The first step you can take to fight global warming is to reduce your carbon footprint through conservation. Drive less. Turn down the thermostat. Buy locally produced goods.

Then use TerraPass to reduce your carbon footprint all the way to zero.

When you buy a TerraPass, your money funds renewable energy projects such as wind farms. These projects result in verified reductions in greenhouse gas pollution. And these reductions counterbalance your own emissions.

Basically by combining your own efforts with a TerraPass, their goal is to get your “carbon footprint” down to zero. They have multiple options for home, road, and flight, so check it out.

GreenDimes stops your junk mail, plain and simple. Buy a pass, and GreenDimes will take you and your household off of mailing lists for catalogs, credit card offers, and more. On top of that, they’ll plant a tree for you every month that you are a member.

Unbelievably, we chop down 100,000,000 trees and waste 28 billion gallons of water EVERY YEAR producing this stuff. Most of this goes straight to the trash or recycling bin.

For $4 a month, GreenDimes will reduce the marketing at your home, help you maintain your privacy and plant a bunch of trees on your behalf.

I joined less than two months ago, and I’ve already received notifications of stopped catalogs…it’s great, not too expensive, and it’s good for the environment.

Happy Planet Saving!

If you’re going to leave a room, even for a second, you’ll save energy by turning that light off. The same holds true for most consumer electronics. So, the next time you go off to the bathroom during the commercial break, flip the TV off while you’re gone. Why have it on when no one is watching?

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This applies at the office too. Why not shut your monitor and your lights off when you are heading out to the bathroom, lunch or a meeting? It takes 5-10 seconds, and saves a lot of energy. If we all did it, think about the cost and energy savings!

1. Turn your office light off EVERY time you leave your office.
I know when I’m at home, I am always telling my kids to turn off the lights because they are wasting electricity. Well, it’s the same thing at the office. Don’t just turn your light off when you leave for the day, turn it off when you run to the bathroom, meeting, lunch, etc. I also turn off the light in the bathroom and break room when I leave…it’s not hard to turn it back on, and it saves energy…think about it! If you’re concerned people will think you’re out of the office, establish some new rules. Maybe if the light is off but the door is open, I’m just away from my desk. If the door is closed, I’m out of the office. Be flexible!

2. Recycle/Shred your paper.
We don’t recycle at my office, yet I have tons of paper product every week that would normally just go in the trash. Instead, I keep a small cardboard box under my desk, and at the end of the week I dump it in the shred box, which is taken by a professional company who ends up recycling it in the end.

3. Recycle Cans and/or Drink Water
If your company doesn’t currently recycle cans, you should really push for it. It’s pretty darn easy to put a trash can in the break room with a lid with a hole in it for cans only. If your company won’t allow a recycle bin in your area, bring a bag or box from home to toss your cans in. Better yet, drink water instead! It’s better for you anyways.

4. Shutdown your computer every day.
I know a lot of people like to leave their system running and just turn off the monitor. That used to be a big time-saver because computers used to take a long time to boot up. Nowadays, you’re looking at 30-60 seconds max. So shut it down every night! If you can’t shut it down, at least try to put it on hibernate or standby to save power.

5. Raise Awareness
This post came about because many companies don’t currently offer anything in the way of recycling or any other environmental support. I’m doing something about it by raising awareness, talking to my coworkers about these tips, and trying to get a recycling program started. You can do the same thing at your workplace! The more people you tell, the more people will take part in helping our environment.

All these things are so simple to do! If we all do a little, we can help a LOT!