In an effort to reduce their carbon footprints, many people today are taking measures to turn the home into a pleasurable, energy-efficient, “green” haven. However, while great strides are being made on the home front, there is still so much more that can be done to conserve energy and protect the future environment for everyone. That is why it’s equally important to keep a “green” mindset at work. The article below discusses some of the easiest ways you can “go green” at your workplace.

One of the ways that you can help reduce waste is to think about your paper usage, particularly if you work in an office where this material is heavily used. Make an effort to re-use printed materials that are no longer needed by using them for scrap paper. There is no reason to jot down notes on fresh pieces of paper that are just going to be tossed in the trash.

If your office does not have a paper recycling program, suggest one to your boss. This is not only a way to cut down on the amount of paper used, but if your company is a heavy user, it may be able to receive monetary compensation for the paper. The company may also receive money for recycling cardboard. This can really add up if a lot of shipped items are received at your workplace.

Don’t stop at just recycling paper products, though. Many items can be recycled, including ink and toner cartridges, e-waste and metals. Batteries and newer light bulbs can also be recycled. And don’t forget the obvious. Tell your coworkers to stop throwing away those empty soda cans and plastic water bottles. Those alone contribute to a lot of waste each year. If no one wants to do the actual recycling, many cities will be glad to take them because they will recycle them to raise funds for the local community.

Use “green” materials to begin with by purchasing supplies made of recycled substances. This would include the paper you are using and all lunchroom supplies. Plastic forks, knives, spoons, cups and paper towels are all available from businesses that use recycled materials to produce them.

Bring all food to work in reusable containers that also double as tableware, and bring your own cutlery too. That way, you won’t need to use those plastic utensils and foam plates in the break room. You can just wash your items out when lunch is over and use them again the next day.

Get everyone on board. Share your “going green” at the workplace plan with everyone, and have them make suggestions for additional ways to help the cause. Your boss may have some great ideas too. You may just be surprised at who has the next great “green” idea.

Applying these simple tips will go a long way in “going green” at the workplace. People should be mindful of ways they can curb carbon footprints no matter where they are. This mindset is contagious, and others will follow suit. You’ll be working “greener” sooner than you think.

Even though you are not likely going around your life with a fat wallet, that does not mean that you cannot be greener in your life. As a matter of fact, certain green lifestyle habits can help you thicken your wallet or purse. The following paragraphs have a number of ideas that you can use to be friendlier to the environment, regardless of your budget.

Recycle everything you possibly can from your home. Ideally, you could get to a point where you never put anything in a trash can or dumpster. If you are in an urban or suburban location, your local government likely has a recycling program you can use for most if not all of the packaging of things that you buy. Anything that is paper can also probably be recycled. Furniture and clothing, even if damaged, can possibly get donated, traded or sold through a consignment store. Food waste should be composted, because when you start your own gardening, you save money on food and get something from your food waste.

The next time that you need to buy light bulbs, look for ones that are energy efficient. The bulbs out now can actually last you years instead of weeks or months. Not only do they save you from buying more bulbs more often, they are so low wattage that you are going to notice a difference on your power bill.

Reconsider how you do laundry. If you sell both your washer and dryer, you should be able to afford an energy efficient washing machine and still have some money left over. Do all the laundry you can in cold water to save more on your power bill and then just forego the dryer in lieu of air drying.

If you are like most, you probably pay a little attention to national news and none at all to local, regional or state news. Change that, because there are probably local energy incentives you can take advantage of. For instance, in some areas, the tax breaks and grants given at multiple layers of government for going solar add up so much that it does not make financial sense not to do it. Find out the opportunities out there below the conventional radar and take advantage of them.

When you can go green, you are going to have more confidence and self-esteem about yourself, regardless of how much money you have. When you apply these ideas to your life over the long term, you are going to make a friendly impact on the environment and also have the benefit of probably saving yourself some money too. In the long run, you might even generate enough savings to go fully renewable in your residential power generation. Then, you can start making money from your efforts by selling your surplus energy to your local power utility.

Keep in mind all of these ideas as you move through the coming days. Go green whenever you can, and you might just see some green coming to you.

When most individuals hear the phrase “going green” in conversation or the media, a number of ideas, concepts and scenes come to the forefront of their mind. Going green is far more than doing basic recycling or being nice a tree in your yard. Read on into the following paragraphs for frequently asked questions about going green.

What exactly does going green mean? Going green is deliberately taking any action (or inaction) that helps you reduce the damage your lifestyle makes to the global environment. In some cases, it might even be taking steps that improve them. It can be anything from turning off lights in rooms you are not in to flat out installing renewable energy sources on your property and living off of the power grid. Anytime you buy a more fuel efficient car or plant a tree to capture carbon emissions, you are going green.

Recycling waste is a large part of going green, as it prevents land from being used for landfill use and keeps trash from winding up in the woods or ocean. So much waste has wound up in the ocean that there is now a patch of floating garbage in the Pacific the size of several states. Recycling all available waste, either through local collection programs or composting is a huge step in minimizing impact on the environment.

Using less polluting energy sources is another key aspect to moving towards a greener world. The burning of oil and coal emits serious levels of pollution into the atmosphere, which then affects the entire planet. Nuclear power and natural gas are by and far much cleaner, although there is still some pollution from natural gas and leftover radioactive waste from nuclear plants needing storage.

There are power sources that have absolutely no pollution from them. These include solar, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric. Solar and wind are certainly the purest forms of energy, although the installation costs are high, and they are weather dependent. Wind turbines also sometimes kill birds. Hydroelectric can run around the clock, but done on too large a scale, it can have a serious environmental impact on the rivers that it dams up. Geothermal might actually be the one that can brag about having no environmental impact, but the terrain possibilities are limited as to its installation.

Environmentalists dream of a day when the world can go completely green, or at least even individual nations. This will take time however. So long as fossil fuels and dirty sources of energy are cheaper than clean ones, certain sectors of the global economy will continue to use them, hurting the air and water the entire planet shares.

When anyone talks about turning the modern world into a sustainable one, they are hoping for a planet where everyone’s standard of living can be maintained or even raised, but not at the expense of depriving future generations of natural resources, pure air and clean water. Green energy sources are certainly a large part of that but so is recycling and energy efficiency. Keep all these ideas in mind the next time you hear someone talk about going green.

Five Things You Have To Figure Out Before Going Solar

When you dream about going green with your home, you probably close your eyes and imagine replacing your entire roof with the latest and greatest solar technology. You envision not only powering your home off of the sun during the day, but storing so much in your batteries you can party into the night off the free power and even sell some back to the power company to make money yourself. However, before this dream can actually become a reality, you need to ask yourself five key questions regarding going solar with your home.

1. Are you able to afford getting into this? Solar panel technology is not inexpensive. The equipment and material alone is pricey. However, there are secondary costs to consider like the contractors and labor that will modify your home, as well as possibly building permits, inspections, fees and new insurance premiums or rates. To your advantage though, is the possibility of both government grants and tax breaks.

2. Are you sure you are going to generate that much money or electricity? The thought of powering your whole home from solar and selling excess juice to your hopefully former utility is not something that many residents can actually achieve. Not all utilities are interested in buying surplus power when it comes in such small increments and uncertain timings. Also, is your home in the right place, geographically and also by elevation and climate, to harness enough solar power to make it worth it? Do what you can using local research to calculate how much power you will get to figure out just how long it will take for your solar panels to pay you back for their installation.

3. Can you even do it while staying in the good grace of your community? Does your homeowner’s insurance allow you to install solar panels? You also have to check any deeds or restrictions that came with your property purchase, check with your neighborhood community association and look into municipal building codes.

4. Is there enough space to actually put in solar panels? If your home is rather large, then there should be enough roofing to have both the right angle towards the sun with ample surface area for adequate paneling. If your physical home is not large enough, can you use part of your yard?

5. Who is going to do it? Are you skilled enough in the technical knowledge required to handle solar technology but also enough of a contractor or construction professional to handle the alterations to your home? Or, are you going to wind up calling in professionals from both industries to do this for you.

When you ask yourself these five questions, you can start getting a good idea about whether or not you are truly ready and prepared for making use of solar energy where you live. Make no assumptions in your answers, and even have someone you live with go over this with you to make sure that you are honest and realistic with yourself about this possibility. Apply your answers to your deliberations, and you can find out if solar is right for you.

The growing concern for the overall planetary environment, as well as the deepening worries over energy costs, have all boosted the consumer demand for sustainable ways we can all live and work. The dream is that our money, standard of living and environment would all coexist in peace. A lot of attention is paid to applications of renewable sources of energy. The following paragraphs discuss five such applications that you might not know about.

Tidal power is something that certain coastal locations around the globe are investigating and in some cases using. The constant movement of waves in and out mean serious volumes of water going back and forth. While this is visible on any beach, the real power is just further out underneath the water. Some islands in the Pacific have started laying out the infrastructure to use this for their power instead of running a dirty generator.

Solar power has made some serious strides to being accessible by every day consumers. Solar panels that power entire homes on a massive basis still seem elusive, but solar options for everything from cooking to heating water have gotten very popular. In some areas, it is actually getting difficult to find outdoor lighting that is not solar powered.

Wind power does not get a lot of attention on a national level, so most do not know that they can actually use it on their home. Turbines have gotten small enough that you can put some on your roof! These can power part or even all of your home when enough air is moving.

Geothermal energy is incredibly clean and does not rely on the weather. The investment cost and set up can be high, and areas with tectonic activity are not good choices. However, in locations where it is an option, large scale geothermal operations run water down far enough to get boiled by the Earth’s heat. The steam comes back up and powers a generator for electricity production. On a smaller scale, individual properties, including residential homes, can not likely get water to boil, but they can get it warm enough that it can provide hot water for bathing and appliances and even maybe for house heat.

Nuclear power is something that did not see any activity for several decades following the accidents of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. However, reactors are incredibly safer than they used to be, and some new plants are finally in the process of being prepared. Aside from the issues of waste storage and minor amounts of thermal pollution, nuclear power is as clean a power source as you can ever hope for in terms of fission reactors. There is still research into fusion reactors, which would run from hydrogen and supply all the energy the world would ever need.

Consumers at both the individual and corporate levels alike are really starting to take to heart the power and advantages that renewable energy offers both the environment and the economy. As new methods or harnessing these resources are made practical, the world becomes a greener and more sustainable place to live.

A lot of people are adopting more environmentally friendly ways of living at home. Turning off lights and appliances when not in use and cutting down on driving and recycling whenever possible are all actions that can be taken by everyone. The same mindset can be transferred to the workplace. Read this article for some ideas on how you can start the green movement at work.

If you have a strong desire to make a difference at work, propose the idea to your employer. You may be surprised to find that they may have a program in place already. If not, see if your employer is agreeable to promoting environmentally friendly work practices. All it takes is an email sent out to all employees with some suggestions on conserving energy. You may even suggest the formation of a committee of employees to put together some kind of formal program that all employees can participate in.

One good way to start going green at work is by reducing the amount of paper used everyday. Report drafts and work in progress do not need to be printed out. If someone else needs to look at it, it can simply be sent by email. Reducing the amount of paper used is good for the environment. It cuts down on clutter on your desk, and it can save the company a lot of money in the long run.

The typical office building uses a lot of interior lighting. Frequently, the lights go on early before anyone gets to the office, and they stay on late at night. Granted, the lighting at night is probably needed by the custodial services, but at that time, only half the lighting is really warranted. Avoid turning on any office lights that you are are using. If you have no control over the lighting, contact the building manager to see if any adjustments can be made to reduce the number of lights used during the day. In addition to light, turn off all computer equipment, including printers, fax machines, etc.

There are many things that you can recycle at work besides paper. Bottles and cans accumulate quickly during the day. See if your building manager can provide recycle containers for cans and bottles, and ask them to be placed at convenient locations that people have access to. Toner cartridges can be recycled. Old office equipment can be recycled as well. There are services that come around regularly to pick up old equipment for recycling, so explore those options.

If possible, take public transportation to work a couple of times a week. Driving less will save the air. Get together with co-workers and form a carpool a couple of times a week. Encourage them to join you in the effort to go green at the office.

Going green at work will benefit the environment, and it can save the company money in utility bills. Set an example for your colleagues, and show them how easy it can be. Before you know it, you may be able to start a positive, green trend at your workplace.