Surprising stats on going green
With the current economic climate, recent Presidential election and increasing concerns over global warming, going green has become the topic du jour. Unfortunately, many think switching your life around to be more eco-friendly is a hassle and maintaining the status quo isn’t that harmful. Kim Carlson, eco-chic lifestyle expert, green business owner and author of Green Your Work: Boost Your Bottom Line While Reducing Your Eco-Footprint offers these surprising stats and tips on the “basics” of being green.
Surprising Stat – The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years. Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam coffee cups every year, and about 40 billion soft drink cans and bottles every year. Placed end to end, they would reach to the moon and back nearly 20 times.
Kim’s Tips
· Eighty-four percent of a typical household’s waste–including food scraps, yard waste, paper, cardboard, cans, and bottles–can be recycled. If your office or home doesn’t have a recycling bin available to you create one with a special trashcan, or even a recycled paper bag from the grocery store. It makes a bigger difference than you think – for example, using recycled paper for one print run of the Sunday edition of the New York Times would save 75,000 trees and if every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25 million trees a year.
Surprising Stat – Each gallon of gas used by a car contributes about 19 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. For a single car driving 1,000 miles a month, that adds up to 120 tons of CO2 a year.
Kim’s Tips
· Telecommute, talk to your boss and see if working from home one day a week is an option. Not only will it save the environment, but it will cut down on office heating costs and electricity if everyone is out one day a week.
· Carpool. While not everyone is a morning person, it can be surprisingly fun to share the commute with others. Select one person to get coffee, one person to create a morning playlist and the other to drive.
· Get up and go. If you live close enough try walking or riding your bike. Not only is it completely green but you’ll get a mini-workout.
Surprising Stat - America’s refrigerators use about 7 percent of the nation’s total electricity consumption–the output of about 25 large power plants. By turning the heat down, Americans could save more than 500,000 barrels of oil each day–that’s over 21,000,000 gallons.
Kim’s Tips
· Turn down your heat, bundle up and break out the blankets. Not only will you cut your carbon footprint, but you’ll save a lot of money in the cool months ahead.
· Unplug appliances and turn off power strips when you’re not using them. This will cut your electricity costs and save energy.
By implementing these simple tips and becoming more aware of these surprising everyday stats, we can limit our carbon footprint and start living the eco-chic life!
Fun fact! Aly Walansky wrote this story just for you on November 17th, 2008 |
November 17th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Thanks, already incorporated most of these into my lifestyle, although I will admit one is by force and not by choice! (let’s just NYC apartment, already cold, very little heat, NOT my choice!)
November 17th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
[...] Surprising stats on going green SheKnows.com, AZ - Nov 17, 2008 Telecommute, talk to your boss and see if working from home one day a week is an option. Not only will it save the environment, but it will cut down on … [...]
November 19th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
SUV’s arg… my biggest pet peeve is seeing all the “SAHMs” drive around in the big suburban’s during the day ALONE.
You mentioned the most important car-green tip – Car Pool! Mini put together some green/fun scores for your car and you can find out what your carbon footprint is at http://www.carfunfootprint.com.
I also found a few more green-motoring tips to share,
Do not drive with a lead foot.
Decrease your speed except when running late for that pedicure appt.
Do not carry unnecessary weight. That does not include ejecting your MIL.
Save fuel by using cruise control.
My favorite! LEAVE IT TO THE PROS. Taking your car to a commercial car wash can
actually be better for the environment than washing at home. Several
commercial car washes use recycled water, and on average can use less
than half the water than washing at home.
December 11th, 2008 at 3:43 am
Hi Dear,
This is exellent post , it’s amazing . Thanks for writing this topic , with so many details .Very useful ,that’s why . I keep you in my RSS reader.
December 11th, 2008 at 4:06 am
Hey, thanks a lot for the information post .You have very good blog . I have wondering if you make money from pay per post too? I heard that is not bad for a good page rank blog.
December 11th, 2008 at 4:07 am
Hey , I finally decided to write a comment on your blog . I just wanted to say good job . I really enjoy reading your posts.
December 11th, 2008 at 4:09 am
Hey , you have a very good blog, its excellent information in its field. You have done a great job, keep doing it for to help, people like Myself. I read many blogs earlier about this topic. But I never found complete information earlier, but your blog is giving real information. I also have several WordPress blogs. And in my experience social bookmarking, article submission and press release submission is way to quickly quickly get my blog posts spidered and am on page one of Google many times in a few hours .
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 pm
[...] Surprising stats on going green SheKnows.com, AZ - Nov 17, 2008 Telecommute, talk to your boss and see if working from home one day a week is an option. Not only will it save the environment, but it will cut down on … [...]
January 5th, 2009 at 7:33 am
Hi,
This is very interesting blog . I just wanted to say thanks you for writing and giving your knowledge to such an informative helpful blog.
So thanks!
February 25th, 2009 at 1:28 am
Hmm, very cognitive post.
Is this theme good unough for the Digg?
March 1st, 2009 at 8:07 am
Great post , really like the way you write
Looking to read more from you
April 4th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
sfaugb zgrwajf ohrkdqs wgihda hdxfk nltxefi ofqhwsydk
June 4th, 2009 at 8:18 am
da best. Keep it going! Thank you
June 21st, 2009 at 3:23 am
love it. thanks for the post. Keep it going! Thank you
June 21st, 2009 at 6:08 am
Thanks. That was great, now where is the bookmark button
June 21st, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I’m happy I found this, it just made my day!
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:04 am
gosh..see all that spam comment
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:45 am
gosh..see all that spam comment
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 am
gosh…see all that spam comment