| 10) |
Wash It Cold - Heating water is another energy intensive process, which tends to account for a third of the energy costs for the average household, using the cold water setting when doing your laundry will reduce your carbon footprint. |
| 9) |
Recycle It - Recycling plastics, metals, glass, and papers reduces the need to harvest, mine, and process new raw materials, which are all extremely energy intensive processes. |
| 8) |
Eat Your Greens - Raising cattle and other livestock requires a significant amount of energy and produces a large amount of methane (a potent greenhouse gas), so eating more vegetables and less meat will shrink your carbon footprint! |
| 7) |
Buy Local - A large amount of the carbon footprint associated with newly purchased products is related to the fossil fuels used to transport the product to the consumer, so the farther a product has been shipped the larger its carbon footprint will tend to be. |
| 6) |
Replace Your Bulbs - The Office of Sustainability at Dickinson College recently calculated the carbon footprint of a compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb and that of an equivalent (traditional) incandescent light bulb. The results over the lifetime of one CFL: 75% carbon footprint reduction (not to mention $50+ of utility bill savings per replacement). |
| 5) |
Reuse It - Reusing a product results in more energy and carbon savings than recycling, because it avoids the need to re-process the materials. |
| 4) |
Unplug It - Unplugging devices or flipping the switch on a surge protector can help you avoid being a victim of "Phantom Energy". Phantom energy refers to the electricity that is drawn by devices with computer chips even when the device appears to be off. In many devices, this is as much as 10% of the electricity the device uses when it is turned on! |
| 3) |
Walk and Bike - Using "people" power in place of fossil fuels will save approximately 20 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile, which is the about the same as a round trip between the Kline Center and Denny Hall or a one way trip to Wal-Mart from campus. |
| 2) |
"Turn Me Off" - Turning off lights when you leave an empty room on campus can literally save tons of carbon dioxide per year! This includes empty classrooms and bathrooms, too! |
| 1) |
Carpool - Sharing a ride with a friend (or potential friend) is perhaps the easiest way to make a dramatic impact on your carbon footprint. By carpooling with just one other person, you immediately cut your carbon footprint for your trip in half! If you are on a budget, this can also cut your cost of fuel in half. Besides, who does not want someone to talk to during a long car ride? |
