How Much Would You Save if You

There are a lot of small changes that you can make in your home to save money and reduce your carbon footprint.  These changes make good economic and environmental sense.  EnviroCitizen.org's favorite thing about being eco-friendly is that small changes are win-win situations; you save money and reduce your environmental impact.  Small changes like these reduce carbon emissions and the amount of resources used.

For example, if you replace 10 incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs, you may save around $83 each year and prevent about 2,297 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere. Changing your light bulbs seems like a simple step, but it makes a big difference.

How you dry your clothes is also an area where you can save some money and reduce your carbon footprint. For thousands of years, humans have washed their clothes by hand and let them dry on rocks, racks or lines. For the past 40 or 50 years, Americans have been primarily drying their clothes in electric dryers. While electric dryers are convenient, they consume an enormous amount of energy. If you let two loads of laundry dry on a rack or line each week, you'd save about $30 every year and prevent about 850 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.

Another way to save some money and reduce your carbon emissions is to take shorter showers. If you reduced your shower time from 15 minutes to 5 minutes every day, you could save about $185 annually and prevent about 882 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.

There are a lot of other things you can do around your house to reduce your carbon emissions and save money. If you use a programmable thermostat, for example, you can save at least $28 a year and prevent about 411 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted. If you install a tankless water heater, you can save at least $23 a year and prevent about 347 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted. If you turn your coffee maker off after brewing, you'll save around $56 a year and prevent 284 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted. If you hand-clean your oven instead of using the self-cleaning feature, you'll save about $52 every year and prevent 261 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.

In the end, EnvirCitizen.org has found that there are a lot of things you can do to save money and reduce your carbon footprint. It's all about using fewer resources and conserving those resources. You don't have to change your lifestyle that much; all you have to do is be conscious of what you're consuming and ask yourself if you can make changes to save yourself some money and reduce your environmental impact.