This a neat little book by David Bach. We humans have been abusing our planet and over using the resources leading to rapid environment degradation and global warming. The pace at which this degradation is happening has accelerated dramatically over the last few decades threatening to change the face of earth and disrupt the quality of life for us and our future generations. It is our responsibility to preserve the earth and hand it over to our future generations the way we received it.This book gives you 50 simple ways in which you can become more environment friendly at the same time save yourself a bunch of money. As a first step the author recommends that we start by measuring our carbon footprint and understanding the various factors that drives this footprint. You can measure this at earthlab.
Some of his key recommendations that are covered in this book are summarized below:
Some of his key recommendations that are covered in this book are summarized below:
Driving Smart - Getting rid of at least 1 car and moving to public transport, upgrading to a hybrid vehicle, tuning your car to ensure that it operates in peak condition, using bio-fuel, checking pressure in tires etc.
Energy Smart - Use natural lighting to the extent possible, check & seal any leakages in your house, lowering heater/Ac settings by a few degrees, move to CFL bulbs, use energy star compliant devices, unplugging unused devices & if possible explore alternate energy options (Solar water heaters, residential wind turbines etc.)
Low Flow - Using low flow showers/taps, shutting off taps when not required etc.
Green Real estate - Get smaller house if possible(will lower AC/heating requirements), utilize recycled materials, planting trees etc.
Shop Green - Buy organic foods, buy in bulk, bringing your own reusable bag for shopping, reducing meat consumption, growing vegetables in your garden, buying recycled paper products etc.
Recycling - Buy and sell everything, get rid of junk mail and convert to online statements/bills etc
Make green your family value - Spend more time with family outdoors instead of in front of TV, taking volunteer vacations by helping social/environmental causes, send e-greetings & green gifts for holidays instead of paper greetings & gifts with lot of packaging
Green at Work - Bring lunch to work, think before you print, switch off light/computer before leaving for the day, telecommuting etc.
Green investing - Going green is the next biggest trend in the market, invest in green companies, start green business etc.
Give green - Donate for green causes, join green communities, Vote green etc.
A lot of the ideas given in this book are practical and implementable without a lot of effort/investment. The author has also provided lot of web sites, products and a whole lot of related information so that you don't have to search and figure out the details. While we may not practically be able to implement all the ideas, even if we can implement a handful of these ideas we will be helping our planet and at the same time helping ourselves by saving more money. Though each of these changes may not make a significant impact by themselves cumulatively they will make a big impact. As the saying goes 'Every single drop counts'. This book is very short and crisp and it has a wealth of information. I would strongly recommend this book if you want ideas for saving money at the same time would like to help & preserve the planet by going green.
If you do decide to buy the book pls go green and get an used book from online !!!
