print absolutely needs to be on paper. You’ll save money and trees for every page that’s spared.
• Reuse plastic bags. There are many second uses for plastic bags. My favorite is to reuse them as trash bags, which my parents are infamous for amongst friends and relatives. I don’t remember them ever dolling out money for trash bags!
• Carpool to work. Chances are that you have at least one co-worker who lives in your area. By taking turns driving to work, you’ll lower your carbon footprint and cut your monthly gas expense by half.

For more information on the green ways of life, visit Green Energy Choice Green Guide and Treehugger.

Tick, Tock...Earth Day is A-Coming!

Who wants to have a huge carbon footprint on Earth Day? Certainly not us, and you shouldn’t either. Starting tomorrow, we will begin counting down the days to Earth Day with tips on how you can greenify your life. Each day we'll give you an Earth friendly tip, anything from going paperless to save trees to ways to conserve on energy. And if we have a electricity or other provider that can help you get that tip done, we’ll let you know about that too!

By April 22 (Earth Day for the uninitiated), you'll have 10 things you can do to be more green and do your part to save your planet.

Oh, and if you have tips yourself, submit them to blog@whitefence.com. If they are good enough, we’ll post them too.

From Plastic-Efficient to Boxed Water Bottles

I remember when Ozarka redesigned their water bottles to the more ergonomic and slender version to reduce plastic use. I was stoked! I loved the curvy, more feminine design. Shortly after, Nestle followed suit as has Pepsico’s Aquafina last week.

Some companies have taken the revamp of bottled water to another level. Now how’s this for innovation? A startup called Boxed Water is Better creates boxed containers for water. Their claim is that 90% of their containers are made of renewable resources, trees, and can be recycled more easily than plastic.

We’re very familiar with boxed milk. This gets me wondering, now why didn’t I think of boxed water? Visit Boxed Water Is Better for more information.

Environmental Cleanup Finds Funding Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Conservationists have to be happy at all the hustle and bustle going on at the Department of Energy. Energy Secretary Chu just announced that $6 billion will be set aside for environmental cleanup projects across numerous states, with the funding coming directly from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The funding will create cleanup projects across 12 states that are estimated to produce thousands of jobs in the process, though the data is premature at this point. The official DOE release charts each state's funding and subsequent projects that are on the docket.

Details:
Energy Secretary Chu Announces $6 Billion in Recovery Act Funding for Environmental Cleanup

Can Energy be Stored?

I always thought of energy as a commodity that was generated and immediately dispersed to consumers. But today I found out it can actually be stored to be used at a later date. In fact, it's a good way for companies to have a more reliable power grid.

How do you store energy you ask? Well there are a few ways including storing unused air in an unused salt mine. When energy is needed the air is release and combined with natural gas to spin a turbine.

Read Store Power in Super Batteries to learn more about how cities can store energy.