Microwave

I was reading a bunch on articles on saving energy by using the microwave vs the stove or oven. Its seems to be quite a saver. Precooking / thawing and such other methods will help speed up the process on the stove or oven.

But of course.. there is also these floating theories about health concerns of using the microwave. I cannot comment on that .. its your call I guess!

But.. tip of the day is "using the microwave" Vs the stove or oven - can be a "green" thing to do!

Water

Sorry for the long absence of posts here. We are back!

Water conservation:
You have heard this a million times, and still, bad habits are really hard to break. Please shut off that tap when brushing your teeth. Keep your showers to a 5 min maximum. Really, its ok not to shower longer than that on weekdays. Maybe weekends, you treat yourself with a couple of minutes extra. When you shower, think about the millions people in the world that do not have water to even drink.! That really helps to cut short your shower time.

Awesome!

Sorry for the blog being out for a week. To make up for all that, We found one of the best ever made information website to understand Consumption and its impact on our planet.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Recycle - Reasons

Reasons to Recycle:

We are putting out the reasons to Recycle this whole week, to help motivate us to recycle as much as possible

A glass bottle thrown away into a landfill today will take almost a 100 years to disintegrate.

Recycle - Reasons

Recycle today - reasons to motivate us to recycle.

The more we recycle - The cheaper the cost for material and cost of clearing out trash comes down considerably.

Recycle - Reasons

Reasons to Recycle:

Recycling creates 1.1 million jobs in the US

Recycle - Reasons

Recycle today - reasons to motivate us to recycle.

In America, 30 million trees worth of Newspapers are being thrown out every year. America only recycles 25% of the paper waste generated in the country.

Mother's Day - Go Green

Go green with your Mother's day gift this year. If you observe Mother's day - do remember - The earth is our first mother! So, be green and gift green.

Look for great green choices while buying presents - Eco friendly makeup, natural oils and fragrances, soy candles, and much more.

Water

Its amazing to see the number of ways we can buy water now a days. Bottled, flavored, vitamin and minerals added, sugar added etc. Millions of plastic water bottles are used everyday around the world. And these water bottles are often made of flimsy plastics. The plastics used in the water bottles are often questioned for its quality and a lots of warning is out there today about freezing the bottles or prolonged use of the water bottles.

Today, stop or reduce using bottled water. There are so many ways to reduce the usage of these bottles. Buy bigger water containers and refill a good quality reusable bottle. Use bottle filters (Fill& go from Brita is a good one)

With summer approaching and temperatures soaring, always be sure you have a reusable bottle handy at all times, so you don't end up buying bottled water when you get thirsty.

If you really like flavored water, try using some organic fruit extracts to flavor your water.

Food Waste

Millions of pounds of food is wasted everyday in America. We are all to blame when it comes to food wastage. Everyone of us, waste food in some form or the other, or at some level, directly or indirectly. Over buying, over consumption, over ordering are all to blame for.

Today - When you order lunch or dinner at a restaurant or take out - be sure to order only portions that you really can finish, and really 'need' to full fill your nutrition goals. If the place does not carry the portion sizes you want, make sure you order something that you can actually save for later. - A soggy sandwich will not make a good leftover. Think about all the food we throw out of refrigerators. All those leftovers from dinner and lunches, that we never eat. Best bet is to avoid buying too much food.

When you do carry out food, try to use places that offer paper or recycled paper food containers. If you bring your food in plastic containers, be sure to rinse them out and recycle them. Storing food for a longtime in plastic containers or reheating the food in the plastic containers in a microwave should be avoided as well.

Detergents

Reduce the use of harmful chemicals in the house. Start with the most used products - detergents, hand soaps, floor and surface cleaning products, cosmetics etc.

Lets look at Laundry Detergent today. Its not that expensive to go green with detergents - a lot of people think they have to go to some fancy green store and buy some fancy detergent - only to find out they paid tons of money for baking soda and water. But, there are reasonable products out there, you will surprised to see how much you will actually save by reducing the user of harmful chemicals - in terms of other costs like medical conditions and such.

Here is a resource to understand the Laundry detergent options out there
Comparing Green Laundry detergents

Polystyrene (styrofoam)

Styrofoam (a trademark name for Polystrene) is a type of plastic, made from petroleum products and a harmful toxin called Benzene is used in it as well.

Styrofoam - probably the most common use we see as packing peanuts and other packing materials. This is actually a very hazardous material, and if ingested by animals, it can prove to be very harmful to their digestive system. Not mention, the years it takes to breakdown this material - so not a landfill material at all.

Polystyrene is NOT a good material to package food products. It can be toxic and is in fact banned in several states in the the US from being used as food packing material.

So, make sure you dispose the polystyrene material responsibly in the proper recycling program. Make sure you do not dump these in the trash. There are several ways to recycle polystyrene

1. Recycle bin
2. Donate to craft stores - they use a lot of this in their projects
3. Avoid packing peanuts and use alternative materials when possible
4. There are some mail back options available now that take polystyrene back

So, today, pack up all those packing peanuts, and get rid of them the right way!

Paints and Chemicals

Don't put batteries, antifreeze, paint, motor oil, or chemicals in the trash. Use proper toxic material disposal sites. Never buy more than you need.

Charity organizations are always happy to take extra and left over paints. So, please do round up all that extra paint sitting in the house, call a charity today or drop it off at a local charity location.

Used stuff

A great way to go green - go used!

Look around the house, if you have tons of used CDs, vidoes, DVDs that you have not used over a few months, the chances are, you will never use them. There are great ways to now sell, donate these items. Craigslist & FreeCycle are great resources. You can also buy used materials as much as possible. Using MP3 players and purchasing mp3 music online, can also reduce use of disc plastics.

Today , jus take 20 mins to clear out that stack of media and books you have been hoarding for years.

Real Juice, Your Way

Everyday people spend money on plastic bottles filled with 'juice', which is really juice concentrate powder and mostly water. The packaging is plastic and non-biodegradable, the water is heavy and adds tons of fuel wasted to ship the juice to our grocery shelves, not to mention hauling it home after we've purchased it. Why do manufacturers do this? Because you pay them $$$$ for WATER -- which increases their profits! Also you have no control over the ingredients, and it's funny to read some of the packaging which says 100% juice, but then lists a ton of other ingredients on the label. Read your labels, you might be surprised to find food coloring, sugar, and/or preservatives listed.

Instead, buy concentrated juice powders directly, and make as much or as little juice as you want, right at home in a reusable container. The juice concentrates are higher quality, you have control over the ingredients, and the juice powder has a much longer shelf life dry, than pre-mixed in your fridge. And per unit, it's much less expensive too!

I haven't done much searching, but this company came up while I was looking for organic concentrates, I'm sure there are others out there as well:

http://www.naturesflavors.com

• Mixing the juice in a re-useable glass pitcher (with a lid) avoids 'plastic' chemicals leaching into your drinks, and there is no plastic bottle to throw away or even haul to the recycling center.
  
• Avoid juice boxes & pouches in your kids lunch box, instead mix juice and pour into a reusable capped bottle.
  

CFL Bulbs

The most common, effective and easiest way to reduce energy use, is using Energy saving light bulbs. We have heard this a hundred times, yet , we all sometimes miss out replacing a few regular bulbs around the house like inside appliances, closets or garage door openers, look for these spots that you may have missed and change them today!

An interesting and commendable approach by Mr.Sanjayan
Quote (Mr.Sanjayan's article on Nature.org)

"...So I take energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) with me on my trips, and I give them to someone at my destination — swapping them for existing incandescent bulbs that illuminate a small shop or local restaurant or school....."

Kudos to Mr. Sanjayan for taking this approach to replace light bulbs:
Read the entire article at :http://www.nature.org/activities/art23429.html

Material from one of our readers:
"Use Energy star light bulbs,Be aware of energy conservation.

Energy Star lights use low voltage, especially compact fluorescent, contributes more lights
using less power. By simply changing the light fixtures we can take a major step forward in the commitment and pursuit of energy conservation.

Changing the world starts with simple actions. If every American home replaces 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 and prevent green house gas emissions."

Phone books

Yellow and white books, are delivered to millions of American homes every year. Most of the people who receive these books have not requested for them, these books tend to just mysteriously appear on the front porch.

A lot of us, probably try to recycle them, that's a good thought, but the better solution is not to receive them at all. If you are not going to really use them as a yellow book, you do not need to receive them.

Here is a great resource to unsubscribe from receiving phone books.
http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/

Earth Day - Take a step!

Happy Earth Day everyone! A great day to remember our planet and appreciate what we have and also, feel a little responsible for why it may not be the same next year. The fate of the planet and our lives, is not that hard to change. All it takes is one small step a day.

It is a great day to start taking that ONE STEP to make a difference. Stay Green today - is just that perfect tool to help you take that ONE STEP towards a better and greener life.

Start today, One green act a day - next earth day, you will enjoy the day with a great sense of accomplishment of having done several green acts over the year. Stay green today provides you a daily tip, every single day of the year, to help you achieve your green goals and save the planet!

Toady's recommendation

Use the Stairs

Waiting for that elevator to get one floor up? Well, use the stairs please.

Use the stairs as much as you can. Do it today! try it. At least use it to get down the stairs, if you are unable to climb up. Use the stairs for many reasons, conserve power, burn some energy, improve your health.

If you are in a very high floor, go part way in the elevator and walk the rest! Its OK, if you can only do 2 flights of stairs, that still counts.

No act is too small, every single act, however trivial it may seem like, STILL COUNTS!

Helpful Links:
Benefits of taking the stairs
Stairway health program

Mobile Chargers

Do not charge your mobile over night. Leaving it on the charger for over 8 hrs is a waste of power, when most of the cellphones batteries get charged up in just a couple of hours or less.

Please charge your mobile today during the day and not over night. Leave it in the charger on your desk or somewhere you can see it when its done charging. If available, Use the beep option on your cellphone to indicate and remind it to unplug when done charging.

Earth day tomorrow! Lets use that as a bit of extra inspiration and start doing this daily commitment to a greener life.

Paper Towel Vs Cloth towels

There has always been arguments over which is a better choice? Paper towels are bad as they simply encourage overuse of paper, cloth towels are blames too for increased use of energy and water to clean and use them.

We have done reading to decide that Paper towels are a bad choice. But, considering the huge lifestyle of change and simply giving up those extremely convenient paper towels, but there is room some some adjustments we can do to make a lot better.

1. Use unbleached, brown colored, recycled paper towels. They are not fancy, but that is one step. At least use these better versions for high use areas.
2. Do not use paper towels in bathrooms!
3. Use a cloth towel as much as possible. Have enough to collect to make a decent sized dishwasher load to wash them.

So, today's green tip is - Replace bleached white paper towels with recycled paper towels or put it down on your shopping list. Buy a bunch of cloth towels and keep them handy in kitchens and bathrooms.

Do something

Do something, that's right, do something /anything to stay green today. Today's tip, write a letter, an email, a post on a blog, anything, to promote the idea of staying green.

Remind a friend to recycle, educate a child by showing how to recycle, do any one single thing that works for you, to make one other person around you to do one little green act today! We cannot do this alone! The more the merrier!

Stay green, Stay safe, Stay informed!

tip: To think of a green idea to share, read our archives and pick one or more.

Cool water

Using cold water for washing clothes in your washer can save you a lot of energy costs. Check your default setting on your washers - Not many of bother to even look at the settings, no matter what we wash, we usually just toss in the clothes, add some detergent and turn it on.

Today, take just spend a minute to make sure you are not using hot/warm water setting at the default. Make a list of most common settings to use on the washer and put it up, so the others users of the washer know to use the right settings. The step to use cold water, can also save the occassional shrunk sweater scenario.

Line dry your clothes as and when you can. Spring/Summer coming up, use the natural sunlight to dry your clohtes. Even in shade, most clothes dry well, just plan a bit ahead and dry them

tip: Do not wash your bath towels and sheets too often . Towels can comfortably last atleast 2-3 uses. Even hotels like Hilton are adopting the once in 3 days sheet change and encourage reuse of bath towels. Use this option at the hotels when you travel.

Avoid PVC

PVC plastics - (Poly vinyl Chloride)

PVC is in a lot of things we use / buy on a day to day basis. Shower curtains, bags, toys. PVC is an extremely toxic material especially when burnt as it contains chlorine.

So in your next shopping trip, avoid all items containing PVC and also make sure you get rid of stuff with PVC at home - add this to your spring cleaning check list.

Helpful Links:
Hazards of PVC
Wikipedia Information on PVC

Bike

Bike to work, Bike to a store or simply bike for fun.... however you want to call it and whatever reason you want to ride a bike for, its just a great green activity.

Biking is a great way to burn less fuel and burn more calories - both great for the environment. A green life, should definitely involve a healthy lifestyle, a balanced and low fuel consuming lifestyle. Biking is one fantastic option to use to lead that lifestyle.

Mark your calendars today! Make room for at least once a month bike days. Once a month is still not a bad idea... just once a month!

Remember - Mark your calendars today! Once a month Bike day.

tip: If weather doesn't permit, make sure you reschedule your calendar to fit that once a month bike day. If you other compelling reasons, that do not favor biking, then try, walking, snow shoeing, anything to minimize fuel usage atleast once a month.

Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning must be in the plans for the next few weekends in lot of our households. Here are a few tips to follow today!

1. Get rid of harmful cleaners -oven cleaners, air fresheners - all these contain stuff that's not good for us or the environment
2. Clean as much as you can with simple baking soda and water mixtures. A LOT of stuff can be easily cleaned with these. Use protective "reusable" gloves when handling any cleaning materials.
3. Use rags - time to put good use to those Old t-shirts. Do not waste paper towels all the time to clean. Use them sparsely

Today's Green tip: Remove and discard harmful chemical cleaners around the house and replace with simple earth-friendly products, and also household supplies like baking soda.

Helpful Links:
Green tips for Cleaning
6 Cleaners to avoid

Review your energy bills

How often do you actually read more than just the final amount on your energy bills? Often times, looking into the details of the bill can help motivate to use less energy. A lot of times, there are different pricing levels for the usage. Sometimes, just by conserving a little, you may fall under a lower bracket and will be paying less and lowering the impact on the environment and your bank balance.

In some cases, you even have the option to see on the bill or your energy provider's website to sing up for optional sources of energy like wind or solar. These are small changes that you can make with your energy plan can have a huge impact.

So take a moment today and review your energy bills. Electricity, gas and water - The three most critical. Water needs a little bit more focus and planning in the coming months of spring and summer seasons.

Find your energy bill today and review it.

Spring Gardening - 2

Fertilizers, Manure and Compost

Buy earth friendly fertilizers, stick to natural compost, or make your own compost from kitchen waste. If you need fertilizers, buy concentrated fertilizers, so you can add water and use less plastic containers to bring them.
Pest Control - Make sure you use earth-friendly pest control products. Sometimes, just a strong blast of water from the hose will take care of insects. Go with the most conservative approach to a more stronger and harsh approach to manage pests. Plant organic produce as much as possible and try to find the varieties that are least susceptible to insects. Native plants always thrive better.

Helpful Links:
How to make compost
What is Green Manure
Organic Fertilizer

Spring Gardening - 1

Going to the nursery to buy a bunch of plants? Take a cardboard box or tray with you. Avoid getting the plastic containers. If you do end up bringing them with you, take them back to the nearest nursery or be sure to at least recycle them. Reducing the amount of plastic your bring back is always a good idea.

Always remember - Reuse, Recycle, Reduce.

Watch for a whole series of Spring Gardening tips this week.

Coffee Cups - overuse & abuse

A simple act, but great impact!

How many us wonder where coffee cups we get from coffee shops go? (as estimate 1.5 billion paper cups are used at Starbucks alone, per year) How much do we know about the cups and if its made from recycled paper? Or how many of these cups are even being thrown in recycle bins? Do we ever see recycle bins in coffee shops?

Well, one my friends, did think about it. She noticed that most coffee shops provide 2 cups if you ask for extra hot beverages. Yes, 2 cups! The one in the bottom is practically unused and thrown away by most people, a lot of them do not even notice the extra cup. She made it a point to collect these cups and return them for reuse. What a thoughtful way, and a simple act, yes powerful message to most of the onlookers at the store. In fact, this thoughtful person will soon be joining us to contribute to Stay Green today and share some valuable thoughts on leading a green life!

So few things we can do TODAY when we pick up that cup of Jo.
GREEN WAYS to enjoy a cup of COFFEE !

• Try to use reusable coffee mugs (there are tons of options out there.. and most are dishwasher friendly too)
• Sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee - like french people do (you will barely find to-go stuff in the city of Paris) and this will totally avoid use of to-go cups and the plastic lids. Hey, slowdown once in a while. Most coffee shops offer ceramic / porcelain cups if you sit down.
• If you still need to use the to-go cup, make sure you recycle them.
• If you buy a hot beverage - use the little sleeve and avoid using a second cup. The seleeves are mostly made from from recycled paper.
• Choose coffee shops that have a recycle bin, or choose coffee shops that use recycled paper to make their cups.
• Do not take more than one or two napkins. If you spill a lot of coffee, even a hundred napkins are not going to help. For practical reasons, a few drops of spill, just one napkin will do just fine.
• Use the sugar dispenser and avoid the packaged paper wrapped sugar. Do not open more than you need.
  
  Interesting reads:
  
  Starbucks recycle information
  
  Eco-tip: Coffee cups - Treehugger

Go Solar

Get a few solar powered gadgets. Little things - landscape lighting, solar chargers, generators etc. There are plenty of affordable solar products out there now. Start with the most commonly used item in your life and work towards the least used.

Look online, hardware stores and look often. Every now and then, there are new and improved solar products. There are several small solar products that prove very effiecient and even fun to use. Like Solar Radios, Solar oven, solar flashlight, rechargers etc.

Get a bottle

Reduce the usage of bottled water. Instead, buy a bigger dispenser of water (make sure you recycle these as well) , or even better, buy a water filter. Get a reusable, safe, glass or plastic bottle and refill when needed.

I know, you are thinking, I recycle my bottles, that should be good enough.. right? Wrong, by unnecessarily using bottled water on a regular basis, you are only contributing to the plastic dumping and possibly in landfills too. Its better just not to use plastics as much as possible. Replace bottled water with your own reusable bottle is a great start.

Toss that bottled water into a reusable water bottle now and try to reduce the use of bottle water, starting today!

Save gasoline

Drive to work everyday? Alone? well, then its time to change that. Single drivers contribute to pollution and co2 emissions more than anyone else.

Call a car pool number today! Talk to co-workers, talk to neighbours, try to work out a car pool at least 1 or 2 days a week. Can't car pool? Then take the public transportation, ride a bike, do something different, at least once a week. One day a week can make a big difference too.

If you are one of the lucky ones that have an option to work-from-home or telecommuting facilities, use it. Come up with a schedule to work once a week or as often as you can. Not driving to work can help you save gas and time, and even improve productivity.

tip: Car pooling or taking public transportation - can have good advantages. Saves gas, helps reduce the stress of driving, in some cases can get some extra work done on the way to work, also its always a great reason to leave to or from work on time.

Take Stock and Buy Right

One of the most common mistake most of us make is WASTING. Buy only what you really need. I mean...really really need. For today, lets just focus on Food, the most waste is done with food products. We often buy more fresh produce than you really need or can use within the time it stays fresh. Why buy more fruit than you can consume over a week. Why more bread that you will use in a few days? I know, the bananas are half-off , but hey are you really going to eat 4 bananas a day, for the rest of the week? In most cases, they go bad in a matter of 3-4 days.

Put up a little note on your refrigerator today and take stock of all fresh produce and put the expiration date next to it. Do this today! And you will see how much stuff you have that can go waste pretty soon. Use it in order of expiration. If you cannot use it within the time range, cook the produce and store the cooked food - cooked food lasts a few days more than the fresh produce in the fridge or freeze. May even save you lunch money.

Reducing the amount of food we waste everyday, can help so much in saving money, and more than anything else, not wasting food is a such good feeling. How many us have thrown out a whole bunch of grapes, a few bananas, or that spinach bunch that went bad in just 2-3 days. Don't waste your time and energy trying to find ways to keep things fresh longer, focus on buying just enough and use it before they go bad.

tip: Putting up a note on the fridge is probably your best bet. You may also keep a list on your computer to keep track and also make a quick list to take to the grocery store. Keeping track of the food supplies in the house is such an important step. Keeping a list of other products in the pantry along with expiration dates also helps greatly.

Turn off computers

Millions of computers are left turned on overnight, during lunch breaks or when not in use for a prolonged period of time. Turning off the computer, monitors and other accessories can save an enormous amount of energy.

Turn off your computer tonight and every night there after, as much as possible. Just turn it all off, unless you have a pressing reason to keep it on. A lot of us leave the computer on, so we do not have to wait for it for start up in the morning. If that's the concern, just start the habit of turning it on before you brush your teeth or use the bathroom or something like that. Most computers take only a minute or less to turn.

Even if your computer is on standby, it still consumes some amount of energy. If you absolutely cannot turn off the computer fully, at least make sure its setup to use the minimal power usage. Turn off monitors and hard disks when not in use. Turn off the printers when not use. Turn of the powered speakers when not in use.

tip: Get surge protect power strip and plug in the computer and all in accessories into it. Find a power strip that has a one and off switch. So, its a lot easier to simply turn off the whole system when not in use. Also, if your computer is connected to the Internet all the time, this may even reduce the chance of your computer getting hacked.

Helpful Links:
When to turn off computers

Recycle

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle.

The simplest way to start living a "green" life - start recycling today! All it takes is adding an extra bin in your kitchen and start recycling. A lot of us think about recycling everyday, but somehow, never start.

Today is a great day to start. You don't have to rush out and buy a big green bin and figure all the details out. One step at a time will do just fine. Start small, place a small cardboard box in the garage or backyard or wherever convenient. Start with the most common stuff - paper, cans and bottles. Then move on to plastics and other materials. You will not believe the amount of paper and metal you collect, when you start with just junk mail, cans and bottles.

Recycling even helps to reduce clutter around the house. A lot of times, people have a hard time throwing an old magazine or book in a trash can, but when they throw it in a recycle bin, there is a sense of accomplishment and no guilt.

tip: Get a paper shredder - helps to quickly destroy important documents and then recycle. This avoids hoarding papers and documents for the fear of ID theft and end up staying in your house for a very long time. Just shred it and get it into the recycle bin.

Helpful Links:
WikiHow - How to recycle
Recycle - Local resources and more

Thermostat

In cold or hot weather, a lot of us do not spend that extra minute with our thermostats. Programmable thermostats that adjust automatically is one of the best ways to manage this. If you do not have one, then remember to adjust it manually as and when you can. At least for today, go and set it up at ideal temperatures.


During winter by set the thermostat to 68°F while you're in the house and set it lower while you're asleep or away from home. Invest in a good down comforter, woolen blankets and some inexpensive space heaters to help balance the heat. In the summer, you can follow the same strategy with central air conditioning, too, by keeping your house warmer than normal when you are not in the house, and lowering the thermostat setting to 78°F (26°C) only when you need cooling in the house.

Adjust Ceiling fan blades

Its spring time and warmer weather is here. Using the the option to switch fan blades to blow the air up or down is a great way to save some energy. Usually, only take a few minutes. Today is a good day to do it. Don't wait for a weekend, just do it. If there are still a few chilly nights or days, just don't use the fan.

During spring and warmer month, fans should be blowing on our heads to keep them cool. In the Fall when the temperature start dipping, our fans should be blowing air up and forcing the warm air back down.

tip: You can do the fan blade switch on the Time change days. Same trick, to change batteries on smoke alarms on time change days. Or simply stay tuned to us, we'll remind you!

Switch light bulbs

Probably the most procrastinated, yet easiest way to save some energy. Go today to the nearest club store or any other store and get a few low energy light bulbs. Now they come in all sizes and shapes to fit almost any fixture or appliance. You will not believe the amount of energy you will save by doing this.

tip: Start with the most used rooms and lights in the house. Also, be sure to replace the bulbs in garage, closets and attics, where we forget to switch off the lights more often.

Check tire pressure

Check the tire pressure on your vehicle today. Checking and inflating the tires only take a few minutes. Poorly inflated tires can make the car run slower and increase fuel costs. Check every other week if possible. If you have the time, do a visual check everyday when you get in the car first thing in the morning.

tip: keep a tire pressure gauge handy in the glove box and check waiting to fill your gas tank. Also, keep a few quarters handy for the air pump.

Turn off the tap

You have probably heard this all the time, but, somehow, a lot of us tend to forget this very simple way to conserve a lot water.

Turn off that water tap while you brush, shave, do dishes etc.

tip: till you get into the habit, put a small sticky note on the mirror to remind you to turn off the water. It may look weird or even ugly to see a sticky note on the vanity mirror, but thats the point, its that effective!

Related:
Turn off the water when shampooing your hair in the shower
Switch to drip irrigation
Don't use the toilet as an ashtray or flush down waste. Minimize the flushing.
Don't keep running the water tap till the water turns warm or hot. Just keep a bowl to hold the cooler water to use for something else.

Also check:
9 ways to save water from RealSimple

Carry a tote

Carry your own tote today to the store. Don't use plastic bags. If you forget your tote, get one in the store, or at least choose to use the paper bag option and remember to recycle it responsibly. Ideally, simple carry your own bag to the store.

If you are ready to take on the idea of never using plastic bags, then, try using the No plastic bags pledge on the Leonardo Decaprio's website.

tip: always leave a tote bag in your car or hang it along side your shoe rack or key holders. Just take a moment extra to keep the bags in a handy place, that reminds you to take them where you go.

Earth Hour - Turn off the lights

Celebrate the very effective and worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. Go ahead turn off all the lights for just 1 hr or more. Its not that hard really! 60 mins is such a short period of time to help extend the life of our planet by several million years more.

tip: Setup a nice Candle Dinner at home. Its easy to spend an hour over a romantic candle light dinner and may be even talk about loving our planet a little bit more everyday.

Turn off your engine

Turn off your vehicle's engine while you stop at a drive through - bank, coffee, food anything. If applicable, turn off the engine at a long traffic stop.

Just a few minutes of turning off the engine can make all the difference. Try it today!

Stay Green Today

"Stay Green Today" - a simple yet powerful way to remind people of one small green act to do every single day. Make a difference, conserve, care, and save our planet.

The idea behind this blog is to help remind people to do atleast one green act a day, and someday these little acts will become a matter of habit. Small gestures can go a long a way in making considerable differences.

We understand that its not easy to break a habit, and start living a greener lifestyle over night. We believe in going green in a more practical way, a simple way , ONE DAY AT A TIME.

Join the Stay Green Today - and stay green today, every day for the rest of your life.