When you save energy, you save money. But where should you start to get a jump on using less energy, especially with winter approaching? Here are 12 smart steps to take, courtesy of Canada’s Direct Energy Regulated Services. Start with actions to reduce the amount of energy you need. Then replace existing equipment with more efficient options.

TO SAVE ENERGY THIS FALL…

INSULATE AND WEATHERIZE

1.Upgrade the insulation in your exterior walls, crawlspaces, basements and attics. Many homes don’t have nearly the insulation they need to keep warm air in and cold air out. If you live out west, check with Alberta power companies, for example. Or, check with your local utility in your region to find out how much insulation your home should have to cut down your energy bills.

2.Seal leaky windows and doors. Heat from your home escapes out these cracks. These leaks are easy to seal with weatherstripping around the door and caulking for the windows, available cheaply at your local hardware store.

3. Seal electrical outlets on exterior walls. Some small amount of cold air gets into your house through electrical outlets that are positioned on exterior walls. You can buy pre-cut insulation pads to put behind those outlets, or plastic plugs to place in them when they’re not being used.

REPAIR AND REFIT

4.Clean your chimney, and install an efficient insert. Wood-burning fireplaces send most of their heat up the chimney, rather than into your home. Maybe this year is the year to install an efficient insert that will capture the heat and radiate it back into your house. Clean the chimney to improve air ventilation and reduce risk of fire.

5. Remove window air conditioners. If they must stay in place, seal them with caulking or weatherizing tape and cover them with an airtight, insulated jacket.

6.Cover single-pane windows. Single panes of glass offer almost no protection against cold temperatures. If you have single-panes, see if you can add energy-efficient double-pane windows with inert argon gas fill, warm-edge spacers, and low-e coating. Also hang drapes or curtains in front of windows to provide additional insulation.

7. Check your water heater. If its surface is hot or even warm, some of the energy used to heat the water is being wasted. Check your owner manual to see how to wrap your water heater in an insulating blanket to keep more of the heat inside the tank.

8.Set the water heater temperature reasonably. In Canada, the recommended temperature is between 43 degrees C and 49 degrees C. In the U.S., the Dept. of Energy recommends 120 degrees F.

9.Uncover heating vents. Make sure your heating bents aren’t blocked by furniture or drapes and the dampers are open. Vacuum out dust and pet hair from warm air registers and cold air returns so your furnace runs more efficiently.

REPLACE

10.Replace your furnace with one rated 90% or higher in energy efficiency. If your furnace is getting old, consider replacing it with a newer, more efficient model. Check with your local utility to see if any rebates are available to help cover the cost. Some tax credits may help offset the cost as well.

11.Replace the air filters in the furnace once a month or so. Cleaner air filters help improve the furnace’s efficiency.

12.Replace your standard thermostat with a programmable one. Get a thermostat that you can set to turn down the heat when you leave for work in the morning or go to bed at night. You can also program it to turn up the heat before you get home or wake up. The U.S. EPA reports that doing save can save you anywhere from to 30% on your heating (and cooling) energy bills.

NOTE: Partners and sponsors help us bring you the expertise you need to lead the greener life you want. Our editorial opinions remain our own. Thanks!

The post 12 Ways to Save Energy This Fall appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Here’s how to tell which ones are the best – and the 5 places you should install them to use the least amount of energy and save the most money on your energy bill. And if you don’t have any bulbs, don’t worry.

Taking the Energy Star Pledge enters you into a giveaway for a terrific package of ENERGY STAR CERTIFIED LED Bulbs worth $50 (see more below).

Look for the ENERGY STAR Logo

The best LED bulbs are those that bear the bright blue and white ENERGY STAR logo.

The ENERGY STAR is a symbol of energy efficiency, set up by the federal government to help consumers and companies save energy

LED bulbs that earn the ENERGY STAR label are independently certified to save energy and help protect the environment. Here’s what that means:

LEDs that are ENERGY STAR Certified meet the program’s high-performance standards to save you the most energy and money while

providing the highest quality light.

So first things first: Whenever you shop for an LED bulb, above all, make sure the blue ENERGY STAR logo is on the package (just like it is on this one to the right).

PUT ENERGY STAR CERTIFIED LED BULBS IN THESE 5 LIGHTS

According to the U.S. EPA, the average American home, maybe like yours, has approximately 70 light sockets, many of which still use old-fashioned incandescent or halogen bulbs.

Understandably, you might not be able to replace the bulbs in all your lights at once. That’s why EPA has put together this list of the fixtures where you should replace the bulbs first.

Replacing your home’s five most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with models that have earned the ENERGY STAR can save you about $40 per year on your electricity bill.

Though you might spend that much money buying the new bulbs, after the first year, that $40 just builds and builds. In 10 years, you could save $400 (and that’s if you only replace the bulbs in five fixtures – what if you do them all??).

Take the ENERGY STAR PLEDGE!

That’s not only a terrific way to stop wasting money on lighting, it’s also one of the best investments in your home you can make. ENERGY STAR encourages you to #lightthemoment with certified LED bulbs in videos like this one:

NOTE: Many retailers, including Ace, WalMart, Lowe’s, and Home Depot, offer frequent sales that make buying LEDs extremely affordable. Look for sales and coupons that will save you even more money when you buy LED bulbs.

Even if you can’t or don’t want to replace all 5 bulbs, as least do one.

A single ENERGY STAR Certified LED bulb that has earned the ENERGY STAR can save nearly $55 in electricity costs over its lifetime.

TAKE THE ENERGY STAR PLEDGE

There’s so much to keep us busy that, despite our best intentions, sometimes we don’t get around to doing what we should or want to do.

That’s where the ENERGY STAR Pledge comes in handy.

I took the ENERGY STAR Pledge because I wanted to make myself a promise – that I would actually switch to LED bulbs. Here it is! (I pledged to replace 5 light bulbs, as well as to turn off lights when not needed.)

I’d like to ask you to take the ENERGY STAR Pledge, too.

It literally takes less than a minute to do, so no “I don’t have time!” excuses, please!

As an added incentive, taking the pledge enters you into our LED Great Bulb Giveaway for a chance to win ENERGY STAR Certified, high-quality LED bulbs worth $50 (you can decide what kind you want, up to $50).

All you have to do is snap a screenshot of your pledge (like I did with mine) and share it on the big Green Purse Facebook page.

How easy is that?

I hope you’ll do it right now!

POST A PICTURE OF YOUR ENERGY STAR PLEDGE TO WIN LED BULBS WORTH $50.

The post People Who Choose 5 ENERGY STAR Certified LED Bulbs Save More Money appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Are you smarter than a light bulb? If you’re using ENERGY STAR certified LEDs, congratulations! You are!! You can prove it by sharing a photo of your best LED moment on Facebook or Twitter using the #LightTheMoment hashtag.

#LightTheMoment

If you’re not using ENERGY STAR certified LEDs, well…the light bulb might win.

That may sound ridiculous, but consider this:

According to U.S. EPA, the average American home – probably like yours – has approximately 50 light sockets.

Most of those still use inefficient incandescent light bulbs – you know, like the ones Thomas Edison invented. In 1879. That’s 138 years ago!!

Would you consider using a phone that relied on 138-year-old technology? No.

Would you want to putz around in the 109-year-old Model T? Nope.

What about trying to make your latte using a Little House on the Prairie-type open fire cooking pit? I just don’t see it.

And yet, when it comes to light bulbs, you’re using the least smart, oldest, most expensive to operate, and most time wasting technology on the market:

An incandescent bulb.

A bulb that spends 90 percent of the energy it consumes (and that you pay for) creating heat, not even light!

A bulb that lasts only 1/10 as long as bulbs that you can reliably turn on and off for an average of 15,000 hours before they need to be replaced.

Duhhh…

Lucky for you EPA’s ENERGY STAR program is coming to the rescue.

They’ve worked closely with the lighting industry to develop energy efficient LED bulbs. Here’s why they’re so smart!

WHAT ARE ENERGY STAR CERTIFIED LEDs?

LED stands for light emitting diodes, but that’s not important.

What’s important is that LED light bulbs certified to meet ENERGY STAR’s high-performance standards are so much more energy-efficient and cost-effective that, well, they make anyone who uses them look a LOT smarter than people who still use those old-fashioned incandescents.

ENERGY STAR knows you WANT to be smart. That’s why, starting on October 24 (today), they’ve launched an initiative to encourage you to #LightTheMoment by sharing pictures of special moments in your life that can be made even better by lighting them with ENERGY STAR certified LEDs.

In fact, ENERGY STAR is inviting you to take pictures of those moments and post them on Facebook and Twitter using the #LightTheMoment hashtag (please tag @ENERGYSTAR while you’re at it).

If you already have LED light bulbs in your home, go ahead and and show off how smart you are by snapping fun photos of how you’re enjoying their light at home or at work.

Then stay tuned, because, in addition to impressing all your friends and family with your energy smart-ness, ENERGY STAR will be showcasing many of the photos in their “Moments Gallery.” Your photo may even end up in a “Light the Moment” highlight reel in November. (I love this reel ENERGY STAR has pulled together so far.)

But if you DON’T have LED light bulbs yet, for goodness sake go get some! Check with your local utility before you head for the store, since many power companies actually give consumers rebates to buy LEDs.

You’ll save money buying the bulbs, and you’ll save money on your electric bill, too – in some cases, up to $55 over the lifetime of each and every bulb you buy.

Remember those 50 outlets EPA says most houses have?

Do the math:

50 outlets x $55/bulb savings = $2,750.

How smart is that?!!

By the way, LED light bulbs give you some bragging rights when it comes to talking about what you’re doing to stop climate change – and after all the climate-related hurricanes and fires this season, who doesn’t want to do that?

Most electricity still comes from coal-fired power plants. Burning coal emits the carbon dioxide that causes climate change.

When you switch to an LED, you reduce the amount of coal needed to keep the light bulbs burning in your house.

 “If each home replaced only one of Thomas Edison’s light bulbs with an ENERGY STAR certified LED, we would prevent nearly 7 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emission per year, equivalent to the emissions from 650,000 cars.”  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Doesn’t that sound like a no-brainer?

SHARE YOUR #LightTheMoment!

You can get more information about the #LightTheMoment campaign from ENERGY STAR right here.

If you need help figuring out what bulb to actually buy, check out this handy guide.

By the way, here’s one last way to show you really are smarter than a light bulb:

When you buy your LEDs, make sure they carry the bright blue ENERGY STAR label. That’s how you’ll know the bulbs meet the highest performance and energy efficiency standards you want.

DO ME A FAVOR, PRETTY PLEASE!

Will you please share this post and the hashtag #LightTheMoment with your own communities? I know sometimes it’s fun to be the only smarty pants in the room. But I think you’ll agree that, right now, the planet needs as many smart people pulling for it as possible.

Thanks for spreading the word!

The post Are You Smarter Than a Lightbulb? Only if You’re Using ENERGY STAR Certified LEDs! appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Living in a condo in the city is actually more environmentally friendly compared to living in a suburb. The United States Environmental Protection Agency reports* that a person who lives in a downtown building uses only a third of the usual energy consumption of a person who lives in a typical suburban community.

So if you’re thinking of downsizing to a condo, or buying a condo instead of a house, that’s probably going to be good new for your pocket book, as you’ll use far less energy heating and cooling your home, and you’ll potentially reduce the amount of gasoline you burn since you may not have to drive as much. But apart from making the condo choice in the first place, what else can you do to save energy and water in your condo?

We’ve teamed up with Mondev Condos, which develops Montreal condos for sale, to offer this list of the 15 best ways to save energy and water in your condo.

Best Ways to Save Energy and Water in Your Condo

1. Install a low-flow showerhead. This ensures you don’t waste water unnecessarily every time you shower.

2. Think 1.6 gallons for your toilet. You don’t need a tank that holds several gallons of water to flush well. 1.6 is the accepted water-saving standard these days. Choose a water-saving toilet when buying new, or displace water in the tank you have using a plastic bottle weighted down with gravel. This way, you’ll use less water every time you flush the toilet.

3. Hang insulated drapes. By covering your windows with cellular blinds or blackout curtains, you’ll be able to lower your heating bills by reducing the amount of hot air coming in through the windows during the summer, and cold air coming in during the winter.

4. Insulate attic, walls, and crawl spaces. These are especially useful for outlets that face an exterior wall. If you put your fingers in front of the outlet, you will be able to feel cold air coming into the room if the outlet isn’t insulated.

5. Compost. Organize a community composting pick-up for your condo complex so all you need to do is collect your kitchen waste, then put it out at the curb for easy collection.

6. Place mobile draft stoppers near your door sill. If you can’t weatherstrip or insulate the door, at least put down a door stopper to block cold air from coming in.

7.  Insulate your windows. Use weatherstripping or caulk you can get at your local hardware store to seal leaky windows.

8. Replace old light bulbs with LED lights. LEDs are the most efficient bulbs on the market. Though they cost a little bit more, they save a lot more energy, and last longer, as well.

9. Switch off your lights and electronics if no one’s home. Often times, people forget to turn off the lights when they leave for work, or even when they’re away for a holiday. You can make this simple by installing sensors in your rooms that will automatically turn the lights off when no movement in the room is detected.

10. Choose ENERGY STAR appliances.  Refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, dishwashers, washing machines, clothes driers, most electronics, and even your HVAC system are all available in highly efficient models. Check ENERGYSTAR.gov before you buy.

11. Install a surge protector to avoid unnecessary spikes in energy use. Power bars also prevent phantom power with just one switch.

12. Repair any leaking faucets and toilets. Leaks make up 13% of home water usage. You can actually do this job yourself – check this video.

13. Install aerators on your faucets and showerhead so you can further save water. You will usually just need to screw it onto the faucet to avoid splashing a stream of water when you open the faucet.

14. Bicycle, Walk, Use Mass Transit. Depending on your proximity to city center, you might be able to get a bike-sharing station set up in your condo complex to link your community to other parts of the city by bike. Even without bike sharing, take advantage of your proximity to work, shopping and entertainment by riding your own bike, walking or using mass transit.

15. Create an organic community garden and set up a farmers market or CSA for your complex. Making it easy to grown your own organic food will save you money and trips to the grocery store. Getting a CSA to deliver pre-reserved bags of locally grown food to your complex will also cut down on how much grocery shopping you need to do while providing a reliable source of delicious fresh fruits, vegetables, baked goods, and in some cases, meats.

Improving the efficiency of your home will not only save you money and help protect the planet. It will also increase the resale value of your property when you finally sell.

*EPA: Location Efficiency and Housing Type: Boiling It Down to BTUs

The post 15 of the Best Ways to Save Energy, Water in Your Condo appeared first on Big Green Purse.

What difference does it make if you turn off the lights when you leave a room, install a low-flow shower head, or turn down your water heater a mere 20 degrees? Constellation Energy* shows you exactly why it matters with a cool infographic called 31 Energy Saving Hacks.

These are some of the best energy saving hacks I’ve seen!

Why? Two reasons:

√ One, they cover the major ways you use energy at home: doing the laundry and the dishes, lighting up your rooms and powering your electronics, heating and cooling your home, and showering and bathing.

√ Two, all of them will save you money.

Of the 31 Best Energy Saving Hacks, here are the 5 I like the best (because they’re easy and cost-effective):

1) Skip the rinse on your dishwasher. Using the rinse features costs you 3-7 gallons more of hot water each time you wash your dishes. Wash per usual, then open the door to the dishwasher and pull the wet racks out and let the dishes air dry.

2) Take shorter showers. Cutting just 4 minutes off your shower time can save you over 3,000 gallons of water each year! In a 4-person family, that’s 12,000 gallons.

3) Unplug. You don’t need to keep battery chargers plugged in when the batteries are fully charged. And by the way, unplug other electronics when you’re not using them so they don’t keep drawing power out of the socket (which they do, even when they’re turned off).

4) Clean or replace furnace filters. You find it easier to breathe when your air and nose aren’t obstructed, right? So does your furnace. Give it a clean filter every three months, and breathe easier.

5) Time your water heater. This one never occurred to me before.  You can put a timer on your water heater to turn the heating function down or even off when you’re not home or on vacation. Who knew?

You can see the entire list of Constellation’s energy saving hacks right here.

What’s your favorite energy saving hack? Don’t keep it a secret!

*Note: Sponsored posts allow us to bring you expert content at no cost to you. As ever, our editorial opinions remain our own. Thanks!

The post The 31 Best Energy Saving Hacks to Save You Money, Too appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Do you know you should pay bills online, but just can’t bring yourself to make the switch?

I’m not making fun of any of these reasons (well, not much). But I do want to encourage you to get over them. Here’s why, courtesy of ecoPayz, our sponsors for this post.

THE GREEN BENEFITS OF PAYING BILLS ONLINE

√ Better for the Planet – Paying your bills online requires zero paper, zero ink, and you won’t use any energy posting a bill that needs to be physically delivered. PayItGreen calculates that in just one year, by switching from paper to electronic billing, statements, and payments, the average American household would:

Save 6 pounds of paper

Save 23 pounds of wood

Prevent the production of 29 pounds of greenhouse gases.

That’s like not driving 30 miles, or burning 2 gallons of gasoline, or planting one ree seedling and letting it grow for 25 years.

 √ Efficiency – Paying bills online takes less time than putting a bill stub in an envelope, writing a check, addressing and stamping the envelope, and mailing it.

√ Less Clutter – This is a big one for me. I hate it when paper piles up all over the place. Every bill comes in an envelope, with a paper bill, probably a few promotional fliers, and a mailing envelope. Paying bills online helps keep paper clutter to a minimum.

√ Safety – Despite the stories of identity theft, it’s much easier to steal a paper check in an envelope than an electronic bill payment.

√ Community – I’m not saying you’ll make more friends if you pay your bills online. But won’t you feel better knowing that you’re part of a community of green-minded consumers who are doing the right thing?

Many banks make it easy to set up direct online payment transactions. Credit card companies often offer bonuses for signing up, like air miles or some period of delayed interest payment play.

Alternatively, you can use an electronic wallet system like ecoPayz. In this approach, you can fund your ewallet from your bank account, then use ecoPayz on your computer or phone to shop online or send money or receive funds from around the world in any of 45 currencies.

You can use it for online shopping as well as bill paying. If you’ve had a tough time establishing credit, no worries: unlike a bank account, you do not need to go through a credit check to open this account.

The next time a company asks you to set up online bill paying, give it a try. You have nothing to lose – if you don’t like it, you can always go back to paper bills. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll probably wonder what took you so long.

The post Which of These 5 Silly Reasons is Keeping You From Paying Your Bills Online? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Looking to start a business on a budget? Right from the start, you can save money by using less energy, paper, supplies, and maybe the actual office itself.

BONUS: you’ll shrink your carbon footprint, too.

To help you get on the right track, I’ve identified 5 smart ways to cut business costs by shrinking your carbon footprint.

1. Go Paperless
2. Automate Energy Use
3. Telecommute
4. Skip Unnecessary Trips
5. Share Office Space

1. Go Paperless

Paper makes up about 35 per cent of our waste even though it’s an easy material to recycle or not use at all. That could mean you’re spending a hefty chunk of change on reams of paper you’ll just end of throwing away. Instead…

• Create a digital business card that you can easily email to people you meet. If you must print a card, choose one of those half-sized designs.

• Use electronic software programs to print fewer documents, share documents and files online, produce rough drafts, and publish e-versions of final drafts.

• When you do need to print, print on both sides and again, use available software to eliminate unnecessary blank pages.

• Reuse paper printed on one side into note pads, stuffing for shipping containers, and scratch paper for kids’ art projects.

• Recycle waste paper through local recycling programs.

2. Automate Energy Use

* Use a programmable thermostat – If you have set up shop in a building or office where you have to pay for heating and cooling, make sure you have the option to change the temperature of the thermostat.

* Put office lights on sensors or timers to make sure the lights go off when no one is working.

* Program computers to shift to sleep mode when they’re not being used, though it’s better if you can get them turned off completely when they’re not needed.

3. Telecommute

* Reduce overhead. Many businesses now keep their office footprint small and their overhead costs low by allowing employees to telecommute. Some entire businesses operate this way.

* Share desks. Perhaps employee A uses the desk when she is in the office Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and employee B uses the same desk when he is in the office Tuesday-Thursday.

4. Skip Unnecessary Trips

If your business requires you and your employees to travel to conferences, meetings and sales calls, consider whether the cost and carbon footprint of transportation, hotel, meals and other related expenses are worth the price.

* Can you cut them down to zero by attending the event virtually, conducting the meeting on Skype or a Google Hangout, or holding a webinar?

5. Share Office Space

Renting office space can eat into costs. Plus, it may not be a good use of precious resources if you end up having to pay for office space you don’t use. If you can’t operate virtually, a good and eco-friendly solution is to bunk with another, like-minded company.

* Share administrative services, the cost of maintaining conference room facilities, and other related expenses while maintaining a separate identify.

Of course, it also makes sense to compare prices of any products you do buy. Our sponsor for this post, Cost Compare, will soon enable its customers to compare prices on a wide variety of supplies, including coffee makers, CRM services, mailing lists, and even graphic designers. You can learn more about them right here.

NOTE: Sponsors enable us to bring you expert content at no cost to you. Our editorial opinions remain our own. Thanks!

The post 5 Smart Ways to Cut Business Costs by Shrinking Your Carbon Footprint appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Green living can save anyone money, but for seniors facing retirement, going green is especially economical. Choosing an eco-friendly lifestyle can save literally hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year through simple steps that won’t crimp your style but definitely improve your life. And all that green living will help leave a healthier legacy for future generations, too. Want the specifics? Here you go.

10 Ways Green Living Seniors Save Money

1) Energy – Green living seniors use less energy to heat, cool, light, and power their homes. That means they have taken steps to: insulate attics and crawl spaces; weatherstrip windows and doors; install curtains or blinds over windows on the north (cold) side of the house, and awnings and shades on the south (hot) side. Green living seniors also use a programmable thermostat to make it easy to automatically reduce energy consumption when they’re not home. This model, the Nest, is one option.

2) Water – Green living seniors don’t waste money buying bottled water, which ounce for ounce can cost 10,000 times more than tap water. Instead, they have made a one-time purchase of a water filter and fill their own reusable bottles and pitchers with filtered tap water. Depending on how much bottled water they previously bought, these smart seniors could be saving $10 or more a week.

3) Food – According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, most consumers throw away at least 30% of the food they buy because they forget about it and it spoils, or it passes its expiration date. Green seniors keep track of what’s in their fridge and pantry; find yummy ways to enjoy leftovers; and shop from grocery lists so they don’t buy too much in the first place. They also buy from the bulk bins, where they can buy as much or as little as they need and avoid the excess packaging that also drives up the price of our food.

4) Cars, Car/Van Pooling, and Car Sharing – Seniors living together who retire often find that they no longer need two cars, or don’t need their own car as much as before. It’s more economical to maintain and fuel only one car, and to take advantage of the van pools that many communities now offer their senior citizens. Plus, with the expansion of car sharing services like Zip Car, it is becoming much more convenient to share cars rather than maintain your own. This is particularly true with Zip Car. You pay an annual membership fee and an hourly use for the vehicle. But you don’t pay for insurance, gas or oil, new tires, or maintenance.

5) Bicycling – In retirement, seniors find they have more time and interest in bicycling for recreation or to get chores done. It’s a great oil-free, pollution-free way to get around town without having to spend money on gasoline, and of course, it will keep you in shape.

6) Mass Transit – Cities that have mass transit systems usually offer seniors big discounts for taking the bus or subway. Check with your municipality to see when the discount kicks in. In Washington, D.C., it’s age 65, but it could be as early as 60 or 62 where you live.

7) Downsize – Downsizing to a smaller home or apartment probably saves the most money on heating, cooling, and maintenance. The environmental benefits can’t be beat either, since a smaller dwelling has a smaller carbon footprint, and will use less water (fewer bathrooms? less lawn to water?) and require less “stuff” in terms of furnishings, paint, cleaning products and more.

8) Extra Care Communities – Rather than downsize to a smaller home, many seniors are opting to move into retirement communities which are already designed to save energy and other resources, and make it easy to bicycle or take van pools rather than drive. Some communities specialize in eco-friendly dwellings and offer their residents organic gardening options and opportunities to volunteer on green projects. Others maximize energy efficiency through wise construction practices, community design, and use of LED lights and water-saving appliances.

9) Travel – Green living seniors in the U.S. who have a sense of adventure can enjoy many opportunities to volunteer with the National Park Service or the National Wildlife Refuge System. In some parks, you can camp at low or no cost in exchange for volunteer services. If you put in 250 hours over the course of a year, you’ll earn a free annual pass to national parks and other wilderness and wildlife destinations. At the age of 62, for just $10, you can buy a lifetime pass that will gain you free entry to the nation’s national parks, wildlife refuges, and Bureau of Land Management public lands.

10) Library – Libraries offer seniors an absolutely free way to access almost any information you want. If you don’t have a computer, use one at the library. Rather than buy a book, borrow it. The same goes for movies and music. Plus, use the library to read your favorite magazines and newspapers.  You’ll save money on the buying side, and do your part to cut back on the amount of paper that needs to be printed, since you’ll be sharing all these materials rather than owning them outright. If you have an e-reader, you can probably download a lot of what you want from the library’s website so you don’t have to make the visit there if you don’t want to.

The post 10 Ways Green Living Seniors Save Money appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Unless you’re walking or bicycling to your holiday destination, you’ll be using some form of transportation that burns a fossil fuel. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, where it forms a big warm gaseous blanket that hovers over the earth, creating something called the greenhouse effect. This greenhouse effect is causing climate change, which is one of the reasons why we have so many extreme weather events (like Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, and perhaps the unusually early cold weather and snowfall that have already hit much of the U.S. this year).

It’s pretty hard to go day-to-day and not burn any fossil fuels, but it’s especially hard when we’re trying to get somewhere, since transportation depends so heavily on carbon-heavy oil. That’s true for you electric car drivers, too, since your electricity is ultimately coming from a utility that probably uses coal, another carbon-intense fuel, to generate power.

Even when you’ve done everything else you can to cut back on the amount of fuel you use, you’re probably still using some energy that ultimately releases carbon into the atmosphere That’s your carbon footprint. The beauty of carbon offsets is that they help compensate for the carbon you emit by supporting projects and technologies that absorb or capture carbon and other greenhouse gases elsewhere on the planet. In other words, when you support an offset project, it helps shrink your own carbon footprint while reducing the build-up of more climate change gases in the atmosphere.

What Are Carbon Offsets Anyway?

Specifically, a carbon offset is a certificate representing the reduction of one metric ton (2,205 lbs) of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. These emissions are the principal cause of climate change. In an offset project, every ton of emissions reduced results in the creation of one carbon offset. Carbon offset projects can be very expensive to build and maintain. Project developers sell offsets to people like you and me, as wll as to cities and big companies, to finance the projects.

TerraPass funds a portfolio of projects throughout the United States which are all verified and validated under stringent standards. In addition to the environmental benefits from their projects, they also support local communities by providing additional jobs and funds to rural areas; helping to improve air and water quality; and delivering renewable energy to the grid. (You can see their project portfolio here.)

Some projects involve forestry management, which helps forests sequester (i.e. keep, rather than release) more carbon. Others help communities build wind farms to reduce the need to burn fossil fuels. A dairy farm can install an anaerobic digester to capture and destroy methane, another greenhouse gas, that would otherwise be released when animal manure decomposes. This graphic explains carbon offsets perfectly.

What Do Carbon Offsets Cost?

Projects like building a windmill or managing a forest sound expensive, don’t they? And they are, which is why the project developer sells offsets: to help finance their construction and operation. But the beauty of the offset approach is that no one person pays for it all. In fact, because so many people are buying offsets, the price to any one person is really affordable.

For the holidays, TerraPass is offering consumers the chance to shrink their carbon footprint by buying Arcata Community Forest Carbon Offsets. With the purchase of a Holiday Forest gift, you will support the City of Arcata’s community forest located in California. The forest absorbs and stores approximately 2,500 more metric tons (mT) of C02 a year than neighboring forests, or the equivalent of taking 550 cars off the road each year. The purchase of carbon offsets is a critical component of the funding for the management of the forest, which is completely self-funded with no reliance on tax-payer dollars.

How Big Is Your Carbon Footprint?

You can figure out how big your own carbon footprint is by using the TerraPass Carbon Footprint Calculator here. (It only took me a few minutes to calculate mine.)

Once you know how big your footprint is, here are a few ways you can shrink it:

For $13.12, you can shrink your footprint by 1 mT (metric ton), which is equivalent to 2,205 pounds of emitted carbon dioxide.

You might not think that’s much, but it’s equivalent to:

* 5 Homes decorated with lights for the holidays
* 2,381 miles driven by an average passenger vehicle
* 113 gallons of gasoline consumed (the average car holds 12 gallons, so you could offset ten fill ups with just $13.12)

If you want to do more, for $59.50, you could offset 4.5mT of emitted carbon dioxide, or 10,000 lbs.

That’s equivalent to:

* 175 holiday dinners, or
* 1 passenger vehicle off the road, or
* More than half of the electricity your home uses for one year, or
* 15 holiday shopping trips, or
* 4 to 5 flights of 4+ hours, or
* 10,800 miles driven by an average passenger vehicle

Wow!

True Confessions

One year for Christmas, my husband figured out my carbon footprint and then bought me carbon offsets as a present. I’m not kidding! And you know what? I loved it! I really did.

Next Steps

At the very least, I recommend you calculate your carbon footprint. Even if you’ve already taken a lot of steps to save energy, an offset can help you do a little more.

And you know what, even if your footprint is teeny tiny, you might still want to support one of TerraPass’ offset projects because they’re so inspiring.

Take a look. And let me know what you do, ok?

The post Use Carbon Offsets to Shrink Your Carbon Footprint This Holiday Season appeared first on Big Green Purse.

According to Clean Air Partners, a non-profit organization that helps cities and communities in Washington and Baltimore raise awareness about air pollution so they can reduce it, code orange means that the air I’m breathing outside is, well, pretty bad.

Specifically, it warns that “pollution levels are harmful to children, older adults, and anyone with a respiratory or heart condition.”

On a code orange day, parents should keep their kids indoors – even though it’s summer and they’d love to be running around outside. It means that older folks should stay inside, too – no brisk walks around the block, definitely no lawn mowing. Ditto for anyone with asthma or other lung ailments. When I hear “code orange,” I automatically think, “Uh, oh. I better stay inside,” even though summer is my favorite time of year.

Clean Air Partners bases its recommendations on a sort of measuring stick called the Air Quality Index, or AQI. The AQI, seen right, uses both a color-coded and a numerical scale to report on how clean or polluted the air is and what associated health effects might be of concern. The AQI, says Clean Air Partners, focuses on health effects people may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. Pollutants it monitors include particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.

Obviously, even if you don’t have a weakened immune system or heart disease or a similar problem, it’s not a good idea to breathe dirty air, no matter how old you are. Staying inside on code orange days or worse is a way you can protect yourself and your family in the short-term. Long term, we all need to work together to protect the air we all breath.

The most important action we can take is to use less energy, since burning oil, coal and other fossil fuels is the primary source of so much air pollution.

AT HOME:

Turn off lights and electronics when you’re not using them. Use a programmable thermostat like the Nest to keep your air conditioning at a reasonable and even temperature. Don’t mow the lawn if you really don’t need to. Use a gas or electric grill instead of charcoal.

AT WORK:

Telecommute if possible. Otherwise, carpool or take mass transit to work to reduce the amount of gasoline being burned. Support your employer’s energy-saving initiatives, which will help clear up the air in your entire community.

If you live in the Washington/Baltimore region, you can also sign up for free Air Alerts to get air quality updates, especially when pollution levels are projected to be high.

Our air can get dirty and smoggy, but it doesn’t have to. Saving energy always makes sense. It increases our national security and saves us money, too. But in the summer, it’s especially important, since it’s the best way to keep our air clean.

The post What is a Code Orange Day & How Does It Hurt Your Lungs? appeared first on Big Green Purse.