PLANET OF SUCCESS
By paying it forward, you can make quite an important difference in this world. Not only will you brighten another person's mood, but you will also set a chain reaction in motion.
Give your time, or at least some of your cash to worthy causes. Help clean up areas where you live, walk dogs at your local shelter, or raise some dollars to give to a worthy cause. There are people out there fighting for the planet and its animals. A simple step like picking up trash on the ground, it only takes a second of your time.
The next time you don’t know what to give someone, consider making a donation in their name. Symbolically adopt their favorite animal for them from WWF, or donate a heifer to a hungry family. If your loved one already has it all, don’t create need for more materials to be produced, and ultimately for something that gets produced to take up space in a landfill.
Your last meal may have traveled 1,500 miles to get to your table. Find food near you. Green markets, farm stands, and conscientious supermarkets all offer locally grown produce. Buy it and you’ll conserve fuel, reduce pollution, and enjoy fresher food.
In an average year, U.S. households use about 100 billion plastic bags, 99 percent of which are never recycled. Stash some canvas bags in your car for easy access.
I understand that we all have a budget, but in today’s world, you also have OPTIONS. Look for companies who are mindful of what they produce and how.
Research what kind of things you buy from where and if there are better alternatives that are close in price. IT DOES MATTER!
There are even environmentally friendly companies for beer. New Belgium Brewery out of Fort Collins, CO is consistently on the lists of best companies for the environment. Keep these companies afloat AND become a more mindful consumer.
In many states, you can opt to purchase renewable energy from your local power company for a few extra dollars a month. Visit the Green Power Network’s U.S. map at eere.energy.gov/greenpower to get started. Then rest easy knowing the light you read by comes from your wind- or methane-powered lamp.
Shop wisely: Choose concentrates, let your vegetables roll around the cart (no more plastic bags for every cucumber), and download your music.
fuel, reduce pollution, and enjoy fresher food.
Turn it down two degrees in the winter and up two degrees in the summer and you’ll keep nearly 880 pounds of carbon dioxide from warming the earth.
On average, home appliances – washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, air purifiers – account for 20 percent of your home’s total electric bill. ENERGY STAR appliances, which are certified by the U.S. Department of Energy, can reduce that share. The average home appliance lasts for 10 to 20 years, and an ENERGY STAR-certified appliance will use anywhere from 10 to 50 percent less energy each year than a non-energy efficient equivalent.
By replacing the appliances in your home with ENERGY STAR certified appliances, you are making an investment that will reduce your energy bill for years to come.
Electric kettles use less energy than stovetop ones. A toaster oven uses up to half the energy of a conventional electric oven. An electric slow cooker makes soups and stews using less wattage than a stove. It truly pays to pick the right appliance.
In the market for a new computer? A laptop uses about half the energy of its desktop counterpart. Choose a model with the federal government’s Energy Star rating and use 70 percent less energy than a non-certified model.
The average U.S. household spends up to $135 a year in energy costs drying clothes. A dirty lint filter can use 30 percent more energy to get the job done.
Stop buying bottled water, unless in glass. Get a water-filter pitcher or an in-sink faucet filtering system. Take advantage of what you already pay for and save the environmental cost of transporting bottled water to the grocer’s shelf.
Buy a reusable bottle that fits your lifestyle and skip buying a new one at every lunchtime stop. Need a reason? Americans use 3.3 million plastic bottles every hour but recycle only one in five.
If you have a wrench, you can preserve the diminishing fresh-water supply and reduce expensive water-heating costs. Install faucet aerators and high-efficiency showerheads and in a year’s time you’ll save between 1,000 and 8,000 gallons of water. The added air makes the pressure feel greater, too.
Standard washing machines use 40 gallons of water per load. If your clothes don’t stink, don’t wash them. If American’s were more prudent about laundry, each year they would save enough water to fill more than 7 million swimming pools. When you do wash, put full loads (saving 3,400 gallons of water a year) in cold water.
Mass-produced beef―is extremely resource-intensive. If you alone gave it up once a week, you would save the 840 gallons of fresh water it takes to produce a single serving.
Eat less of it and choose pasture-fed, sustainably raised beef whenever you can.
Go wild. And to prevent overfishing, heed the advice in the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s regional Seafood Watch pocket guides. Download one at mbayaq.org.
About 130 million mobile phones are retired every year, resulting in more than 65,000 tons of waste―including potentially hazardous materials, such as lead and mercury. Recycle yours with Call2Recycle.org (log on to find a drop-off location near you) or programs like collectivegood.com.
If you don’t recycle, COME ON. It’s 2019. Find a recycling center, get some bins or re-use boxes and RECYCLE everything that you possibly can.
We need to do more and save more energy. To learn which items you can leave out for curbside pickup, and how to dispose of those you can’t, log on to earth911.org.
Can it be donated? Can it be saved? Recycled? Composted? The dumpster should be the last resort Think twice before throwing anything out. Waste doesn’t magically disappear when you throw it out.
Get exercise AND pollute less. If you can walk or ride your bike to work, it’s a win-win. Your actions DO matter. And don’t forget a helmet.
This is a no-brainer. Why waste gasoline and create more pollution than necessary?
Pausing somewhere? Shut down your engine: Idling for any length of time burns more gas than it takes to restart the car.
Speeding, fast accelerations, and hard braking waste gas. Maintaining your car saves it. Tune up your car according to your owner’s-manual schedule (usually every 30,000 miles) and raise your car’s fuel efficiency anywhere from 4 to 40 percent. Bonus: You’ll increase your fuel efficiency and save on gas. Go to greendrivingusa.com for an estimate of how much.
With the fluidity and ease of emails today, there is no need for any of our bills or mail to be in paper form. Most companies are pretty good about rewarding their clients or customers who go paperless, or at least providing the option to go paperless.
If every American household purchased one package of 100 percent recycled napkins, we would save 1 million trees. While you’re at it, buy recycled paper towels and tissues, too. There are several brands that use nearly all post-consumer recycled paper.
Cotton is the second-most chemically sprayed crop in America (corn is first). Each traditional tee requires a third of a pound of synthetic fertilizers. Pull on an organic T-shirt and feel as if the earth is giving you a little hug.
Most cat litter is made from bentonite clay, which is mined and never breaks down. Americans dump 2 million tons of this into landfills every year, so it’s worth rethinking what you buy. Try the biodegradable, flushable brand.
It’s heartbreaking that there are still people out there buying puppies and kittens, when there are THOUSANDS of dogs and cats who get euthanized daily because they are homeless. Save a life. You will feel the reward paid back to you a thousand fold and give some loving animal a home.
All it takes is a little research to find out the horrifying truths about how little is being done about climate change, pollution, waste, and bad practices.
It’s your planet, too, and nothing will help more than individuals caring about what is going on. Turning a blind eye to species who are becoming extinct, environments being destroyed, and destructive practices staying in place will not fix it.
DO something!
People around you, people you work with, and your friends will see you changing aspects of your lifestyle to be more mindful of what we are doing to the planet.
Take responsibility for being a citizen of the Earth, and don’t expect “others” to make changes.
We all need to do our part and make INFINITELY better decisions, and if this is you, know that you will make a difference to the people in your life. It isn’t easy, it isn’t cheap, and it can be time-consuming to figure out what the best choices actually are, but it’s worth it. Just because other people don’t care doesn’t mean we should just throw our hands up. Lead by example.
the importance of treating our environment with care and that we CAN make a difference.
In fact, we HAVE to make a difference and QUICKLY. If we don’t teach our children that what we do DIRECTLY affects the planet, things will never change.
Everything we do matters, and if we don’t STOP the practices that past generations have put in place, our planet truly is doomed.
Make it a place that future generations will be able to live in, too.