How to green your lifestyle and save money

Unless you live in a cave on a remote island, without any method of communication with the outside world, you know that global warming and resource depletion are environmental problems that aren’t going to go away.

The environment has been steadily moving up on everyone’s agenda as we become more aware of recycling and the amount of energy and water we waste.

With so much information bombarding our senses on environmental issues, there’s no doubt about it, understanding how best to ‘green’ our lifestyles can be difficult and confusing.

We can all learn a lesson from large companies, which have realized that by applying a little common sense to the way they operate, they can improve their image, meet the demands of increasingly ‘green-conscious’ shareholders and satisfy the growing ‘green’ demands from customers making changes to many of the products we buy from them. However, the key factor with business is to improve your ‘bottom line’. If going green cost them more, they would be highly unlikely to make any changes.

For those of us who care about trying to ‘do our bit’ for the environment, but not necessarily classify ourselves as ‘rainbow warriors’ or ‘tree huggers’, we are faced with a dilemma. What can we do to make a difference, without going as far as building a composting toilet in our gardens?

There’s nothing wrong with modeling our approach to going green on the way big corporations are going about it. Essentially, the key way they’re doing this is by eliminating waste to be more efficient.

Here are three top tips on how to green your lifestyle and save money.

1: Reduce the amount of food you throw away

In the UK, 30% of all the food we buy is thrown away. Food waste will typically end up in a landfill, where, as it degrades, it becomes a greenhouse gas about 19 times more potent than the carbon dioxide that everyone associates with global warming.

There are a number of reasons why we throw away so much of the food we buy. When food reaches its expiration date, there’s no need to send it away. Best Before is a ‘quality’ cutoff set by manufacturers. If the food has been stored correctly, it will still be edible for some time after that date.

We often buy too much food at the supermarket, possibly because of those irresistible BOGOF (buy one get one free) deals. Write a list and try to stick to it.

Most of us have our refrigerators set to the wrong temperature. For optimal performance, they should be set between 3 and 5 degrees Celsius.

If you apply the ‘bottom line’ rule, it’s clear that if you throw away 30% of the food you buy, you’re wasting 30% of your money.

Do a quick calculation to see how much you are throwing away each year. If you spend £80 a week on food for yourself and your family, then you’re wasting £1,248 a year of your hard-earned money.

2: Improve the energy efficiency of your home

Energy efficiency in the home is all about reducing waste.

If your home is poorly insulated, for example: little or no insulation in the loft; If you have hollow walls with no insulation, or drafty doors and windows, then you are literally wasting your money helping to heat the outside of your home!

Call your Town Hall and ask for advice on energy efficiency. If you can’t get assistance there, contact an approved, registered insulation company and request a free inspection of your property. There are usually grants available to help offset the cost.

If you use your central heating with an old boiler, you will need to replace it at some point. When it finally expires, make sure the replacement boiler isn’t “oversized” for your property, as this will cost you money in the long run as it won’t run efficiently.

Make sure you have a timer and room thermostat installed to control your boiler. The thermostatic radiator valve will also help you save money and help control the temperature in your home more effectively.

Take a look at the insulation of your hot water tank. If it is poorly insulated with a poor fitting cover, have a replacement installed.

Install energy efficient lighting where possible. The quality, appearance and performance of energy efficient lighting are improving all the time. Install energy efficient lighting in as many lighting points as possible, eg in the hall, bedrooms, bathrooms, outside, cloakrooms, landing.

You will be surprised how much money you can save by investing in improving the energy efficiency of your home.

In a four-bedroom detached house built in the early 1980s with some loft insulation and the original boiler, you could save £400 per year on fuel bills by increasing loft insulation, installing cavity wall insulation, placing low consumption lights and replacing the boiler with a more efficient model.

3: Replace Your Gas Guzzler

With the price of a barrel of oil spiraling upward, there has never been a more important time for us to look at the fuel efficiency of the car we drive.

With petrol costing over £6 a gallon, you don’t have to be Albert Einstein to realize that by looking to improve the fuel efficiency of the car you drive, we can save ourselves a lot of money.

If you drive a car that gets 35 mpg and drive 10,000 miles per year then your fuel costs will be about £1,715 per year at current petrol prices.

When you replace your car and buy a model that gets 45 mpg, you’ll save around £400 in a year.

There are many more green steps you can take, each requiring a small change in your lifestyle and personal habits. How far you go is up to you, but by addressing these three issues first, you’ll make a difference for the environment and save money at the same time.