What have you done today to address your carbon footprint?
While grand gestures like switching to solar help, smaller everyday changes mean a lot.
You spend most of your time at home — it makes sense for sustainability to start there. Simple renovations can make you more eco-friendly.
With technology changing rapidly these days, it’s tough to keep up with all the innovations that can make daily living greener.
If you’re considering a few upgrades, here are five eco-friendly renovations to help you live a more environmentally conscious lifestyle.
1. Automate
Energy vampires can arise from human mistakes. Did you forget to turn out the lights before leaving the house? Once upon a time, you had no choice but to let them burn until your return.
However, today’s smart home innovations allow you to dim them from a distance, reducing energy consumption and improving your sustainability quotient.
The ability to control your home’s energy from a distance is only one advantage of using smart home technology to green your footprint.
Smart thermostats let you establish a schedule to maximize energy efficiency. Adjusting your dial by one degree during your working hours can reduce your total energy use, but it’s hard to remember — instead, set it and forget it.
You won’t notice the difference until you open your new, lower electric bill.
Does your local power company provide incentives for conserving energy during peak hours? Smart home innovation can even keep your pad cleaner while letting you take advantage of these savings.
Program your automated vacuum to run during non-peak hours and keep the dust down and empty the device regularly to help it maintain suction.
2. Insulate
One of the best ways to reduce your energy consumption and the monthly bill is to improve your home’s insulation. Doing so keeps your desired temperature fixed inside despite outside fluctuations.
There’s another good reason for homeowners to rejoice.
Adding eco-friendly insulation to existing homes used to be challenging because installers needed to blow it inside walls without destroying them. However, there are more sustainable options than ever, including:
- Cellulose: You don’t get much more sustainable than this material, made from recycled straw, paper, hemp, and sawdust. Today’s techniques add a tiny bit of oil to keep your home dust-free.
- Straw bales: While you can use straw bales during construction, you can also blow this insulation in after erecting the walls. Chopping the straw up small does the trick.
- Polyurethane: While the name may not sound eco-friendly, this foam contains no substances that affect your endocrine system, unlike some plastics. Additionally, you can recycle it, although you might have to travel beyond your local sorting center to find an appropriate service.
3. Lighten
Your home’s lighting use can improve its energy efficiency while also bettering your mood and mindset. How? Make better use of natural light.
Passive solar techniques involve using natural light for temperature control.
Take down heavy blackout curtains from south and west-facing windows in winter to let the sun warm rooms without fossil fuel use.
Natural light can also reduce your reliance on indoor illumination. It could even boost your productivity if you work from home, making you feel less stressed and depressed.
A recent study found that each additional hour participants spent in natural light correlated to a similar reduction in depression symptoms. Natural light also keeps your circadian rhythms functioning normally so you sleep more soundly at night.
Do you want another way to add more natural light to your home? Solar tubes are less expensive than skylights, have fewer issues with condensation and are simple enough for even DIYers to install.
They also reduce energy use by letting you take advantage of nature’s light, especially if you live in a townhome without many windows.
4. Improve Waste Management
How does your household dispose of waste? Many families toss everything in one bin, especially where single-stream recycling reigns supreme.
However, this method isn’t your most eco-friendly choice — here’s how to improve.
Sort and Rinse
The problem with single-stream recycling is that cross-contamination results in otherwise reusable materials ending up in landfills.
Much of the world’s recycling goes to foreign countries for processing, but they have recently tightened regulations, accepting only clean, sorted, used goods.
Therefore, the most effective way to recycle is to sort and rinse your disposables, coordinating their trip to the center with other errands you must run to save emissions.
Compost
Organic waste is problematic in landfills for one big reason — methane.
This greenhouse gas is heavier than carbon dioxide and results from the anaerobic conditions in which these products rot.
Add a little oxygen, however, and you reap the reward of rich, loamy soil perfect for enhancing your garden and houseplants in a matter of weeks.
5. Go Renewable
Renewable energy is an environmentally conscious lifestyle shift that kicks your home’s sustainability up several notches.
If it’s time for a roof replacement anyway, investigate your options. Congress recently extended the solar energy credits, meaning you can recoup much of your installation expenses come tax time and save a fortune in utility bills over the years.
What if you rent? While no one would spend thousands of their own money fixing up their landlord’s property, you have options. Your easiest solar solution is to connect panels to a portable power bank.
You can then use that energy to run many of your home’s small appliances with the right adapter.
Best of all, your gear goes with you when you travel. Going camping? Take your setup with you for off-grid power.
Eco-Friendly Renovations
Sustainable living begins at home.
The right upgrades can decrease your carbon footprint. Consider the five renovations above to make your lifestyle more environmentally conscious.
You’ll also save money and feel good about doing your part to protect the planet.