While Earth Day takes place on April 22, anytime is a good time to reduce your impact on the environment and save yourself some money.

Whether you’re a renter or a homeowner, there’s a lot you can do to save your pocketbook and the planet.

On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, here are 40 simple tips you can incorporate, compiled from Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator and Allstate Insurance Company of Canada.

Year-round:

• In parts of Canada where time-of-use billing is in effect, shift your usage as much as possible to off-peak times: weekday evenings and weekends.

• Turn off lights, TVs and other appliances when they are not needed.

• Wash laundry in cold water. This does just as good a job, keeps your colours bright and saves lots of energy.

• Take short showers instead of baths. A five-minute shower uses about half as much water as a bath.

• Replace incandescent bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescents, which are four times more efficient and last about eight times as long.

• Control the intensity of your incandescent bulbs with dimmer switches to save money. A bulb dimmed by 25% uses 10% less energy.

• Install motion sensors on light switches.

• Dispose of your CFL bulbs properly. You can check with the store where you purchased the bulbs to see if they recycle them or dispose of them at a hazardous-waste depot.

• Using a low-flow showerhead can save up to 15% of hot-water costs.

• Aerators on your sink faucets can reduce water use by about 10%.

• Use small appliances such as a microwave, slow cooker, electric kettle or toaster oven instead of the stove.

• Take clothes out of the dryer and fold them while they are still warm to prevent wrinkling; your iron uses a lot of energy.

• Shower and run your dishwasher, washer and dryer early in the morning or late at night.

• Try setting your dishwasher to start after 10 p.m. when off-peak prices begin. If your dishwasher has a timer, use it.

• Consider a home energy audit to find out how energy efficient your home is and what would be the best way to spend your home-improvement dollars.

Summer:

• Proper maintenance of your air conditioner can increase its efficiency by about 5%.

• Replace the air filters that keep dust out of the duct system — usually every three months for most models.

• Check the SEER number (an energy-efficiency rating) of an air conditioner before you buy one. An energy-efficient air conditioner may be more expensive but it could pay for itself during its lifetime.

• Get your air conditioner tuned up on a regular basis. You can clean the outside compressor yourself with a hose, removing debris that impedes air flow.

• Following instructions and safety precautions from your air conditioner’s manufacturer, you can also clean the grilles and fan blades, clean and lubricate the fan motor and clean the coil fins.

• Reduce the time your air conditioner is on.

• Raise the thermostat by 1 C and lower your electricity bill up to 5%.

• Open windows at night and use fans to blow in cool air.

• During the day, close your windows and draw the curtains closed to keep out the sun’s heat.

• Use fans to cool your room. You can cool the main floor of a house by using a fan to blow cool air up from the basement.

• Winter is over, so there is no need for the ski rack on your car. Save money and fuel by making your car as aerodynamic as possible.

• A tree or shrub that shades your central air conditioner can improve its efficiency by up to 10%.

• Planting trees around your home’s east, west and south sides shields it from summer sun.

Winter:

• Since up to 25% of heat loss is through windows, plastic window covers can help reduce drafts. They can be purchased at most hardware stores.

• Keep curtains open during the day to allow the sun’s heat into your home.

• Put removable temporary caulking on the inside of your windows that you can peel off in the spring.

• Reduce the temperature on your thermostat when you’re not at home and overnight. A programmable thermostat can be set to change the temperature automatically.

• If you have forced-air heating in your home, give your furnace a break by having ducts cleaned regularly and checked for leaks. Leaky air ducts can cause distribution losses of up to 30%.

• Use the sun for more than vitamin D. Solar panels provide clean electricity – even during the winter. Look into grants from the government; they exist for those who want to incorporate solar energy into their home design.

• Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket or covering. You can reduce standby heat losses by 25- 45%, which works out to be about 4-9% of your water heating costs.

• Opting to take a bike instead of a car for all your local travels can have the same effect on greenhouse gasses as planting up to 170 trees. What’s more, when you ride your bike to work, you can skip your cardio workout at the gym.

• Lingering residues from ingredients in conventional cleaners, such as ammonia and glycol ethers, can dissolve and leave behind harmful and irritating vapours. Some products, such as toilet cleaners, go directly into our water systems. Consider making your own cleaning products or purchasing ones without harsh chemicals.

• For cleaning products you do buy, be sure they have full ingredient disclosure and are dye-free and fragrance-free.

• Instead of buying water in plastic bottles, choose a refillable glass or metal bottle to take with you wherever you go.

• Share some environmentally friendly tips with a friend…or two.

(article taken from http://homeandgarden.homes-extra.ca)

Butlers Distributing
Green ECO Products
1929 Bredin Road
Kelowna, BC V1Y 7S9
778-478-0233
http://www.butlersdistributing.ca/

REASONS WHY POLYSTYRENE FOAM IS BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH:

1. Toxic chemicals leach out of these products into the food that they contain. These chemicals threaten human health and reproductive systems.

2. These products are made with petroleum, a non-sustainable, heavily polluting and disappearing commodity.

3. The product does not biodegrade. It crumbles into fragments that have no expiration date.

3. A certain percentage of product will be dumped in the environment, persisting on land indefinitely as litter and breaking up into pieces that choke and clog animal digestive systems in waterways.

4. The product takes up more space in landfills than does paper and eventually will re-enter the environment when landfills are breached by water or mechanical forces.

5. Foam recycling is a public relations stunt, promoted by the chemical industries that manufacture it. This is done in highly centralized, distant facilities using complex chemical processes and expends far more energy than is ever saved by recycling the material.

UNBLEACHED PAPER BIODEGRADES AND ITS USE AVOIDS ALL OF THE ABOVE PROBLEMS

There is a growing number of alternate containers and products available that are made with unbleached paper, a far more environmentally benign material that is made with recycled sustainable materials.

1. Bleaching paper creates chemical pollutants and uses more energy. UNbleached paper is as close to environmentally benign as can be achieved in a non-reusable product. Yes it’s still not perfect. If you want perfection make a cup out of your hands.

2. Recycled paper is an easily renewable resource.

3. Paper dissolves and biodegrades in the environment.

4. Paper products can be recycled at most people’s doorstep where community recycling is in place.

(article pulled from http://verdant.net/)

Fair Trade is really about making changes to conventional trade, which frequently fails to deliver on promises of sustainable livelihoods and opportunities for people in the poorest countries in the world.

Poverty and hardship limit people’s choices while market forces tend to further marginalise and exclude them. This makes them vulnerable to exploitation, whether as farmers and artisans, or as hired workers within larger businesses.

That two billion of our fellow citizens survive on less than $2 per day, despite working extremely hard, suggests that there is indeed a problem.

Fair Trade seeks to change the terms of trade for the products we buy – to ensure the farmers and artisans behind those products get a better deal. Most often this is understood to mean ensuring better prices for producers, but it often also includes longer-term and more meaningful trading relationships.

One Size Fits All?

How this is done varies widely – how people practice Fair Trade is largely determined by how they understand the problems it’s meant to address.

For instance, TransFair Canada manages the Canadian side of an international system that sets standards defining what Fair Trade products are, and provides Canadians with a way to know whether those standards have been met. The intent is to both bring clarity about Fair Trade and instill confidence in the public that it is not about empty promises.

However, neither TransFair Canada nor the international system it represents invented Fair Trade, nor are its standards the only way it should be understood. Even companies who meet our standards and whose products carry our certification mark often approach Fair Trade differently, and it’s up to you as an individual to decide which approach makes the most sense to you.

Ultimately, Fair Trade appeals to our sense of fairness and common decency, and applies those values to the marketplace. It allows us to make a positive difference in the world just by the products we choose to buy.

A Much Larger Community

Beyond certification bodies like TransFair, producers, and the companies that sell their products, there is a much larger Fair Trade community. This community certainly includes all of these actors, but it also includes individual citizens, schools, academics, unions, activists, religious organizations, and more, all unified in their desire to make the world a better place and all bringing their own ideas and perspectives to the table.

To reflect this diversity, this website is meant to do two things. First, it’s meant to explain what Fair Trade Certification is and what TransFair Canada does. Second, it’s meant to provide a platform for people (including you) to have their voices heard and to participate in a broad conversation about Fair Trade and how we can make it better.

(article pulled from http://transfair.ca/)