Last Updated on February 15, 2024
Go green and save some serious green!Try one or a whole bunch of these savvy ecofriendly suggestions and save hundreds — even thousands — of dollars this year.
In addition to dramatically shrinking your ecological footprint, eco-savvy living tactics often end up costing far less than wasteful, polluting alternatives. Check out these painless ways to go green and enjoy some extra cash in your bank account this year!
Go Green Move #1: Green Your Ride
The number one thing you can do to reduce carbon emissionsis make sure you’re driving the most fuel efficient cars possible. If you’re in the market for a new car, fuel efficiency should be a top priority. A plug-in hybrid car maysave you bigwhile also dramatically reducing your carbon footprint.
The new generation of all-electric cars (EVs) can go over 200 miles on a charge, and don’t cost much more than comparable gas-powered cars, especially once you take rebates and savings in gas into account. Plug in to your home solar power system and you have a zero-emissions ride!
(Actually, Smart Cars aren’t especially efficient, and this turf coating can’t help with aerodynamics, but the picture was too cool-looking to resist. Get an electric car if you’re looking for something small and efficient.)
Even if you don’t need a new car right now, you can go green with smart driving habits that can significantly increase your fuel efficiency. Here are the top tips from efficiency experts:
- Reduce the number of stops and starts to improve fuel economy by up to 30 percent. Are you one of those people who keeps accelerating right up to the red light? It doesn’t get you where you’re going faster and wastes gas. Learn to take your foot off the gas when you see a red or yellow light up ahead.
- Drive 60 mph instead of 75 and get 20 percent better mileage per gallon.
- Keep your car tuned for up to a 4% increase in efficiency.
- Make sure tires are properly inflated and save another 3%.
- Take off the roof rack when you’re not using it – it reduces efficiency by another 5 percent.
- Don’t keep junk in the trunk. Every 100 pounds is another 1-2% reduction in efficiency.
Driving less overall, walking or biking when you can, carpooling and combining car trips will also help you save money and pollute less. Skip a car trip or two a week all year and you might end upa couple hundred dollars richer.
Go Green Move #2:Conserve Energy
No surprise here: when you’re more carefulabout not wasting energy, all the money you don’t pay to the utility company stays in your pocket. You know you should turn off lights, but do you do it consistently? Or does that porch light sometimes stay on all day?
Did you know leaving your printer on all the time could becosting you $120 per year?Here are a bunch more ways to go green by stopping wasting energy and money in your house:
1) Seal up leaks. Start witha home energy audit to find places heat is escaping your home, and seal them all up. Energy audits are incredibly educational, and even if they’re not heavily subsidized by your utility, they pay for themselves very quickly. Ablower door test and infrared pictures of air leaks can pinpoint where your home needs help.
2) Add insulation if yours is insufficient. Sealing up your outletstakes no time at all and will prevent up to 20% of your heat loss.
3) Tend to your thermostat. Heating and cooling are the biggest source of emissions from our homes, and they’re probably costing you more than they need to. Number 1 tip from experts: Get a programmable thermostat and learn how to set it. Try keeping your house a little cooler in winterand a little warmer in summer and dress appropriately. Here’s more about how to save on winter heating.
4) Get a smart strip. Your electronics are drawing power even when you’re not using them, so plug them into a powerstrip and turn everything off when they’re not in use. These smart strips are a good investment since theycut the power to anything not in active use automatically.
5) Change out those bulbs. LEDs have come way down in price and use only a fraction of the energyincandescents used to. Using just 1/6th of the energy of incandescents (and 20% less than CFLs), these awesome bulbs last nearly 50 times as long as incandescents and 5 times as long as CFLs.
They still cost a bit more than CFLs, but if you do the math, you’ll see they’ll easily save you in the long run(very longrun, really — they last50,000 hours!). Here’s more about why to make the switch to LED bulbs.
6) Go green when you renovate: Be sure to get an energy audit, add insulation wherever possible, choose more efficient appliances. Get the most efficient heating and cooling equipment you can. You may qualify for generous rebates that make the most efficient equipment less expensive than their wasteful counterparts, and they’ll pay for themselves in energy savings. Here’s what to know about the pros and cons of heat pumps.
More info about green remodeling here.
Go Green Move #3: Shrink Your Foodprint
Our diets can contribute significantly to environmental degradation. Choosing to go green with your eating habits will not only help the planet, but will also save you money and will likely make youhealthier also.
1) Grow Your Own. Even a little pot of herbs will save you money at the grocery store. Never grown your own before? Check out my free guide for total newbie gardeners. Growing some of your own food can save you some serious cash, and you get the freshest, chemical-free produce that you can enjoy picking from your very own yard. Or try foraging wild foods. Here are some edible weeds you may have growing in your own yard and how to identify elderberries for free sources of super-healthy berries.
2) Buy from thebulk bins. If you’re paying $4 for a jar of spices, you’re throwing away your money. Bring your own jar to the bulk section of your natural foods store and pay up to 80% less. Plus, you can buy just as much as you need, and you’ll always have the freshest spices and no waste. Yeast is another amazing bargain in bulk. Most organic grains and legumes also cost less than pre-packaged.
3) Eat less meat and cheese. These are likely the priciest items in your grocery cart, and they also have the biggest environmental impact. If you’re eating a half-pound of beef a few times a week, you’re contributing as much greenhouse emissions as driving a car 45 miles.
A fewounces of cheese with every lunch, and you’ve done about the same. And while grass-fed is certainly better for a variety of reasons, the methane those grass-fed cows produce and the land required to graze them is still a significant climate factor. (You can check out the emissions equivalencies in a variety of foods here.)
Here are some of the best vegan protein sources for your meatless meals as you trim back on meat. Embrace legume-based soups like hearty white bean soup or homemade split pea soup for incredibly satisfying plant-based meals.
4) Commit to wasting less food. An estimated 40% of food in this country goes to waste. How much money do you wind up throwing in the trash because you bought something on impulse and never got around to eating it, or because it gets forgotten in the back of the fridge? Cut your waste even further with theseroot to stem recipes.
6) Just say no to bottled drinks.Besides being a colossal waste of money (nearly700 times more thantap water!), bottled waternot only isn’t better for you, it’s often just bottled municipal tap water, marked up astronomically and turned into an environmental nightmare.
Fifty million barrels of oil are used just to make water bottles each year, which generate still more emissions as they are shipped around the country.Plus bottled H2O isactually less safe than tap, as tap water has much stricter government regulations.Add filtered water to your stylish reusable water bottle instead, and enjoy having hundreds of extra dollars in your pocket by year’s end.
If you’re a soda lover, consider one of these nifty home soda makers and make your own, healthier, more environmentally friendly fizz.
Coffee drinkers: Please skip the pricey Keurig, the latest waste-maker on the market, and opt for a durable stovetop espresso maker, french press, or drip machine.
Up there with K-cups, those squeeze poucheseveryone gives their babies and toddlers now are adding seriously to our packaging waste problem. These awesome reusable squeezers not only hold more and let you control what’s in them, they’re also made of a safer material than plastic (silicone). You generally want to avoid eating anything that’s been sitting in plastic for months.
Go green by making your own cleaners from inexpensive vinegar and baking soda can also save you money while reducing your exposure to the toxic chemicals in many household cleaners.
Go Green Move #4:Switch to Reusable Everything
Limiting disposable goods (or bads, as the case may be) can save you a lot, while also preventing totally unnecessary emissions, pollution, and landfill waste.
1) Avoid paper towels and napkins and use clothinstead. Depending how much you use, you might save over $100 per year!
2) Bring your own bags. Most stores give you 5-10 cents for every bag they don’t have to buy for you (in Canada they even charge for the bags you do use). 5 bags times 52 weeks, and you’ve got an extra $10-20 for some really nice organic fruit. Here are some other plastic alternatives to cut waste and plastic pollution.
3) Bring your own containers/coffee cups when you go out. Some places will give you a discount when you bring your travel mug. My favorite Thai place always throws in a complimentary order of spring rolls when I show up with my own containers (that’s a savings of $4 every time we go just for skipping the disposable stuff I don’t want anyway — awesome!).
Read next: Plenty more ways to save by going zero waste wherever possible.
4) Other ways to go green and save: Buy everything you can second hand, from clothes and toys to household goods.Better still: borrow or share. Set up a tool lending program in your neighborhood or organize a toy swap. The possibilities are endless. Use your imagination and enjoy saving money while doing your bit for the planet this year.
Looking for more ways to save money by being green? Sign up for our newsletter and grab a FREE guide as a welcome gift.
How many of these green movesdo you already do? What other go green strategies have saved you money? What’s had the biggest payoff, financially or otherwise?
Pin to save these go green tips for later!
Resources and Further Reading:
Union of Concerned Scientists, Cooler, Smarter: Practical Steps for Low-Carbon Living
Fueleconomy.gov
Berkeley Climate Calculator
Photo credits: Pictures of Money, wetwebwork,nils vik, Bitten Word,Mr.TinDC, monicore, Skeeze
Susannah
Susannah is a proud garden geek and energy nerd who loves healthy food and natural remedies. Her work has appeared in Mother Earth Living, Ensia, Northern Gardener, Sierra, and on numerous websites. Her first book, Everything Elderberry, released in September 2020 and has been a #1 new release in holistic medicine, naturopathy, herb gardening, and other categories. Find out more and grab your copy here.
