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2009 Green Tips
Business Green Tips
- Instead of handouts at your meeting, consider using a projector for presentations
to save on paper. - Find a home for unwanted, but reusable business items at BC Industrial Materials Exchange.
- Give premium parking spots to your staff members who commute together in a car pool.
- At work offer a prize for the best suggestions for reducing your business waste.
- Measure how much waste you throw away each week, and set realistic goals at reducing it.
- Ask staff to point out any waste in the office that could be prevented.
- Consider e-billing or sending invoices by e-mail.
- How about billing clients quarterly it will reduce the amount of paper used for invoices and envelopes.
- Make sure you have a complete recycling program in your office or place of business.
- Replace garbage bins in the office with recycling bins, and centralize your garbage bin.
- Turn off the light after you leave your office.
- Turning off your computer at night and on weekends saves approx. $100 per year in power bills
Home Green Tips
- Lower your thermostat at night, or when not home, and save on electricity and reduce C-O-2 emissions.
- Buying a pre programmable thermostat will save you money, and will save you from remembering to turn down the heat.
Washing your clothes in cold water can save you money, and reduce your carbon out put. - Replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones can help lower your annual electricity bill.
- Turning down the heat a bit on your hot water heater can save you money on utility bills.
- Updated showerheads and water faucets can reduce your hot water consumption.
- Shorten your shower time by a minute, and switch off your computer when not in use.
- Turn down your thermostat by four degrees at night, and when you’re not at home.
- Get rid of your old second fridge through BC Hydro’s Refrigerator Buy Back program.
- Install a programmable thermostat to automatically reduce your heat at night and when not at home.
- Ceiling fans can blow cool air downwards in the Summer, and circulate warm air in the Winter.
- Upgrade to a laptop computer, since it uses almost 90 percent less energy than desktops.
- Plant leafy trees near your house to help shade and cool your home in the summer.
- The lint from your dryer is recyclable too, put it in your compost bin and watch it biodegrade.
- Upgrade to a highly efficient variable speed furnace, which are designed to optimize your electricity consumption.
- Install an insulating blanket on an older water heater, or a low flow showerhead to save money.
- When looking to buy a new TV, be sure it bears the Energy Star logo.
- Fix that drip from your leaky tap. You’re wasting hundreds of litres of water each month if you don’t.
- By caulking, or weather stripping cracks, gaps and leaks around walls, windows, and doors, you’ll save energy.
- Clean and change furnace filters regularly. They’ll keep your furnace at peak efficiency.
- Home heating makes up about sixty percent of your energy costs. Keep your furnace well tuned.
- Donate your gently used runners to Shoe4Africa, to help needy African school kids.
- Cell phones and M-P-3 players should be recycled to keep heavy metals out of the landfill.
- Ensure batteries are disposed of properly. Most municipalities and some retailers have battery recycling programs.
- Many eyeglass stores and optometrists collect, refurbish, and distribute used glasses to third world countries.
- Packaging from your latest purchase can be recycled locally. Plastic bottles and bags are turned into polyester fibres.
- Donate your unused mountain bike to Bicycles for Humanity, who ship them to needy people in Namibia.
- Recycle your old bike tires, and they’ll be turned into running tracks, rubber products and roofing.
For more Green Tips, click here to download the PDF documents
Green Tips, as heard on CKWX News1130