environment

2. FEATURE: Special 100th Issue

You might expect something for this centenary issue about getting clients, making money, or being a more effective coach.

But you know….let’s reach bigger than that. Let’s look at impacting….well, say, the planet?

Most of you know that I am passionate about the environment. So for our special 100th issue of Mentor Monthly, let’s look at how you can make a positive impact on the environment. You don’t have to do everything but the more you can do, the better for us all – yes?

I invite you to PICK THREE and implement them within a week:

What you can do

1. Replace all of your light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. 

Fact: They use only 1/3 of the energy of a regular bulb. Bonus- they last longer and lower your electric bill.

Bonus – Buy your bulbs and even holiday lighting here

2. Start a compost to fertilize your plants.

Fact: Enriches soil, reduces landfills, prevents erosion on embankments of lakes and rivers, protects water resources from chemical runoff.

3. Properly inflate the tires on your car.

Fact: Reduces 400 to 700 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and you can save up to 2 weeks of gas money per year.

4. Give your car scheduled tune-ups.

Fact: Keeping your engine properly tuned can save you up to 165 gallons of gas per year.

5. Recycle as much as you can.

Fact: Glass recycling saves over 25% of the energy necessary to make glass with virgin materials. Over 1 billion pounds of post-consumer plastics are recycled annually. Recycling aluminum saves about 95% of all the energy it would take to produce aluminum from its original source and recycling just one can saves enough electricity to run a TV for 3 hours! Producing paper from recycled paper reduces air and water pollution by 50%. Recycling one ton of steel (including tin cans) saves 2,500 lbs. of iron ore, 1400 lbs. of coal, and 120 lbs. of limestone.  

6. Carpool or use public transportation.

Fact: If everyone did this only once a week it would cut vehicle emissions by 20%.  

7. Combine your errands or outings- shop for groceries only once a week.

Fact: Cutting a 20 mile trip out of your schedule each week can reduce your global warming pollution by more than 1,200 pounds a year and save you over $100 in gas.

8. Switch to natural cleaning products.

Fact: Indoor air pollution levels can be 25% to 62% greater than outdoor levels.

Bonus- Cut to the Chase Cleaning

9. Eat local produce.

Fact: Shipping burns fuel- a 5 pound package shipped by air creates 12 pounds of carbon dioxide and 3.5 pounds if shipped by truck.

10. Buy on the internet.

Fact: Eliminates the need to drive so eliminates carbon dioxide.

11. Telecommute! 

Fact: If all commuters worked from home just one day a week, we could save 5.85 billion gallons of oil and cut over 65 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. Wow.

12. Fly non-stop when you travel.

Fact: Non-stop flights use less fuel because most of fuel use is during take-off and landing.

13. Turn off or unplug electronics.

Fact: Your electric meter is often adding up kilowatt hours when you don’t think you are using an appliance. Unplug toasters, cell phones, and other chargers when not in use. Cable boxes and video game boxes, and to a lesser extent TVs and DVDs, use almost as much energy when they are off as when they are on. Make it easy to turn them all the way off by plugging them into a power strip and turning off the whole strip. 

14. Weather-strip and/or caulk around windows and doors.

Fact: Uses less energy for heating and cooling.

15. Insulate house.

Fact: Uses less energy for heating and cooling. 

16. Turn off lights when not in use.

Fact: A great way is to install motion sensors that will turn lights on and off for you. Lighting accounts for 12% of home energy consumption. That equals just over a ton of carbon dioxide each year.

17. Think before you print; set printers and copiers to automatically print on both sides.

Fact: It takes more energy to make a piece of paper than to print the image onto it.

18. Bring lunch to work or walk to lunch.

Fact: Reduce traffic congestion, pollution, and get good exercise.

19. Stop junk mail.

Fact: Average adult receives about 41 pounds of junk mail in a year. Eliminating 80% to 95% will keep at least 100 million trees in forests cooling the planet, protect 28 billion gallon of clean water, and would prevent the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions of 2.8 million cars.

Bonus- http://www.41pounds.org

20. Eat less meat.

Fact: If you are a vegetarian, you save 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emission a year compared to someone who eats meat. Poultry is less green-house gas intensive than beef. So eat a few more chicken and vegetarian meals per week. Cutting back on meat even once a week can make a difference.

21. Use energy star appliances. 

Fact: Energy efficient choices can save families about a third on their energy bill with similar savings of greenhouse gas emissions.

22. Choose green electricity from your power company. (Really – call them up and ask for the green option if they have one).  

23. Write your elected officials about your interest in improving the environment. 

Want to know your carbon footprint?

You can calculate your carbon footprint here:

http://www.terrapass.com

I hope you have enjoyed the 100th issue of Mentor Monthly. We can make a difference, so let’s!

***