Almost everything you do in your daily life has an impact on the environment, whether it’s driving your car, taking a shower, or running the air conditioning unit. And in order to combat climate change, it’s becoming increasingly important for everyone to do their part to protect the planet. There are various ways homeowners can do this, from composting food scraps to adding more insulation. Or, if you live in a hot climate that receives a considerable amount of sunlight – like El Paso, TX or Tucson, AZ – switching to solar power may be the right option for you.
Living a more eco-friendly lifestyle has many benefits, from helping the environment to saving money on energy bills. To help get you started, we asked experts, from green energy providers and smart home specialists, to gardeners and sustainability professionals, to share their best piece of advice on how to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Check out what they had to say to help you become more environmentally conscious in your own home.
Turn down the heat, turn off lights, and use automated power bars
Your home is the place where you can make the biggest difference and begin living an eco-friendly lifestyle. The best place to start is by taking steps to reduce your energy use and making your house more energy-efficient. Turning down the heat by a few degrees, turning off your lights, and using automated power bars to turn off devices are great ways to reduce your energy use. You can improve your energy efficiency by air sealing your windows and doors, making sure your home is properly insulated, and switching to energy-efficient appliances and LED lights. These changes are not only good for the planet but also make your home more comfortable, and save you money on your energy bills. – My Green Lifestyle
Limit food waste by composting at home
Sending our food scraps to the landfill results in all sorts of carbon emissions from the trucks that transport the food waste to emissions emitted from the scraps as they languish in the dump. Fortunately, there are so many different ways to compost at home. From pick-up services to electric composters, dropping scraps with a neighbor who composts to managing one’s own scraps for a garden or lawn, composting at home is one of the easiest and low-cost ways to incorporate a more eco-conscious habit in one’s lifestyle no matter where they live. Not to mention, people who compost reduce their overall trash by nearly half. – WasteWell
Stay in control, anytime, anywhere
One way to make your home more eco-friendly is to install smart lighting. Smart lighting devices ] can make your home life more convenience as you can sync them to your smartphone from a remote location, providing further security features to your house, no matter the time. Using them at random or on a schedule, they can imitate occupants’ usage and discourage break-ins, bringing anyone a feeling of reassurance when entering the premise. – Windom Media
Increase your mood and begin to live an eco-friendly lifestyle
When you grow your own food, you control the type of soil and inputs (such as fertilizers and pesticides) to use and therefore know what chemicals are being applied and eventually consumed by you. We use the power of microorganisms to naturally provide NPK and other nutrients to the plants without using synthetic chemicals. Since there are no harmful chemicals, it is safe to use around pets and humans and it’s also safe for the environment. You can help fight climate change because you are rescuing food waste that would have otherwise gone to landfills. Food waste is the third-largest contributor of greenhouse gases. When you grow your own food and live an eco-friendly lifestyle, you are reducing the carbon footprint of foods consumed since they don’t require transportation. Gardening is a form of exercise and helps to reduce stress hormones, cortisol, and adrenaline. Just 20 minutes of gardening has positive mood benefits that will last for 12 hours (research from the University of Vermont). – Nurture Growth Bio
Reduce the amount of plastic bottles with Reverse Osmosis
In-home water filtration systems, such as Reverse Osmosis (RO), allow you to drink purified water right from your tap. This reduces the need for single-use plastic water bottles and/or water jug systems that create additional plastic waste. Water filtration systems allow you to treat and utilize the water found in your home and thus reduce additional emissions and waste associated with seeking out treated water from alternate sources. – HQ Water Solutions
Smart lighting can enhance and preserve your circadian rhythm
We commonly see the request for scheduled lighting, for landscape lights to turn on around sunset, or for house lights to turn off at a certain hour, but smart lighting goes far beyond that. Our favourite benefit is how it can enhance and preserve your circadian rhythm. Smart lights are capable of emitting different colour temperatures and can be programmed to provide bright white light in the morning to help wake you up and energize you, and then turn to a calming yellow light in the evening to help you relax and trigger the cycle of natural melatonin production so that sleep comes easier. – Mission Audio Visual
Reduce fossil fuels released into the atmosphere
A solar-powered home, by generating its own electricity, will reduce demand on the electrical grid, with both net metering (on-grid) and battery storage (off-grid) solutions. Increasing the amount of solar-powered homes reduces the need for peak energy sources, which unfortunately in Ontario are powered by fossil fuels. A home installation of solar power is supported by Federal Government rebates. A solar-powered home is an important aspect of the growing green economy and is destined to be an important factor in resale values. – Guelph Solar
If your state authorizes net-metering, your solar panels will save you money even when the sun’s down. Net-metering is a 1:1 credit electricity providers give you for excess power your panels generate. – The Solar Edge Pros
Upgrading your home’s electricity source to solar is one of the most effective ways to lower your carbon footprint and make a meaningful contribution to fight climate change and live an eco-friendly lifestyle. And the latest solar technology is incredibly durable, maintenance-free, and adds value to your home. It’s a financial and environmental no-brainer. – Sky NRG Solar
Boost curb appeal while giving back to mother earth
We understand and appreciate the importance of having a healthy yard, whether it’s maintaining the grass, adding custom landscape architecture, or installing a garden to grow your own food. Gardens full of veggies not only add to your curb appeal but save you money on food and get rid of the pesky waste that can come from buying food from the grocery store. Give back to your yard and mother earth by starting your own vegetable garden today. – Turf Fox
Opt for an urban garden in the city
It can be a raised bed or container as small as 4×4 square feet in which you can grow from early spring to late autumn and harvest between 10 and 14 rounds of super tasty and healthy veggies right from your balcony or terrace. An urban garden helps make towns and cities greener with all sorts of environmental benefits. every little bit of green in town helps to control and lower temperatures, helps increase humidity, and captures dust and gases. What you grow yourself doesn’t need to be transported which can reduce your food miles considerably. Vegetables from your own garden aren’t wrapped in plastic or order packaging materials, so you reduce your plastic waste. And last but not least, 20% of households waste is organic waste, and having your own vegetable garden has proven to reduce that amount of waste a lot. In the end, you can harvest exactly as much as you actually eat. Plus knowing where your food comes from and how much work and love went into the production, makes you more reluctant to waste it. – Easy Urban Gardening
Save money and energy
Improving a home’s insulation system is the one project that pays us back in money and energy savings reducing our carbon footprint. This can be accomplished in multiple ways. Adding additional blow-in with a proper air seal has a 7-10 year ROI and requires touch-ups every 10-15 years. Converting to a sealed attic assembly with spray foam may cost more upfront, but has a faster ROI at 3-5 years and never requires touch-up unless damaged. You’re one step closer to an eco-friendly lifestyle. – On The Mark Spray Foam Insulation
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