How to Reduce your Carbon Footprint

1. How to Reduce your Carbon Footprint Maria Angelo

2. How to Reduce your Carbon Footprint at Home • Use vegetable-based and bio-degradable cleaning products • Use recycled wood chips to keep the weeds down, retain moisture, and prevent erosion. • Don't water your grass. • Borrow seldom used items such as ladders and chain saws. • Put leaves in a compost heap instead of burning them or throwing them away. • Install water barrels to collect rain water from troughs. Place a small bucket in your sink to collect water when washing produce. Use this water in the garden.

3. How to Reduce your Carbon Footprint at the Office • Reduce the need to copy and print. When you need to, copy and print on both sides of the paper. • Reuse items like envelopes, folders, and paper clips • 'Set up a bulletin board for memos' rather than sending. 'Reduce-Reuse-Recycle plastic, paper, aluminum, glass.

4. How to Reduce your Carbon Footprint in Transportation • Consider using your bike, feet, or mass transportation for most transportation needs • Consider purchasing a hybrid vehicle, an Electric Motorbike or more efficient car. • Purchase radial tires and keep them properly inflated • Drive during non-peak hours. If you avoid heavy traffic you will not spend a significant amount of gas during stops. • Don't Warm it Up The best way to warm up a modern car is to drive it. Idling hurts engines, wastes gas, and contributes to global warming and pollution. • Use carpool - get a lift to school or work with a friend. • Use synthetic motor lubricants that don't need changing for at least six months. • Use Propylene Glycol Antifreeze/Coolant, which is superior and non-toxic, instead of ethylene glycol.

5. 5 Ways to Reduce your Carbon Footprint OVERALL • 1. Buy organic and local. • When possible, buy organic or "fair trade." There's a better chance the food was grown in an eco-friendly way, and if it's locally grown, it didn't have to travel that far. This also goes for those double lattes — coffee often has a large carbon footprint because of the distance those beans had to travel to get here, and how they were produced. Also, try eating at restaurants that serve locally produced or seasonal foods. • 2. Pay attention to packaging. • When out shopping, try to go to stores or co-ops that keep packaging to a minimum. For example, you may chose to buy the loose tomatoes rather than boxed or plastic-wrapped tomatoes. Also, take reusable bags to the grocery store. When it comes to resources, plastic is better than paper — but a reusable cloth tote-style bag is better still. • 3. Ditch bottled water. • Bottled water has a huge carbon footprint — it's bottled at one location in small plastic bottles and shipped all over. Try buying a reusable water bottle or canteen for your water. Also, a lot of restaurants have made the move from offering fancy bottled water, usually imported from an exotic source, to using in-house filtration systems that make tap water a good choice. Many plastic water bottles are recycled, but most are not, making the footprint even bigger. • 4. Energy-proof your home. • We're not talking major upgrades here... Make sure all of your windows close properly and that the attic in your home is properly insulated. This can save you big bucks on your energy bill. Also, keep your heating and cooling systems properly maintained, and switch to reusable filters when possible. Try switching from incandescent to compact florescent light bulbs. Compact florescent light bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than our normal light bulbs and last much longer. Compared to regular bulbs, the fluorescents are more expensive, but they will eventually pay for themselves due to lower energy costs. • 5. Go native. • Use native plant species to landscape around your home or business. The plants will probably grow better in a familiar environment, and the plants may also get shipped a shorter distance to get to your local nursery. Also, use organic soil when planting — it's made using more eco-friendly methods, and uses less resources. And remember, green plants are a good way to offset carbon. So plant something, anything — it helps.

6. How cast “How To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint” Video http://youtu.be/u7zwrzEyzkA

7. Works Cited • "Earth Day 2011: How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint - ABC News." ABCNews.com: Breaking News, Politics, World News, Good Morning America, Exclusive Interviews - ABC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/earth-day-2011-reduce-carbon-footprint/story?id=13411866>. • "How to reduce your carbon footprint - Green Wiki." Green Wiki. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://green.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_reduce_your_carbon_footprint>. • Howcast. " YouTube - ‪How To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint‬‏ ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7zwrzEyzkA>. • Jefferson, Millie, producer, and Weekend America. "15 Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint | Consumed | Sustainability Coverage From American Public Media." Sustainability Coverage From American Public Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumed/tips.html>. • MLA formatting by BibMe.org.