Living a green life is the ultimate goal, right? You’re doing better by the environment, making sustainable choices, and even potentially bringing down your expenses. What’s more, by living a greener life, you’re doing your part to help address climate change, which can benefit the planet as a whole. Every little bit helps, so even one or two changes can have an impact.
Of course, if you’re new to the eco-friendly world, you’ll know how challenging it is to start living green. At San Juan Citizens Alliance, we believe it’s all about the small changes, so keep reading for our top eco-friendly home tips.
Eco-Friendly Home Features
If you’re looking to buy a house this year, you have before you the perfect blank slate to begin practicing your new green lifestyle. Running an energy-efficient household is an excellent way to decrease your carbon footprint. Not to mention, by making minor adjustments in the products, appliances, and materials you use, you’ll be able to impact environmental resources positively. Following are some key features to look for when house hunting.
- Energy Star appliances: According to Canstar Blue, appliances are the most significant energy suck in residential properties. By opting for appliances with the Energy Star label, you’re ensuring your appliance uses 10% less energy with reduced greenhouse emissions.
- Solar Panels: The SEIA reports that over two million American homeowners have gone solar. Harnessing the sun’s power reduces your reliance on the electricity grid and offers significant savings on your monthly bill.
- LED lighting: LED light bulbs use up to 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs and last 25 times longer. This one’s a no-brainer!
- High-quality roof: Before buying a home, ensure that the roof is in solid working condition. Even the most minor holes or cracks can cost you significantly, as you’ll be using more energy for heating and cooling.
As you can see, eco-friendly features benefit both the environment and your wallet! Some of these modifications are also excellent for boosting your home’s long-term value. Take lots of before and after pictures and keep your receipts carefully stowed away, as these steps will help you quantify your home’s value if you decide to sell down the line.
Opt for Clean Green
Yep, we’re talking cleaning supplies! When you’re keeping your home minty fresh, be sure to consider the environmental impact of the products you use. Multi-purpose cleaners, laundry detergent, and cleaning sprays may be toxic, non-biodegradable, and non-recyclable. That’s a big no-no in your new lifestyle! Thus, always read the label before you buy cleaning supplies, as the ingredients used have a significant impact on your health and safety as well.
Buy Second-Hand
Thrifting is the new “it thing” with teenagers and millennials alike. And we get the hype because buying secondhand comes with a slew of benefits. For starters, you’re reducing society’s reliance on fast fashion and its harmful and unsustainable practices. You’re also giving old items a new lease on life, meaning there’s less going into the landfill. You can thrift anything from appliances and dishware to clothing and shoes, but the key is that you’re not perpetuating cycles of overconsumption.
Unplug Those Electronics
Ever heard the phrase “energy vampire”? It is used to refer to devices that drain energy and power, even when turned off. Things like phone chargers, cable boxes, and coffee pots can suck up over 15% of your monthly electricity bill. But the solution to slay these vampires is simple – identify the culprit at hand and unplug them.
Going green may be daunting, but we’ve all got to start somewhere, right? Luckily, when it comes to the world of sustainable choices, even small steps are the right steps. Implementing these minor tweaks and improvements to your home and lifestyle will go a long way in setting you up for eco-success.
To champion the environment, you need powerful advocates backing you up. At San Juan Citizens Alliance, we have many supporters advocating for better protection of the regional landscape through technical and strategic expertise. Click here to join us today!
Guest author: Lisa Walker
Thank you for this article. I appreciate that San Juan Citizens Alliance is putting it out there that we all can have an impact on reducing carbon. Living green also includes eating less meat or better yet move toward a plant based diet. Eliminating air travel. There is a study out of England that say we can have one shirt trip every three years and a long trip every eight years. We also need to walk and ride our bikes more and not driving / owning few cars. Precious metal shortages like nickel is going to limit how many electric cars we are going to be able to produce.
It amazes me how many people don’t unplug their electronics or even turn off lights/fans etc when they’re not using them!!! Becoming more eco-friendly doesn’t have to mean drastic changes sometimes it’s just about the little things