By 2010, appliances in standby mode will be responsible for 20% of an average household utility bill.

If every U.S. household replaced its TVs, VCR/DVD player and phones with ENERGY STAR models, we would save 25 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions a year.

To save energy and money, install compact fluorescent lightbulbs in the most frequently used lights in your house: the kitchen ceiling lights, family room lamps and outdoor lights.

If every American household used energy-efficient lights in those places, we would save close to $8 billion each year in energy costs. Find CFL bulbs at Circuit City stores.

—U.S. Department of Energy

Earth Day is coming on Tuesday April 22 2008.  It gives us all a good excuse to analyze what we’re doing to leave a smaller carbon footprint. Here are some tips that should help you make everyday Earth Day.

Practical Earth Day Projects and Tips

Hop over to EnergyStar.gov and take the pledge to change all the bulbs in your house to energy saver bulbs.The ENERGY STAR Change a Light Campaign is a national challenge to encourage every American to help change the world, one light — one energy-saving step — at a time. You can show your commitment by pledging to replace at least one light in your home with one that has earned the ENERGY STAR.

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

More aluminum exists on earth than any other metallic element. Aluminum is most often used for beverage containers like soda cans. The beauty of this is that Aluminum soda cans
are 100% recyclable, can be recycled repeatedly, and can make the journey from the recycling center back to a new soda can in as little as 60 days.
70% of the aluminum cans in North America are recycled.

Saving Energy by Recycling Aluminum

Recycling a single can will conserve as much energy as it takes to power a television for three hours or
to turn on a 100 watt light bulb for four hours. Recycling aluminum is very efficient and requires much less energy than recycling other materials.
95% less energy is used to create an Aluminum can from recycled material than is used when creating a can from raw material.
Aluminum is also the only recyclable material that pays for it’s own recycling process. An average Aluminum can contains around 50% recycled material.

Recycled Aluminum is Durable

Aluminum is very strong and can hold more pressure than a normal automobile tire and doesn’t degrade in quality when it’s recycled. Aluminum can be recycled from sources other than soda cans such as car parts, building materials, kitchen foil, pots and pans, and many other objects.

Are you planning on building a home or commercial building? Why not build it green? Green Building is the practice of building structures that have a positive impact on the environment.

There are several characteristics that span most definitions of Green Building.

• A structure that provides a toxin free environment for it’s occupants.
• Prevent harmful impacts on the environment and even improve the surrounding environment in some cases.
• Enables and promotes resource conservation

Green Buildings will make our existence more sustainable by efficiently using water, electricity and materials while lightening it’s impression on the surrounding environment.

Have you ever thought about how cell phones are made and what happens to them when you don’t need them anymore? Like any product, making a cell phone and itsparts uses natural resources and energy, which can potentially impact the air, land, and water. Understanding the life cycle of a product can help you make environmental choices about the products you use, and how you dispose of them.

You can help minimize your environmental impact of using a cell phone by:

Keeping your phone longer.

Choose your cell phone service provider carefully. Pick a phone with features you need and a style you like so you will keep it longer.

Charging your battery correctly.

Increase the life span of your phone and battery by following the manufacturer’s directions for charging the battery.

Reusing or recycling your phone.

Find ways to reuse or recycle your phone andaccessories when you’re finished with them. Many companies recycle or reuse cellphones.

The EPA has constructed a PDF document to educate people about cell phone recycling.

Link >

The Freecycle Network over at Freecycle.org is a nonprofit organization that matches people who are giving away items with people who want or need them in an effort to “keep good stuff out of landfills” and encourage reuse. 

Link>

Computers are becoming a part of everyday life and as more and more people begin to have multiple computers in their homes it’s a good idea to be concious of how much energy they are consuming.Here are a few things you can do to reduce the amount of energy your computer uses.

• Turn on the power management features. Virtually all computers today have the ability to switch into low-power modes automatically when they’re idle; very few computers have this capability enabled! Here’s how to do it on computers running Windows XP.

• Turn off your monitor and computer when you’re not using them

• Turn down the brightness on your monitor

• Make sure your next computer meets the efficiency standards of Climate Savers Computing (an efficient computer uses up to 50% less energy than a conventional one)

• To find the most efficient PCs available today, look for the words “EnergyStar 4.0 compliant.”

via: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-black-new-green.html

Scientists in China have developed a way to recycle electronic circuits in old computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices in a way that is less harmful to the environment.

It can be used to reclaim valuable metals such as copper without releasing toxic fumes into the air the way current practices do.

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are made of fibreglass and resin with electronic circuitry on top. The number of PCBs manufactured is growing by around 9% every year

Via NewScientist.com

Dell says it’s going to meet its goal of aquiring 275 million pounds of computers by the year 2009.

Dell claims to have recovered a little over 12% of the computer equiptment sold seven years prior.”Protecting the environment is too important an issue for one company to be leading alone,” CEO Michael Dell stated. “Customers should not be forced into improper disposal due to a lack of environmentally responsible options.

“Dell provides several recycling programs, including no-charge recycling services for its own equipment worldwide without requiring the purchase of a new computer.

The Recycling Works Award was presented to Dell by The National Recycling Coalition in February to recognize the company for it’s efforts.