Reducing greenhouse gases and carbon footprints is the responsibility of everyone. From big industries down to you and your family, being eco-friendly is extremely important and a hot topic these days.
As such, whether you already own your home or you’re looking to purchase your first, there are several things you should consider doing in order to make your home more eco-friendly.
1. Reduce Water Waste
One of the first things you can do is improve your water efficiency.
- Take the time to locate and fix any leaks.
- Don’t run the tap when you brush your teeth or shave.
- Install low-flow shower heads and high-efficiency toilets as they can save over a hundred thousand liters of water per year for a family of four.
2. Purchase & Install a Smart Meter
This is a huge thing you can do to make your home more eco-friendly. When your a/c or heating runs all day, it’s not only a waste of electricity that increases your bill, it can significantly increase your carbon footprint.
With a smart meter, you can set the perfect temperature for day or night and have it set to turn on shortly before you get home and turn off at the same time every morning. Not to mention, many of them will enable you to monitor your entire home’s energy usage in real-time.
3. See the Light
Older incandescent bulbs are seriously outdated. While modern lighting options like LED efficient lighting have been around for quite some time, universal adoption has been slow to take hold.
Energy-efficient lightbulbs not only use less electricity, but they also last longer. This means you save money and cut down on your waste as you cut down on your contribution to our landfills.
4. Upgrade Your Home’s Insulation
Just as you have your roof repaired or replaced to keep the rain out of your home, you need to insulate your home against energy issues. Good insulation helps hold in both the cool and heat, which means less energy wasted keeping your home at a comfortable temperature.
You should also consider double or triple-pane windows to help insulate your home even more. Additionally, if you have hardwood floors, area rugs are perfect for preventing air from slipping in and out through the cracks between the boards.
5. Cut Down on Waste
You might be surprised at how much of your food actually ends up in the trash, and then the landfill, while much of it can be recycled and turned into compost. Purchasing a compost bin and filling it with food waste can help save money on fertilizer and make your garden flourish, all while helping to make your home more eco-friendly. Possibly even helping to boost your self-esteem.
You can also do more to be eco-friendly by changing your coffee maker. Billions of those aluminum and plastic capsules from those single-serve options end up in the landfill and in order to reduce your carbon footprint, you should opt for a traditional drip coffee maker.
Furthermore, you should try to buy recycled products whenever you can. When you go shopping, purchase recycled options and of course, you should recycle whatever your local waste management company accepts.
6. Use Natural Cleaning Products
Numerous cleaning options contain chemicals that are harmful to the environment. Much of it ends up in our water supply. Natural cleaning products like bicarbonate of soda and vinegar are great replacements for those containing caustic chemicals.
