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Ecotips archive

Reduce: Simplify your life as much as possible. Only buy and keep belongings that you use/enjoy on a regular basis. By making the effort to reduce what you own, you will naturally purchase less/create less waste in the future.
Source: http://www.globalstewards.org/ecotips.htm

Myth: When my appliances are turned off, they don't use any power.
Even when your appliances are turned off, many of them still use "phantom power", which can consume almost as much power as when they're on.
Source: http://www.bullfrogpower.com/clean/conservation.cfm

Sustainable Consumption?
Make food, not waste. Before you buy something, think ahead to when you will stop using it. Every product, when you're finished with it, should be food for either the biological economy (readily biodegradable materials) or the industrial economy (recyclable or reusable raw materials for new products). If a product is a combination of both, then it should be capable of being easily separated or disassembled.
Source: David Suzuki's Green Guide, 2008

Americans purchase nearly 3 billion dry-cell batteries every year. In 1989, 621.2 tons of household batteries were disposed of in the US. Help to divert this waste out of the landfill! Recycling batteries keeps heavy metals out of landfills and the air as well as saves on resources to make new batteries.

From: http://www.ehso.com/ehshome/batteries.php#BatteryFacts

For information on how to recycle batteries at the CBE, click here.

Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling or taking mass transit wherever possible. Avoiding just 15km of driving every week would eliminate about 225kg of carbon dioxide emissions a year!

Replace traditional light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. They use 75% less energy and last up to 10 times longer! Turn off all the office and building lights at the end of the day to enjoy big energy savings.
Source: www.enmax.com

Turn Down Your Hot Water. Turn down the temperature of your hot water. It’s better to have hot water at the right temperature than to cool it down with cold water.

Making a new aluminum beverage can from recycled aluminum saves 95% of the energy to make one from ore. (Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation - The Life Cycle of Containers - PDF)

The average Calgarian uses 335 litres of water per day in their homes - that's nearly three and a half bathtubs full. (City of Calgary Water Envirofacts - PDF).

10 seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting your engine (Alberta Motor Association).

Web Administrator: L. Diemert
Last Modified: September 24, 2011