5 Daily Things You Can Do to Save the Planet

Learn about things you can do to save the planet

Overwhelmed with news about global climate change and CO2 emissions?  What if I told you there are 5 daily things you can do to save the planet?  Multiply each of these easy items by 365 days per year, and maybe even convince a friend or two to do the same thing.  You can make a meaningful difference!

The following tips can help you reduce your carbon footprint and save energy each day.  Even better, you’ll save money as you work to save the planet.

1.  Read your newspaper online, and cancel your subscription for delivery.  Not only can you save about 3 trees per year that would be required for a years’ worth of papers, but you will also cut down on CO2 emissions resulting from your delivery person’s driving to your home.

2.  If you must print out emails or other documents, follow these directions:  print on both sides of the paper (same thing for making copies), single-space the lines and reduce the size of margins.  In short, put more print on each page.  You can cut your paper usage by 3/4 as a result!

Learn how to save energy every day

3.  Unplug everything you’re not using before leaving the house.  This includes coffee pots, curling irons, recharging devices and computers.  The easiest way to do this is to use power strips that you can simply switch off before walking out the door.  You’ll end up saving 5% of your monthly energy costs.  Don’t think that sounds like much?  If everyone in the U.S. did this, energy cost savings would top over $4 billion annually.

4.  Use text messaging instead of sending an email.  This one may be surprising.  Did you know you can save 30 times the energy it takes to send a message from your computer by using your cell phone instead?

5.  Bring your own canvas shopping bags to the market.  Don’t just leave them in the trunk…. actually use them!  You can cut down on the 11 million plastic grocery bags used each year, few of which end up getting recycled.

There now – that wasn’t too hard, was it?  You shouldn’t even have to spend a single cent to implement these simple ways to reduce your carbon footprint.  We all need to do our part to save energy each day.

Thank you for considering the things you can do to save the planet.  Future generations thank you as well.