GREEN TIP

Link and/or additional information

Going skiing? Save gas, money and hassle. Bus to Monarch Fridays and Saturdays at 9 am from pool and return at 3:30 pm. $5 roundtrip. 539-6738.

http://salidarec.com/ski/ 

How can I avoid CO (carbon monoxide) poisoning from my vehicle?

• Have a mechanic check the exhaust system of my car every year. A small leak in your car's exhaust system can lead to a buildup of CO inside the car.
• Never run a car or truck in the garage with the garage door shut. CO can buildup quickly while your car or truck is running in a closed garage. Never run your car or truck inside a garage that is attached to a house and always open the door to any garage to let in fresh air when running a car or truck inside the garage.
• If you drive a vehicle with a tailgate, when you open the tailgate, you also need to open vents or windows to make sure air is moving through your car. If only the tailgate is open CO from the exhaust will be pulled into the car.

Celebrate bEARTHdays! Invite family and friends to an Earth Day party. In Salida EarthFest is Sat., April 20 at Riverside Park, 10 am – 2 pm.

Use Earth Day, April 22, to get your family, friends, and neighbors involved in a fun environmental project that will build everyone’s awareness of the issues. There are many suggestions on the Internet in addition to this site.

Had your annual checkup? Include furnace and appliances to increase efficiency and decrease carbon monoxide poison risk.

How can I prevent CO poisoning from my home appliances?

• Have your heating system, water heater and any other gas, oil, or coal burning appliances serviced by a qualified technician every year.
• Do not use portable flameless chemical heaters (catalytic) indoors. Although these heaters don't have a flame, they burn gas and can cause CO to build up inside your home, cabin, or camper.
• If you smell an odor from your gas refrigerator's cooling unit have an expert service it. An odor from the cooling unit of your gas refrigerator can mean you have a defect in the cooling unit. It could also be giving off CO.
• When purchasing gas equipment, buy only equipment carrying the seal of a national testing agency, such as the CSA Group
• All a battery-operated or battery back-up CO detector in your home and check or replace the battery when you change the time on your clocks each spring and fall.

Save water and energy. Fill your dishwasher before running. Avoid the “rinse hold” and “heated dry” cycles.

Dishwasher Water-Saving Tips

• Check the manual that came with your dishwasher for the manufacturer's recommendations on water temperature; many have internal heating elements that allow you to set the water heater in your home to a lower temperature (120° F).
• Scrape, don't rinse, off large food pieces and bones. Soaking or pre-washing is generally only recommended in cases of burned- or dried-on food.
• Be sure your dishwasher is full (not overloaded) when you run it.
• Avoid using the "rinse hold" on your machine for just a few soiled dishes. It uses 3-7 gallons of hot water each use.
• Let your dishes air dry; if you don't have an automatic air-dry switch, turn off the control knob after the final rinse and prop the door open slightly so the dishes will dry faster.

More light, less cash and fewer “honey do’s”. LED bulbs last forty times longer, great for hard to reach places.

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LEDs help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and lower electric bills. A 60 watt incandescent light bulb produces 800 lumens of light. For 6-8 watts one gets the same amount of light from an LED bulb. Using coal derived electricity the bulb produces 15 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year. That compares with 150 pounds for the 60 watt incandescent bulb. The LED bulb lasts an average of 50,000 service hours compared to 1,200 service hours for the incandescent bulb.

Power out? Resist the temptation to use a gas range or oven for heat! Carbon monoxide (CO) can kill.

How can I heat my house safely or cook when the power is out?

• Never use a gas range or oven for heating. Using a gas range or oven for heating can cause a buildup of CO inside your home, cabin, or camper.
• Never use a charcoal grill or a barbecue grill indoors. Using a grill indoors will cause a build up of CO inside your home, cabin, or camper unless you use it inside a vented fireplace.
• Never burn charcoal indoors. Burning charcoal — red, gray, black, or white — gives off CO.
• Never use a portable gas camp stove indoors. Using a gas camp stove indoors can cause CO to build up inside your home, cabin, or camper.
• Never use a generator inside your home, basement, or garage or near a window, door, or vent.

Are your energy bills in hot water? Insulate your water heater or switch to an on-demand model to save energy and money.

Water heating is the second largest energy expense in your home. It typically accounts for about 18% of your utility bill. There are four ways to cut your water heating bills: use less hot water, turn down the thermostat on your water heater, insulate your water heater, or buy a new, more efficient model.

Water Heating Tips

• Install aerating, low-flow faucets and showerheads.
• Repair leaky faucets promptly; a leaky faucet wastes gallons of water in a short period of time.
• Set the thermostat on your water heater to 120°F to get comfortable hot water for most uses.
• Insulate your electric hot-water storage tank but be careful not to cover the thermostat. Follow the manufacturer’s recommendations.
• Insulate your natural gas or oil hot-water storage tank but be careful not to cover the water heater’s top, bottom, thermostat, or burner compartment. Follow the manufac­turer’s recommendations; when in doubt, get professional help.
• Insulate the first 6 feet of the hot and cold water pipes connected to the water heater.
• If you are in the market for a new dishwasher or clothes washer, consider buying an efficient, water-saving ENERGY STAR® model to reduce hot water use. See the Appliances section for more information.
• Install heat traps on the hot and cold pipes at the water heater to prevent heat loss. Most new water heaters have built-in heat traps.
• Drain a quart of water from your water tank every 3 months to remove sediment that impedes heat transfer and lowers the efficiency of your heater. Follow the manufacturer’s directions.

Want to save water? Repair leaky faucets and toilets. A leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons per day.

Home Maintenance and Household Practices
Below are home maintenance strategies and everyday household practices to help you conserve water. By making just a few small changes, you can save a significant amount of water, which will help you save money and preserve water supplies for current and future generations.

Maintenance
Inside the House

• Fix Leaks - You can significantly reduce water use by simply repairing leaks in fixtures (faucets and showerheads), pipes, and toilets. A leaky faucet wastes gallons of water in a short period of time. A leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons per day. That would be like flushing your toilet more than 50 times for no reason!
• If your water heater tank leaks, you may need a new water heater.

Increase your daily savings. Running water while brushing teeth or shaving is wasteful and expensive.

Daily Practices to reduce water usage:
Bathroom

• Do not let water run unnecessarily. Letting your faucet run for five minutes while shaving or brushing teeth uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours, and uses up to 8 gallons of water a day!
• Take short showers instead of tub baths. A shower only uses 10 to 25 gallons, while a bath takes up to 70 gallons! If you do take a bath, be sure to plug the drain right away and adjust the temperature as you fill the tub.

Kitchen and Laundry

• Wash only full loads of laundry or dishes, and select the appropriate water level or load size option on the washing machine or dishwasher.
• Do not use water to defrost frozen foods; thaw foods in the refrigerator overnight.
• Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading them into the dishwasher.
• Compost food waste instead of using the garbage disposal or throwing it in the trash.
• Keep drinking water in the refrigerator instead of letting the faucet run until the water is cool.

Water Conservation

More efficient water use be gins with individuals, in the home and place of work. Heating and pumping water requires chemicals and energy. When we waste less water, we conserve fuel, and reduce the pollution generated by burning fuel and treating water with chemicals. Taking these and other steps, and encouraging others to do so, makes good economic as well as environmental sense.

In the Bathroom

• Install a toilet dam or plastic bottle in your toilet tank.
• Install a water-efficient showerhead (2.5 gallons or less per minute).
• Take short showers and draw less water for baths.
• When you buy a new toilet, purchase a low flow model (1.6 gallons or less per flush).
• Check your toilet for "silent" leaks by placing a little food coloring in the tank and seeing if it leaks into the bowl.
• Turn off water while brushing teeth and shaving.

In the Kitchen or Laundry

• Compost your food scraps rather than using a garbage disposal in your sink.
• Keep a gallon of drinking water in the refrigerator rather than running the tap for cold water.
• Run your washing machine with a full load of clothes. Wash with warm water instead of hot, rinse with cold water instead of warm. Wash with cold water when you can. (When possible) hang your wash out to dry.

Daily Practices to reduce water usage:

In the Bathroom

• Do not let water run unnecessarily. Letting your faucet run for five minutes while shaving or brushing teeth uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours, and uses up to 8 gallons of water a day!
• Take short showers instead of tub baths. A shower only uses 10 to 25 gallons, while a bath takes up to 70 gallons! If you do take a bath, be sure to plug the drain right away and adjust the temperature as you fill the tub.

Leaving on a jet plane? Compare $55 for the bus to/from DEN or $60+ for gas, plus parking. Departs daily 8 am, returns 5 pm. 530-0223.

http://www.blackhillsstagelines.com/stations.asp?state=CO

Results of a 4 year study:

• Weaker chemical-contaminant testing requirements for bottled water.
• Contaminants That Must Be Monitored in City Tap Water but Not in Bottled Water
• Bottlers self-test and do not have to use certified labs to test water; tap water suppliers may only use certified labs. After two years, tap water suppliers must report results and retain records.
• Bottlers are not required to test water after storage, when it may have increased contamination levels, nor are they required to list the bottling dates for their water.

Play with your neighbors. Share a lawnmower, tools or skills. You’ll all save money and build community and relationships.

Sharing stuff and services conserves resources and builds our ties with our neighbors—but it also saves money, sometimes a lot of money. The first step is to do an inventory and look at the ways you're already sharing; I bet you'll be surprised. Then ask yourself, what else can I share?

“Where bicycling and walking levels are higher, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes levels are lower. Higher levels of bicycling and walking also coincide with increased bicycle and pedestrian safety and higher levels of physical activity.  Increasing bicycling and walking can help solve many serious problems facing our nation.”

Don’t kill what you don’t eat. Plastic bags contribute to the death of whales, sea turtles, and birds.

"Death by plastic is not uncommon. On the contrary, it’s the norm. Tens of thousands of marine species are killed every year due to our plastic waste. From production to consumption, plastic is toxic.”
Quote from Global Animal article written by Danielle LeVee.

http://www.globalanimal.org/2012/10/18/plastic-invasive-to-marine-life/83680/

Protect lungs and health while saving fuel. Turn off your idling car and ask school buses to do the same for kids.

If you’re waiting for someone in your car, turn off the engine; don’t let it idle. Ask your local schools to not let the school buses idle, especially in the parking areas around the schools. It not only wastes energy, but is unhealthy for children walking in the area.

Fight drought, strengthen plants with mulch. Grass clippings, straw, leaves, and even stones help plant health with less water and weeds.

Use natural mulch, which includes stones and gravel as well as the better known straw, grass clippings, and leaves, around your trees and plants to help conserve water, help promote a healthier root system, and protect plants from diseases. Don’t use mulches treated with pesticides or herbicides on your vegetable garden. An added benefit of mulch is less weeding.

Repel invaders. Invasive species can use more water and threaten natives. Plan and tend gardens with care.

When planning your garden this spring, be sure not to introduce any invasive species, which crowd out natives, often use more water, and spread too easily where not wanted. Also, weed out those that have invaded your garden.

For Bluebird Monitor program: http://www.denveraudubon.org/conservation/bluebird-project/

Remodeling or building? Reduce long term home costs with LEED certification and high efficiency ideas.

When building a new home or remodeling ask your builder or Architect about the LEED energy saving building certification process.  The green building program promotes ways to reduce energy usage and therefore lower the carbon footprint of your home and/or business. Certification is obtained through a rating system that measures the impact of sustainable design choices. Energy efficient ideas like solar heating, tankless water heaters, HVAC efficiency and decreased and reuse of water are incorporated into the building model. In addition, consideration of the location of the structure in relationship to the land, sun and weather are taken in account.  In the end, the program contributes significantly to long term energy savings.

http://www.nrdc.org/buildinggreen/leed.asp

Open to warm, close to contain. Use blinds and curtains to capture the sun’s heat. More warmth, less moolah.

Use clouds. Cloud computing reduces hardware and storage needs. It’s flexible for business needs and efficient.

Consider virtualization for your IT system by utilizing Cloud Computing.  Using Clouds can reduce your local hardware and storage needs and help you accomplish more business functionality with less onsite resources (hardware). Clouds can provide massive scaling capabilities, up or down and promote business agility, energy efficiency, and cost benefits you can pass on to your customers.

http://hightech.lbl.gov/datacenters-bpg.html

Save money. Be creative.  Instead of wrapping paper use fabric scraps, brochures, old clothes, or comics.

There are hundreds of possibilities:
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/christmas/tp/Make_Your_Own_Gift_Wrap.htm
http://www.rd.com/slideshows/handmade-christmas-gift-wrap-ideas/#slideshow=slide2

Stumped for a gift? Consider making holiday treats. Try herb vinegar, rice or popcorn mixes or homemade granola.

There are many items you can easily make besides cookies: a recycled glass jar with vinegar and some of your homegrown herbs, uncooked rice mixed with dried spices and herbs, caramel popcorn, meat and poultry rubs, and granola are just a few.
http://allrecipes.com/recipes/holidays-and-events/christmas/food-gifts/, http://familyfun.go.com/christmas/christmas-recipes/gifts-from-the-kitchen/gifts-from-the-kitchen-1030151/5/

Do a home energy audit. Find out how to save money by making your home more energy efficient.

A home energy audit can help you pinpoint where you are losing energy, set priorities, and save 5-30% on energy bills.  The following link provides excellent information:
http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/tips-your-homes-energy-use

Did you know radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer? Test your home—the life you save may be your own!

RADON (radon, Rn, 86) is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers, the EPA estimates. Test for radon with a test kit available at a low cost and sometimes free. The following links give you more information about radon and how to mitigate your exposure.
http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/citguide.html  -- "A Citizen's Guide to Radon".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon#testing_and_mitigation – link on testing and mitigation of radon.

Top off your gas tank? NOT!  The fumes pollute and fuel systems in newer cars can be damaged.

By stopping overfilling your gas tank, you can save large repair bills because repeated overfilling of our gas tanks can damage the fuel filler tube or the gas tank rubber seal.  
More at: http://www.epa.gov/donttopoff/
And:  http://autorepair.about.com/b/2007/12/11/topping-off-the-tank-you-might-want-to-think-twice.htm

Enhance your health. Lose pounds and reduce carbon impact. Let your feet do the walking.

The benefits of walking are many, and undeniable. It helps to burn calories and lower risk of strokes and heart attacks, and it contributes to controlling cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure. All you need is a comfortable pair of walking shoes and you're on your way. Aim for half an hour a day at a brisk pace of about 3 miles (4 kilometers) per hour. You can break up the time into 10-minute segments and still retain the benefits of a longer stretch. Walking also helps reduce your carbon footprint as well as your waistline. If that 30-minute walk replaces time Americans would otherwise spend driving every day, the United States would burn 6.5 billion fewer gallons (24 billion liters) of gasoline [source: curiosity.discovery.com]. 
More at:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/resources/data/benefits_research.cfm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/walking/HQ01612

Save money and electronics with power strips and surge protectors. Plus, it’s easier to shut everything down with one switch.

You don't have to look hard to find a surge protector these days. From home theaters to garage workshops, power strips seem to propagate like weeds. As more gadgets invade our offices and homes, their numbers can only increase. But in addition to protecting our lovely plug-ins from lightning strikes and making it possible to run multiple devices from one wall outlet, can surge protectors actually conserve energy?
To answer this question, it's important to first recognize what a surge protector is and what it isn't. As its name implies, the device's primary purpose is to protect electronic devices from the damaging effects of power surges [note: they don’t ‘prevent’ power surges]. Also known as transient voltage, surges are any increases above the standard power voltage for a given electrical line. If the increase is large enough, such as those resulting from lightning strikes, the increased voltage can damage the electrical components. After all, if your radio was designed to operate at 120 volts, a 15,000-volt surge will burn through its wiring. Surge protectors handle this problem by blocking or diverting excess current. To learn more about this process, read How Surge Protectors Work.
There are two basic varieties of surge protector: whole-house surge protectors, which intercept excess voltage as it enters the home, and point-of-use surge protectors, which operate between the wall outlet and your various gadgets and appliances. Of these, only the point-of-use surge protector offers any energy-saving potential. This is because many of the devices we plug in are constantly draining electricity, even when they're switched off. This is referred to as vampire power, also known as phantom load or standby power. In the United States, this drainage costs consumers more than $3 billion a year [source: U.S. Department of Energy].
More at:
http://energy.gov/articles/are-energy-vampires-sucking-you-dry
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/everyday-tech/energy-saving-surge-protector1.htm

Less than 1% of Earth’s water is drinkable. When washing dishes or yourself, reduce what goes down the drain.

It is interesting and quite shocking to note that less than 1% of the Earth's water is drinkable.
Freshwater
This may come as a surprise for many because water makes up seventy-percent of the Earth's surface. However, despite the fact that three-fourths of the Earth is made up of water, only 2.5% of this is freshwater, while the rest is in the form of sea water, and is therefore not suitable for drinking.
Furthermore, of the 2.5% freshwater supply we have, the majority or 66.67% of this is in the form of ice caps or glaciers, which means that most of this is not available for human consumption.
The Earth's freshwater supply is in the form of groundwater, which is essentially water found below the ground that flows to the surface supplying water to streams and other water bodies.
Drinking Water and Sanitation
Out of the 0.83% of water that is drinkable, most developing countries do not have the money and resources to provide drinkable water that is safe and clean to its people.
According to the UNICEF and the World Health Organization's 2008 Report on the Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation, there are 884 million people who do not have access to safe water supplies. This translates to about 1/8th of the world's total population.
A Cause for Concern
The low rate of drinking water on Earth is a major issue that is recognized by organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Water is a basic and essential need for the survival of all forms of life on our planet. According to Water.org, a non-profit organization based in the United States which promotes aims to provide potable water to developing countries, 3.575 million people die every year from diseases resulting from unsafe drinking water.
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/freshwater_supply/freshwater.html
http://wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/
http://www.greenfacts.org/en/water-resources/index.htm#il1

Reduce ‘Vampire’ power! If it glows or blinks, it’s using power. Unplugging pays off.

This advice applies to all electronic devices.  Learn more at:
http://standby.lbl.gov/
The following link helps you save energy and money.
http://www.greenoptions.com/a/how-to-reduce-vampire-power

Virgins cost more. It takes 20 times more energy to produce an aluminum can from virgin ore than from recycled cans.

It almost always takes less energy to make a product from recycled materials than it does to make it from new materials. Using recycled aluminum scrap to make new aluminum cans, for example, uses 95% less energy than making aluminum cans from bauxite ore, the raw material used to make aluminum.
http://pages.uoregon.edu/recycle/TRIVIA.htm  
 More info at:
http://earth911.com/news/2007/04/02/facts-about-aluminum-recycling/  and http://www.lehighcounty.org/Departments/SolidWasteManagement/RecyclingFacts/Aluminum/tabid/520/Default.aspx

Recycle paper products! Recycling one ton of paper saves approximately 7,000 gallons of water.

More info at: http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/paper/basic_info.htm
http://earth911.com/recycling/paper/the-facts-about-paper-and-paper-recycling/
and more on how paper is recycled at: http://earth911.com/recycling/paper/how-is-paper-recycled/

Choose glass over plastic. Glass bottles and jars are 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without waste.

Check out other interesting facts about glass recycling at:
http://www.gpi.org/recycle-glass/environment/glass-recycling-fast-facts.html
and more at:
www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/glass.htm