Day to day living takes its toll on the environment and if you’re one of those people who enjoys giving something back, then reinventing your personal space to be eco friendly is an achievement of which you can be justly proud. Here are a few of the many things you can do to live well and make your own important contribution to preserving the planet.
Natural resources
Water is precious and all too often it is wasted unnecessarily. If you want to make the most of the water supply you’re lucky to have, try these simple techniques:
- when making a cuppa, only boil the amount of water you need;
- choose low flow toilet systems or reduce the volume of water used by your toilet cistern with one of the special kits or simply add a brick;
- don’t leave taps running;
- take a shorter shower;
- use a water butt to collect rainwater for watering the garden.
Harnessing sunlight is another great way to reduce your environmental impact. Options for capturing sunlight, such as solar panels, are evolving all the time as technological advances offer new gadgets and systems to convert sunlight into power. Solar energy can be used to provide thermal heating, lighting and ventilation systems that can save you money as well as deliver a cleaner source of renewable energy.
Sustainability
Our greedy consumer society has all too often thrown away things it has tired of, rather than taking the trouble to recycle, upcycle or repurpose items. Happily, much of that is changing and many mainstream suppliers of furniture, textiles and home essentials are offering the opportunity to select eco furniture, which is exclusively made from reclaimed wood.
You can also help promote sustainability by shunning supermarket plastic bags in favour of a good old-fashioned shopper bag made from recycled materials that can be reused time and again. Then there are green cleaning products – out with the chemicals and in with the natural products with cleansing properties that will do wonders for your home.
Protection
One of the reasons you need electricity, gas or oil is to protect your home from environmental extremes. Depending on the local climate, you may need heating in the winter and air conditioning or sun protection in the summer. Insulation is the single biggest opportunity you have to protect against the cold and save environmental energy, and money, on your heating bills. Loft and wall insulation are key and even though you may have double or triple glazing, you will reduce heat loss through windows and doors further by installing shutters, using draught excluders or hanging heavy curtains.
Movement sensitive, low energy lighting provides another great way to reduce environmental impact and allow you to control energy consumption both outside and inside your home. It also acts as extra protection for your premises – from human rather than environmental influences.
Of course, there are lots more ways, big and small, in which you can make sure your home is working for the environment as well as for you. Eco friendly houses are an essential part of the future – what can you do?
