- Reduce, reuse, recycle! Examples: Buy products with less packaging—like loose potatoes instead of pre-bagged. Use reusable shopping bags. Keep some near the front door or in your car so you remember them when you shop. Recycle paper, plastic and glass.
By reducing your garbage by 10%, you’ll reduce your carbon footprint by an average 1,200 pounds per year!
- Ask a friend to go with you to a farmers’ market, and buy local products when possible. A huge amount of energy goes into transporting goods from where they are produced. Stuff produced closer to home uses less of that energy.
- Improve energy efficiency: Replace all light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (they use 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs); ensure doors and windows are as draft-proof as possible. Installing low-flow showerheads reduces your carbon footprint by up to 350 pounds per year. (See Operation Energy Save on www.CreateTheGood.org.)
- Work with your bank to change your bills from paper to digital. If every adult in the U.S. did this just once, we would save millions of paper sheets!
- Write a story with your grandchildren about an imaginary trip through the rainforest. Read them picture books about rainforest, mountains, and islands so they can understand why we need to protect these environments.
