energy saving is easy

every house in america switching out one incandescent lightbulb to a fluorescent bulb is equivalent to taking 1 million cars off the road.
household electronics account for 25% home energy use. plug everything into a power strip and shut it off at night.
packaging sucks: everything we buy has waste that rarely gets recycled. consume less.
hand washing dishes wastes tons of water (5 thousand tons per year) . only 4 gallons are used in the average dishwasher during one washing.
cleaning products full of fragrance and chemicals should be avoided. asthma, carcinogens, hormone disrupters toxicate our bodies, our homes, our water.
compost: it reduces amount of garbage we take to the dump where most of it never really degrades. take stock of everything you throw out.
choose "low-voc" materials for indoors. particle board is infested with formaldehyde. carpets are off-gassing. there are all kinds of green interior furnishings to choose from.
buy locally.
use postconsumer recycled paper. "For every 40 standard boxes of copier paper made from 100 percent post-consumer material, an office can save 24 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity, and 60 pounds of air pollution, according to the National Resources Defense Council."
know your refunds and benefits in your area for having energy saving machines: i know pv systems give homeowners both a state and federal tax refund for its installation. there are plenty of other monetary incentives available to us.
drink water from home: 845 plastic water bottles are thrown away each second.
bring your lunch to work- it cuts down on the thrown away "to-go" packaging.