Spread Green Living Ideas

Please share this Green Living Ideas with your friends and help spread the Green Consciousness.

Hazardous waste should be segregated separately : Fluorescents bulbs or tube contain mercury, which is highly toxic.each homeowner be required to have a garbage can labeled hazardous waste and only hazardous waste could go into it. Then contact hazardous waste garbage disposal company to pick it up in a separate truck, possibly only once a month.

Say No to Bottled water : Bottled water takes money from your pocket and adds an even greater amount of waste to landfills. Purchase a reusable water bottle to use at work or when traveling so you don\'t have to buy bottled water.


Get a Fuel-Efficient Car : Not only will a fuel-efficient car pollute less and use up less gas, it will save you money too.

Common Area Lighting : Solar Lighting is a useful source of renewable energy which used properly for common are alighting will save a lot of Energy(Power). Automating the Lighting system will further saves More Energy enabling us to contribute to resolve ISSUE OF GLOBAL. WARMING.

Live Closer to Your Destinations : Living close to your destinations helps to explore neighborhoods that are near your workplace, have public transportation, and offer easy access to the places you visit most often.

If you have Green ideas to share please add them at http://www.commonfloor.com/green-living

Eco-friendly methods to control pests

Pest problems in one apartment,if left unchecked, can spread to neighboring apartments.Like any other living being, pests tend to move to a place where they can survive and their needs are met.Here are some tips for Eco-friendly pest control.

Tips for Eco-friendly pest control

Clean your apartment at regular interval and avoid storing newspapers, paper bags, and boxes for long periods. Also, check for pests in packages or boxes when you carry them to your home.

Don’t let garbage stack up or pile up in your home. Make sure that you don’t have bowls of water, discarded tires, and other receptacles that can contain rain water.

Baking soda and powdered sugar mixed in equal parts is a good Cockroach killer.

Cucumber is natural and non-toxic pesticide to get rid of bugs such as ants, wasps, mites etc.

Soak a cotton ball in the oil of peppermint and place it at a suspected entryway. Mice cannot stand the scent of peppermint or peppermint oil.

Caulking crack in your kitchen or bathroom doors and windows help to minimize the shelter of pests in your home.

More tips and preventive methods are at www.commonfloor.com/articles/pest-control-home-apartment

Going green in your apartment, office or college

Green lifestyle saves environment and going green in your apartment, office or college help you reduce your carbon foot print. Following green tips help you to save energy, water and environment.

• Downloading your favorite music: CD cases are often made with polyvinyl chloride, which doesn’t recycle easily. By downloading new music you reduce production costs, packaging and CDs that eventually end up in the landfill.

• Watering lawn: Watering your lawn every day does more harm than good. By watering less, you can make your grass grow roots that are deeper and healthier. Daily watering produces shallow roots.

• Go Soy With Your Candles: Soy candles are free of petroleum, unlike conventional wax candles, and are nearly soot-free so they won’t pollute the air in your apartment or leave those nasty smoke marks on your walls. They burn up to 50% longer than wax candles and cost about the same.

• Go green at college: Sharing a textbook with someone else who is taking the class helps save paper and will contribute to your efforts to go green at college.

• Make it a habit to turn off the lights: Make it a habit to turn off the lights when you're leaving any room for 15 minutes or more and utilize natural light when you can.

• switch to LCD monitors and TVs: We must switch to LCD monitors and TVs at home and at work as these consume less energy and are far less harmful to human eyes and body by virtue of their reduced emissions. The costs have also come down these days.

Green Tips-Simple Things We Can Do

• If you are buying charcoal, make sure it's made from a sustainable source. Enormous areas of tropical rain forest are destroyed every year to produce the 400,000 tons of charcoal burned annually in the U.S.
  

• Create a workable system to always have your cloth bags with you for purchases. Re-use paper and plastic bags, and when they wear out, recycle them.

• Place your air conditioner or thermostat away from lamps, TVs, or any heat-generating appliance. Outdoors, if you shade your air conditioning unit, you could save 10%-15% a year on energy use and costs.

• Cover pans with lids to save 2/3 of the energy used in cooking. Use your microwave rather than the stove and save as much as $50 a year

• CD cases are often made with polyvinyl chloride, which doesn’t recycle easily. By downloading new music you reduce production costs, packaging and CDs that eventually end up in the landfill.

• By watering less, you can make your grass grow roots that are deeper and healthier.Daily watering produces shallow roots.

Reduce waste and Save environment

The majority of the waste ends up in landfill or as litter. Either way, household waste is an environmental problem. Here are tips for you to reduce waste and promote green living.

• Food scraps and garden waste can be composted:The easiest way to deal with food waste is to set up a worm farm and/or a compost heap at your home. And you don't necessarily need a big garden to do this. Apartment dwellers can set up small worm farms on a balcony or a communal compost heap on the ground somewhere.Most food scraps (but not meat or dairy) and garden waste can be composted.

• Reusable products or packaging: Try to only buy products that are reusable or come in reusable packaging - and actually reuse them. Take your own cup when buying a coffee or drink.The best solution to waste is to avoid it in the first place.Avoid altogether items that are designed to be used once only

• Avoid an air-based holiday: Aeroplanes are one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse pollution. In particular, they emit high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and water vapor. For your next vacation discover the secrets of your own state rather than taking an air-based holiday, or travel overland by train or bus.

• Think about what you need: Throwing food away costs more than just the money you paid for it, you're also wasting all the water, energy and other resources that went in to producing the food in the first place.Think about what you need and use what's in the fridge, freezer or pantry before you eat out or get take away.

• Switching to Green Power: Switching to Green Power is the best way to cut your greenhouse pollution in the home. When you switch, you'll see no change in the way electricity comes to your house and there is no supply disruption. The only difference is that for a small extra charge, some or all of the electricity that you use will come from a renewable energy source and directly reduce greenhouse pollution.

Green Homes create healthy environments

A green building is one which is energy efficient, uses natural and renewable energy and causes the least amount of damage to the environment. In India, Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) Green Homes is the first rating program developed exclusively for the residential sector.

The biggest advantage is, the well designed green building may accrue life-long benefits at small make-up costs and reduction in water and operating energy costs. Climate sensitive building envelope includes better solar shading and insulation, solar water heaters.

Energy efficient lights in the common areas save energy and lower electricity bills. Layouts of green projects ensure adequate natural light and cross-ventilation in all. In addition, use of high performance glass will cut down heat gain and translate to direct energy savings for the residents.

It is always preferable to use native, drought-resistant species which require minimal water. Waste water can be treated on-site and re-used for irrigation and flushing translating to water savings for residents, possibly reducing the purchase of water from outside sources.


In India, there are two mechanisms for evaluating the energy efficiency of a building. The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), that was formed in 2001, set up the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) India committee that rates buildings based on five environmental criteria. The second system is that devised by the Energy Resource Institution. The Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) has been endorsed by the government as the national rating system for buildings, based on their predicted performance over their life span.

Green homes create healthy environments by using interior paints that are low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs). High levels of VOCs as found in oil-based paints can emit vapors for a long time after application causing adverse impact.

These green homes are built on the principle of waste segregation and organic waste composting.

Spread the Word to Save Environment

Your word has power of saving the environment. We all know that our country is one of the nations that are facing the problem of global warming. You can share your tips with your friends, teachers, neighbors or relatives. You can ask more tips from them. This enables you to spread green living or ideas among your friends and neighbors. Here are some tips for you to share with your friends, relatives or neighbors.

• Don’t place your fridge in a warm spot-near a heater or in direct sunlight.

• For efficient operation clean the condenser coils on the back or bottom of your fridge at least once a year.

• Unlike refrigerators, with freezers size does matter. Larger freezers do need more electricity.

• Don’t waste energy preheating your oven, most ovens don’t need it.

• Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents (CFLs). Compact fluorescents use four times less energy, and last eight times longer than incandescent light bulbs.

• Wish your friends and relatives on special occasion with e-card. This is cheapest and easiest way to wish them. Save paper by sending e-card.

You can share your tips with your friends, teachers, neighbors or relatives. Learn one green tip each day and adopt green living in your life. Reduce wastage and reduce your carbon footprint in the world. Your word has power to change the world. Help friends and seek help from your friends to save environment.

Green living for saving money and saving earth

Environment and living beings depends each other for its existence. Living being needs adequate air, water, food and shelter for living comfortable. Green living is lifestyle which reduces wastage of natural resources such as water, energy and helps to reduce pollution or polluting environment. Green living not only helps to save environment but also helps to save money spend for acquiring them. Here are some tips for saving money and save environment.

• Carry your own shopping bag: Instead of accepting polythene bags to hold the stuff you buy routinely from shops carry your own shopping bag. Your shopping bag can preferably be recyclable (cloth or paper based).

• Use pressure cooker for cooking food: Using pressure cooker saves the LPG consumed & your gas cylinder runs for a longer time. You save money too. Also the nutrition of food is preserved.

• Use natural light to save on electricity bill: In daytime, don't make the room dark and then use the Electric lamps. Instead, use the Sunlight in the daytime. One can reduce the Elec.bill to a great extent.

• Take care of trees and plants in your neighborhood: Don’t be oblivious to trees and plants around you. Adopt a tree in your area and water it regularly.

• Reduce, Re-Use and Re-cycle: In short, Just Remember, Reduce, Re-Use and Re-cycle should be the mantra in each one's life for Green Living.

Green Living in Office

Green living is the secret or mantra of current world which reminds you to save environment and prevent unnecessary wastage. Green living can be easily adopted in homes and office. In office there are number of things which you can do to avoid unnecessary wastage. Here are some tips for you to adopt green living in office.

• One cup in office: Use a mug or glass for your drink and avoid using disposable cups. You can tell your friends in your office the secret of using the mug or glass. Gradually they will also do the same and helps to reduce wastage of disposal cups.
• Carpool: When you going to and from office give lift or accept lift from your colleagues or friends. This helps to save fuel and reduce number of vehicle in parking lot of company. Carpool is successfully practiced in metropolitan cities.
• Use Laptop: Laptop consumes less energy comparing to personal computer or desktop computers. Laptop plays vital role in saving energy and more the employee’s use the laptop more you will get space on your desk.
• Use printer wisely: Thousands of trees are cut daily to make paper, do not waste paper. When you take any photocopy or print, think whether it is important and if it is optional avoid printing and save them in your computer or email id.
• Use step: when you get down from first or second floor to ground floor, use step than using lift. Use step for one or more day to see the difference.
• Stick to it: When adopting green living, your friends or colleagues may make fun but later they will realize the same and adopt green living
  
• Switch off: Switch off fans and lights when you go for break and when you leave your office, switch off computer, printer and other electronics.
• Recycled paper: Recycle papers are easily available nowadays. Remember to use used paper to make rough works and save paper.

Green living is simple and easy if you really want to make your life green living. Knowingly or unknowingly some green living methods may have become part of our life. Do not think green living is something as new, just adopt them when you do your routine work.

Green Living in Apartment

Green Living in Apartments

In order to make your apartment go green you can do many little things that will result in energy savings and support the environment. One major effort is to go natural by using natural lighting whenever possible, such as the sun as well as natural or organic fibers and food. A few green living tips in your household that can help make your daily footprint a lighter one:

• Recycle. Find out what your apartment building's recycling program is and make sure that you have a container.
• Donate gently used items rather than throwing them away. Check with the village or town hall and find out how to dispose of items such as batteries, paint and cell phones in your area.
• Carpooling.
• Bring a canvas or cloth bag to the grocery store instead of using their bags.

Employing simple tips like the ones above you will be making a big difference in the long run. Following these tips will make your apartment into more of a green living household.

Take a close look at the cleaning products you use and see if you can make some changes because many cleaning products contain toxic substances. Using more environmentally friendly products can help reduce the negative impact on the earth and make your apartment a safer place as well. Many of the green products on the market today are as effective as their more chemically packed counterparts. Using less toxic products can contribute to better indoor air quality, as well as help prevent harsh chemicals from entering the water supply. There are also common, non-toxic substitutions that can be made for some cleaners. Here are a few popular natural ingredients:

• Baking soda can be used to deodorize and scour.
• White vinegar is good for cutting grease and getting rid of mildew.
• Lemon can be used to get rid of strong odors that tend to linger in the sink, such as fish or onion.
• Unscented soap is a great all-purpose cleaner.

Making an environmentally friendly apartment is effectively greening your consumption of food and water. Few tips to be eco-conscious about your food and water consumption are:

Food:

• Check out a farmer's market in the area. Produce and other items are sold at these open air markets. See if you have one in your community and shop there as much as you can. You will be supporting local farmers and getting fresh food at the same time.
• Eat local. When eating out, opt for closer restaurants.
• Choose seasonal fruits and vegetables at the grocery store.
• Buy organic and fair trade goods whenever possible.
• Buy foods that have less packaging and recycle what you can.

Water:

• Take shorter showers and ask your landlord if you can install a low-flow shower head to save water.
• Turn the faucet off when brushing your teeth or shaving instead of letting the water run.
• Use a shorter wash cycle for clothing whenever possible.
• Defrost food in the refrigerator rather than under running water.