1. Go old school. Use cloth napkins and kitchen towels.

Impact: Save a tree or two.

On average, Americans use 2,000 paper napkins per person every year.

Not only will you significantly reduce your consumption of resources by using reusable house-wares instead of disposables, but you will also save a great deal of money.

2. Get Dry. Switch from liquid to powder detergents.

Impact: Save water with powder detergents.

Laundry liquids are mostly water (up to 80 percent), with upcoming double and triple compact concentrates at best cutting that amount in half. It costs for energy and packaging to bring this water to the consumer. So save three ways by using powder detergents to wash clothes. The same holds for dishwashing detergents. When there's a choice, choose dry powders.

3. Be Cool. Turn the thermostat down 2° in winter. In the summer, do the opposite and turn up the thermostat 2°.

Impact: Reduce energy consumption and improve indoor air quality.

Almost half the energy we use in our homes is for to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment.

4. Be mug-onimous. Bring a mug or thermos instead of Styrofoam, plastic or paper.

Impact: Cut down on waste, as well as toxic chemicals in the environment.

Styrofoam is not biodegradable and it takes hundreds of years to break down.

Plastic is made from petroleum, a resource that is in short supply. Plastic resins pose serious health risks.

Paper is easier on the environment but it’s made from trees.

5. Good head on your shoulders. Install a water-saving showerhead.

Impact: Saves water and money.

One of the top water users in the home is the shower. Americans stand under more than 1.2 trillion gallons of water every year, reports the EPA.

For maximum water efficiency, select a showerhead with a flow rate of less than 2.5 gpm (flow rate is noted on the packaging). Low-flow showerheads slash water consumption 50 to 70% and you save energy heating the water.
Take a step further:
Replace your faucet. The aerator--the screw-on tip of the faucet--ultimately determines the maximum flow rate of a faucet. Aerators are inexpensive to replace and they can be one of the most cost-effective water conservation measures. For maximum water efficiency, purchase aerators with flow rates of no more than 1.0 gpm.

6. Skip the dirty work. Don’t pre-rinse dishes before loading the dishwasher.

Impact: Save as much as 20 gallons per load, or 6,500 gallons per year.

Let your dishwasher do its job. Simply scrape the food off your dishes (don't rinse or soak) and it'll get them clean. Make sure you load the dishes correctly in the dishwasher.

Only run the dishwasher with a full load.

7. Less junk in the trunk. Take yourself off junk mail lists.

Impact: Save energy and trees.

To take yourself off junk mailing list, subscribe to 41pounds.org, the junk mail reduction gurus. According to 41pounds.org, since last summer several hundred Green Guide readers each paid $41 for each junk mail reduction kit and a promise to help reduce volume of their junk mail by as much as 95% in four months. The savings from those few hundred participating Green Guide readers came to 205 trees and 72,000 gallons of water.
And if uninvited phone solicitors are the bane of your dinner hour, you can register online at www.donotcall.gov to be removed from their call list.

8. All things must rest. Plug appliances into surge protectors and turn them off at night.

Impact: Save energy and money.

Do not leave appliances on standby; use the "on/off" function on the machine itself. A TV set switched on for three hours a day, and in standby mode during the remaining 21 hours, uses about 40% of its energy in standby mode.

9. Be enlightened. Switch to energy-efficient lights.

Impact: Reduce air and water pollution; extremely energy efficient.

Compact Flourescent Light (CFL) bulbs are four times more efficient and last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. CFL bulbs are energy smart; they’re more expensive, but they last longer.

10. Less is more. Water is essential for all life. Conserve.

Impact: Save money on your utility bill. Water conservation also helps prevent pollution in nearby lakes, rivers and local watersheds.

Conserving water can extend the life of your septic system by reducing soil saturation and reducing any pollution due to leaks.

11. Educate children. They are our future.

Impact: Educating our children will help ensure that every child has access to clean water, clean environment and sanitation.

The first step in raising your children to be eco-friendly is to be eco-friendly yourself. Make being eco-friendly your lifestyle from the start and it will never be a chore. Teach your children to appreciate the environment and the importance of honoring their eco-friendly responsibilities. Help them recognize the critical impact water, environment and sanitation have on the overall quality of life of their generation and those in the future.

12. Paper or plastic. Carry a cloth tote when you shop.

Impact: Be eco-friendly.

When asked paper or plastic, choose neither. Plastic takes years to decompose and paper bags use million of trees per year. Choose cloth.

The U.S. uses 100 billion plastic bags annually, which consumes about 12 million barrels of oil. Fewer than 1% of plastic bags are ever recycled, and a sturdy reusable bag can eliminate hundreds of thousands of plastic bags over its lifetime. That spells huge savings for your state, city or town. Take California, for example: it costs taxpayers $20.5 million to collect and landfill plastic bag waste each year. And that's not counting external costs like pollution, and the threat to marine life, etc.

Make it a habit! Keep a cloth bag in the trunk of your car or store one in a convenient place next to your front door.

Receive our J Brand cloth tote when you purchase our Green Label Jean.

IN COLLABORATION WITH THE GREEN GUIDE