10 Ways to Love the Earth Today

Sometimes, “going green” can seem like an undertaking. But, here at Ecovention, we know that small changes can add up – and make a remarkable difference.

In honor of Earth Day, let’s show the planet how much we love her. There’s no better time to start changing the world, one step at a time.

• Grocery shop in your PJ’s – Instead of trekking to the store this afternoon, shop online for your meals. A study by the University of Washington reveals that using a delivery service for your groceries (like PeaPod or Safeway) will slash your CO2 emissions by 50%.
• Cut it short – Simply cutting your morning shower by 2 minutes saves more than 10 gallons of water (that’s 3,650 gallons per year!). Are you a bath person? A year’s worth of daily baths uses a total of 7,300 gallons of water, costing you about $1,280 annually. Keep that shower short & sweet today.
• Junk the junk – The average American receives 40 pounds of junk mail every year (destroying 100 million trees in the process). Today, consider canceling a catalog that you hardly read, or removing your name from a few mailing lists. God knows you don’t need 14 coupon books throughout the year. 
• Recycle your morning paper – Over 63 million newspapers are printed in the U.S. daily…and 69% of those end up in the trash by mid-afternoon. If every American recycled their Sunday paper, we’d save 500,000 trees per week. Better yet – cancel your newspaper altogether and start reading the daily headlines online instead.
• Rethink your morning Joe – Each year, Americans toss more than 138 straws and stirrers used in their morning coffee. If you simply pour the cream & sugar in first, the hot coffee will do all the work.
• Choose cold – Catching up on piles of laundry? Try washing all your clothes on cold today. According to Energy Star, just about 90% of the energy consumed by your washing machine goes toward heating the water. Splurge a little on your detergent, and you won’t have to worry about your clothes coming out squeaky clean.
• Switch it out – If every household in the U.S. traded just one old light bulb for an eco-friendly fluorescent bulb, the pollution reduction would equal the removal of 1 million cars from the road.
• Go light on the napkins – If you stop by a fast food joint today (maybe for pizza!), grab a smaller handful of paper napkins. If every American took one less napkin a day (the average is 6), we’d save more than a billion pounds of wasted paper from ending up in landfills. 
• Swap out your shower curtain – You all know that new plastic smell. In fact, the average vinyl shower curtain emits 108 different chemicals into the air you breathe. Today, replace it with cloth, hemp, bamboo (oooh!) or a PVC-free plastic curtain.
• Pop the old-fashioned way – Hate to break it to you, but microwavable popcorn isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, the bags are lined with PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid): a chemical that contributes to cancer and infertility. A much safer (and yummier!) way to fresh popcorn is to pop it on the stove with some olive or canola oil.  

uOur planet is a beautiful place. Let's keep it that way.