1. Turn off light & electronics

It’s easy to get in the habit of leaving the lights on, even when it's broad daylight outside. If you have just a few windows, you most likely won't need to have the lights on inside the house during the day- especially not in the rooms you aren't in at the moment. Turn off the lights when you leave a room or when you leave the house. Don’t forget this also goes for that energy-sucking TV that we all have, and the stationary computer in the office!

3. Electric carS… how to decide? how to make the switch?

Getting an electric car is not always beneficial depending on your previous car and where you live. It is only beneficial to buy an electric car if the majority (>50%) of electricity in the country/state is generated from renewable energy. In the USA, renewable energy varies widely state to state so be sure to do some research. In short, only those that live in Vermont (85%), Idaho (75.3%), Washington (71.6% excl. photovoltaic #s as RSE was large), and South Dakota (70.3% excl. photovoltaic #s as RSE was large) should invest in electric cars. In these states it will be a big advantage to switch if you wanna reduce your carbon emissions; the percentage of renewable energy is over 70 percent as of October 2018.

Or- if you’re on the fence about making the big switch- maybe wait and see if the numbers get better over the years. source used

Disclosure: PEASY has used the numbers from the data given in the source to calculate a percentage of renewable energy that does not emit CO2 or other gasses directly. The percentages readers have been given are calculated using this formula by state with data from October 2019:

renewable = (Net Nuclear Power + Net Conventional Hydroelectric Power + Net Hydroelectric Pumped Power + Net Wind Power + Net Geothermal + Net Solar Photovoltaic + Net Solar Thermal)/ Total Net Generation by state.

Those incidences (when a certain power source was not used) were due to EIA not providing the information because of a large RSE or excessive percentage change. Explore more about electricity, its sources, uses etc. here

4. prevent food waste

Every household wastes an extreme amount of resources and MONEY when food is thrown out. Preventing food waste is essential to achieve two things: #1 Better personal economy; #2 Conserving natural resources. A lot of energy and water goes into making and transporting produce and meat, and doing so emits greenhouse gasses in the process. When food waste ends up in landfills, it starts decomposing anaerobically (without the supply of oxygen) via smaller organisms that produce methane and other greenhouse gasses. Globally, this decomposition accounts for 8% of global green house emissions according to the UN. The UN also estimates that about one-third of all food produced is wasted or lost worldwide.

Here are PEASY’s tips to prevent food waste - try one at a time, figure out which are best for you, and add another when you feel ready. This whole journey is about learning and pushing your own boundaries to find a sustainable reality.

1. Plan all your meals for the week ahead of time and only shop for that amount with some additional healthy snacks. Planning your meals throughout the week might seem tedious, but it will save you money from buying food that may end up sitting in your fridge and going bad anyways.

2. If your fruits and veggies are close to going bad and you don’t know what to with them, cut them up and put them in the freezer. Veggies can be defrosted at anytime to cook with, and fruits can be used in smoothies or just as a cold yummy (and healthy) snack.

3. Assign a drawer or shelf in the fridge for items that are very close to going bad and need to be eaten ASAP. This prevents those tricky on-edge items from getting lost in the back of the fridge.

4. Expiration dates are just recommendations, so try alternative methods to testing whether your food has gone bad - a quick google search will do it. With things like milk and yogurt it’s pretty obvious when they have gone bad because they start to smell. To test the edibility of eggs, fill a big bowl with fresh water and put the egg in there. If the egg floats it’s bad, if not, you should be good to eat it.

5. Try regrowing root vegetables from ends that are not used in cooking anyways! The ends of onions, scallions, celery and almost any other root vegetable will regrow when put in a small jar of water and given sunlight. You don’t even need soil to try this! Get some extra tips and tricks here. (BTW if you don’t feel like using one of your fancy mason jars use an old pickle jar or alike).

6. If you don’t consider yourself to have a “green thumb” and don’t enjoy plant-growing, you could still keep ALL of those vegetable scraps and add them to a pot of water. Boil for a few hours and add some spices to make a good vegetable stock! Making your own not only uses up food you’d be throwing away, but also cuts out the energy used to make a store-bought one AND the packaging it comes in.

2. Following the other habits

The most important tip that we can give you in this section is truly to read the other habit pages! The majority of the tips in each section tie into helping the environment in several more ways, such as helping to conserve energy! Here you’ll find a summary of some previously mentioned habits and how they relate to conserving energy.

Prolonging the life of plastics

Prolonging the life of the plastics you have in your house will not only decrease plastic waste over time, but also decrease the energy required for plastics to be made in the first place. SO, don’t switch out that relatively new plastic toothbrush you already have for a new bamboo toothbrush. This will only waste the energy that was used to make the plastic toothbrush AND require more energy to make the new toothbrush. Use caution during this transition into a more sustainable lifestyle. Make use of what you already have, properly dispose, and then replace!

Read more at Tip 1 on the Reducing Waste Page

Learning to Sew, Knit, and donating/selling your clothes

As already described in Reducing Waste Tip 7 and 8, keeping your clothes for as long as possible will drastically help save resources. This includes the energy needed to produce new clothes, transport it and to possibly recycle it if disposed of properly. If there is a smaller demand for new clothes, companies won’t need to make as many clothes; therefore, they will use less energy.

Washing your clothes less often, filling the washing machine and using cold water

Heating water and running a washing machine requires more energy thatn you’d think- but everyone needs clean clothes! If you follow this habit your electric bill will shrink right up, AND you will have used less energy. Washing your clothes is better for them, too! Your clothes will last way longer, as less fibers will shed due to fewer washes softer cold water. Our tip from here at PEASY- Think about how dirty your article of clothing really is. If it smells, put it in one hamper and keep it away from the used clothes that could totally be worn again before a wash. The same goes for filling the dish washer and the trash bag. (See our Reducing Waste page for all the extra tips on trash if you haven’t already).

Reusing as much as you can

Recycling is a last resort (for those who can manage it). If you start saving and using all those glass jars from pasta sauce and mayonnaise, energy won’t be spent on recycling them, nor on the fancy mason jars most people buy to be more sustainable. This doesn’t just go for glass and metal; If you start reusing as much as you can, many resources will be saved all around, especially energy. See Tip 5 under Reducing Waste for extra reading.

Turning off the water when you shower

In line with washing your clothes in cold water to reduce heating energy, there is no reason to increase your electric bill for water that isn’t being used to wash out soap. Try turning off the water when you apply soap in the shower. By doing so, you’ll save the energy that keeps the water hot and flowing while you shower. This is the same concept as turning off the sink while you brush your teeth or do dishes! (related to tip 6 under Saving Water)

5. scrap paper drawer

Everyone goes through some amount of one-sided paper that can be used for smaller notes, illustrations, or even for the kids to draw on. Try to get in the habit of putting any one sided paper aside in a designated spot and using that for grocery lists, to-do lists, etc.