Green Tips

Go Green Tips for Your Home

• TV’s - Turn off your Television and any other appliances if it is not being used, remember that even when put on stand-by, it is still using electricity.
• Conserve Water - Use a shower wherever possible instead of running a bath. As much as it is lovely to be able to have a long soak after a hard day at work, a shower is much more economical. 5 minutes in the shower as opposed to having a bath will save approx 400 litres of water every week.
• Running Water - If you tend to leave the tap running while cleaning your teeth or if you are washing the dishes, then stop. By keeping the water running you are using approximately 9 litres every 60 seconds.
• Cleaning - Don’t buy expensive chemical cleaners, use baking soda instead; it’s great for scouring bathroom surfaces. Need to clean the windows or any mirrors in the house? Why not use white vinegar and water mixed together will do a great job and instead of using kitchen towel, use a newspaper.
• Get rid of Limescale - Boil some vinegar in your kettle and this will remove the limescale. Remember to rinse it out thoroughly afterwards though, as the vinegar taste may end up flavoring your tea and coffee for some time to come.
• Ductwork - Seal leaky heating and cooling ductwork. Use mastic rather that duct tape, which doesn’t offer enough sealing.
• Climate Control - Install a programmable thermostat to save up to $100 in energy costs per year and weatherstrip doors and windows.
• Plumbing - wrap your hot water pipes with pre-formed, pre-fit insulating tubes. Fix leaky faucets and toilets.

Go Green Tips for Work or Home Office

• Put your monitor to sleep; the screen saver function does not save energy. The best way to conserve energy is to set the monitor to sleep or power off when you're away for an extended period.
• Unplug your cell phone charger when not in use; they use 95% of their energy when they aren’t charging cell phones.
• Turn off power strips to reduced the amount of energy being wasted when you're not working.  Putting this into practice every day before you leave the office can save $100-$300 per year.
• Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
• Flickering fluorescent lights use more energy, change the bulb.
• Print smarter. Don't waste paper, print on both sides and use recyled paper.
• Use reusable bottles rather than a single serving bottle.  Last year over 16 billion bottles of water were sold in the U.S. and only 12% of those were recycled.  Plastic is also made from oil, a finite material that will eventually be used up completely.
• Carpool, bike, walk, or take a bus to work.  Gas prices will only continue to rise, and the amount of pollution put out by cars for work commutes each year is staggering.
• Close the blinds during the summer to reduce the heat load from the sun, and open them in the winter to gain natural heating when it’s needed. 
• Try using a web conference to replace in-person meetings that require air travel whenever possible.