It is Easy Being Green

Yesterday I talked about how we can all do a few things to reduce our carbon footprint. Today I give you 6 ways to begin the process

1) Eat vegetarian for one day a week- it takes almost 20 times as much energy to produce one pound of meat than one pound of corn. If 1000 people replaced one meat meal per week with a vegetarian option, it would save 70,000 lbs of grain per year!

2) Sign up for the BG&E Peak Rewards Program- Utilities are required to build more polluting power plants to handle the peak times for energy demand. Peak Rewards saves you money and allows BG&E to handle increased demand without new power plants.

3) Buy an electric lawnmower- The thing that held me back in the past from buying one of these was the cord but now there are cordless models. I bought one last year and have enjoyed the quieter sound and easier pushing while mowing. Think gas lawn mowers don’t contribute much to our air pollution? How about 5% of our air pollution comes from gas lawnmowers.

4) Change your light bulbs- Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) last 10 times longer than a standard bulb and use at least two-thirds less energy. If you're shopping for new appliances or even home electronics, look for ENERGY STAR products, which have met EPA and U.S. Department of Energy guidelines for energy efficiency. In 2006, the ENERGY STAR program saved energy equivalent to taking 25 million cars off the road and saved Americans $14 billion in utility costs. Automatically turnoff lights with light motion sensors

5) Install a tankless hot water heater- next time you need to replace a hot water heater have a tankless model installed and save 50% on the cost of hot water energy usage

6) Recycle and Freecyle- the energy saved by recycling and freecycling are significant. In Howard County we have many ways to make this easy. Very little that we put out on trash day can’t be put out on the recycling day. Freecycle everything you don’t want to haul to the landfill.

There is a great group in Howard County that is addressing the climate change issue. The Climate Change Initiative of Howard County and their webpage is
http://www.hococlimatechange.org/home
Go to their events page and attend one of their events.