Save Energy:
Insulate your home. Fit energy-saving light bulbs. Turn appliances off when not in use. Shade windows with awnings, shutters or trees to help keep your home cool in summer without air-conditioning.
Save Water:
Get a water-saving showerhead, dishwasher, washing machine and taps. Verify that your home is leak-free. Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. If you have a swimming pool, consider a new water-saving pool filter.
Use Chemical-free Brands:
Clean without chemicals buy chemical-free brands. Use natural pest control. Avoid dry-cleaning coz it leaves chemicals on your clothes. Avoid furniture made from plywood/ MDF, which contains formaldehyde, or furniture and furnishings treated with brominated flame retardants.
Switch to Organic Gardening:
Make your garden a truly green space by encouraging wildlife, minimizing water use, avoiding chemicals and growing some food. Choose drought-resistant plants and lawn. Share garden tools with neighbours.
Don't Waste Food:
Buy locally-grown and organic food. Eat less meat. Don’t waste food. The decomposition of organic matter such as food waste in landfill is a major contributor to the generation of the highly damaging greenhouse gas methane. Grow some food.
Work Green:
Reduce car/air travel. Reuse and recycle paper. Don’t leave computers, copiers, lights etc. on when you leave the office. Buy second-hand office furniture and recycle your own old office furniture. Use the stairs. Lifts can use 5–15 per cent of office electricity. Use laptops.
Green Parenting
Use cloth nappies. Breastfeed, it avoids the bottles, sterilization equipment and packaging of powdered milk, and it’s better for your baby. Use rechargeable batteries for toys. Buy fewer plastic toys. Exchange toys at a toy library.
Green Leisuring:
Try to pick trips accessible by public transport. Ask hotels not to change linen and towels every day; laundry uses 40 per cent of hotels’ energy and water.
Reduce, Reuse & Recyle:
Compost kitchen scraps. ‘Reduce, reuse, recycle’ to minimise waste. Use cloth nappies. Use handkerchiefs and napkins instead of paper tissues and serviettes.
Green Construction:
Install solar hot water. Install composting toilets. Use natural paints and varnishes. Use sustainable timber. Use salvaged materials. Avoid nylon carpets. Paint interior walls in light colours to reduce the need for lighting
Less Transportation:
Drive less. Walk, cycle, share rides, join a car club and use trains and buses instead of driving. Reduce short car trips. Make your next car smaller and more fuel efficient. Don’t drive the kids to school. Convert your car to run on LPG.
Green Health:
Buy organic cotton or hemp clothes. Use fewer cosmetics. Give unwanted clothes to second-hand shops. Switch to natural body care.
Frugal Living:
Buy less. Buy second-hand and recycled items. Avoid disposable products. Try to avoid supermarkets.Shop online.
Ethical Banking:
Ensure your savings, shares and pension funds aren’t funding environmentally or socially harmful activities by investing ethically. It’s the same as normal saving and investments, except for who the banks and funds lend your money to.
Conserve Wild Life:
Learn to use less land and natural resources so there is still space for wildlife to flourish. Support a wildlife charity. Plant a Tree. Create a wildlife-friendly garden.
Be the Social Change:
Support a green organization. Think globally, act locally. Propose green initiatives at your children’s school. Discuss environmental issues with family, friends or work colleagues.
