Living Choices

Transportation

• Choose a place to live that decreases the need to drive.
• Think twice before purchasing another car (so you’re not tempted to drive more).
• Choose a fuel-efficient, low-polluting car (suitable for typical, not extraordinary needs. Consider a low- or zero-emission vehicle).
• Set concrete goals for reducing your travel (use your odometer to check your progress).
• Whenever you can, try to walk, bike or use public transportation.

Food

• Eat less meat (even shifting to dairy products helps).
• Buy certified organic produce, which is generally grown in a more sustainable fashion, with less mechanization and better crop rotation, and doesn't create water pollution from fertilizers and pesticides.
• Pack school lunches with less packaging and waste. For ideas click here.

Household

• Recycle, recycle, recycle. For every ton of recycled material, 1.24 tons of carbon monoxide are prevented from being emitted.
• Reward green, climate-saver enterprises by purchasing from them when possible.
• Choose your home carefully. Don't move into a home that's too big and will require more to build and heat. Avoid new developments.
• Look for insulation, efficient windows, heat-recovery ventilation and other improvements if you do buy a new home.
• Reduce the environmental costs of heating and hot water. Install efficient hot water heating.
• Choose natural gas or an electric heat pump.
• Turn down the thermostat, insulate, seal the windows and upgrade windows and doors for energy-efficiency.
• Consider a solar collector and extra large storage tank for water, if you have an electric water heater.
• Request an energy efficiency home audit here
• Install efficient lighting and appliances. Buy the most energy-efficient refrigerator, only as large as you need. Look for energy labels.
• Wash clothes in cold water when possible.
• Try compact fluorescent bulbs which last ten times as long and use one-fourth the electricity.
• Choose an electricity supplier offering renewable energy (to reduce the amount generated through the burning of fossil fuels such as coal).
• For more energy saving ideas please visit the Energy section of our website.

Additional resources can be found at:

• NRC Recycle.org
• EnergyStar® Products
• Consumer Reports Greener Choices
• Environmental Design + Construction
• Green Seal and the Choose Green Report.
• BuildingGreen who publishes Environmental Building News and provides the GreenSpec Directory.
• Healthy Buildings Network
• Scientific Certification Systems
• Ecological Home Ideas
• TreeHugger.com