So you’re starting to get the Green Living thing down, or so you think: You reuse and recycle, turn off your lights whenever you leave the room, you’ve made the switch to CFL or LED lighting, and you’re streamlining your energy usage when carrying out your daily routine. But is your home doing everything it can to mimic your good intentions? With these 5 helpful tips from energy expert David Johnston, you can find out, potentially reducing your home energy consumption by almost half. Johnston recommends 5 easy ways to make simple changes:

• Power strip your small appliances

• Call in the experts for an in-depth energy audit

• Over-insulate your home

• Clean out rarely visited areas (such as an unfinished basement or crawl space) to check for leaks and monitor air ducts

• If you’ve got the budget, invest in new windows.

Sounding like the perfect project for spring? Check out the details here.  –Jenni Williams

“Transitional Ethics” is not a term most of us use in our everyday lives, but when it comes to going green it’s a concept we should all become familiar with. Just think about the last time you tried a green product and immediately realized one glaring flaw that triggered your discernment. Did you toss up your hands in frustration and decide it wasn’t worth it? Transitional ethics could be the answer to such dilemmas. 

According to green-tipster Michael Bloch, anyone attempting to “go green” needs to accept that such an evolution takes baby steps. The transition between how we used to live and how we should be living requires a forgiving attitude and a dedication to making gradual improvements, no matter how minor. In a recent blog, Bloch relates a story about a dam in his neighborhood. Losing the dam would’ve threatened an entire neighborhood’s water supply during a particularly alarming drought. Cleaning it up by hand would be an inefficient waste of time, despite the best intentions towards the planet’s health. In the end, hiring a bulldozer got the job done quickly and efficiently. Yes, it blew smoke and burned fuel for hours, creating pollution. But the truth is that a few hours of pollution saved a lifetime’s water supply.

In the end, Bloch suggests we’d all do well to take a step back from our heated efforts to change the world ASAP and learn to start making small, sustainable changes that will ultimately lead to one massive good (and permanent) change down the road. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and saving the planet doesn’t happen overnight. Read more of Bloch’s insights on the Green Living Tips blog.  –Jenni Williams