I must thank my little 12 yr old sister for this one.
She is one of the most active people I can think of off the top of my head that has a constant desire to do the right thing in energy, recycling, animal conservancy etc. She has had such and impact on what I do at work with printing, faxing, light usage, so on and so forth.
While I do my part there are people who are “Green Consultants”. Their Job is to go to your company or home and fix it to make your home or business greener, and more energy efficient. If you’re a business on a large scale, I suggest doing some research and hiring a professional, this would give you the best results. But if you’re a home, or small business consider the following tips to help you out.
Fluorescent Lights
After installing these in my home lights, the electricity bill dropped $40. NO JOKE! These lights also emit less heat, meaning less cooling costs. They alter the view a little bit, being white light, but they do help a lot.
Automated Thermostat
Use an automated thermostat to keep your home cooler at night, when you’re there and need the comfort, and warmer during the day, when you’re not there and don’t need a cool home. The few degrees of difference help keep your AC closer to outside temperatures, and yield for more efficient cooling costs.
Seal it Up
Check your ducts, and seal them, there could be lots of loss through the ducts. Close and seal the windows, major cooling and heat loss here too, check ‘em and seal ‘em. If need be check your insulation, poor insulation will lead to a super fast loss of efficiency.
Don’t Print What You Don’t Need
If you can keep it on PDF do so. I use Primo PDF, free and efficient. It prints .doc to PDF and works well. Keep a USB thumb drive to move files around too. If you don’t need to print it, DON’T!
Check Out These Sites
http://www.treehugger.com/
http://www.thegreenoffice.com
http://www.greenbiz.com/
