Go to the car wash

Perhaps surprisingly, going to a commercial drive thru car wash is actually your best option. Since car washes are required to treat their dirty water, they are eco-friendly. Additionally, commercial car washes use computer systems and high-pressure nozzles and pumps, allowing them to minimize their water usage and maximize their water efficiency. These car washes also focus on convenience as part of their customer service, so they are generally a quick and affordable option as well.

Doing it yourself

If you prefer to pull out the hose, bucket, and soap at home, you can still be efficient and thoughtful about how you do it. Here are some tips for staying eco-friendly and energy efficient:

• Use biodegradable, phosphate-free, and water-based cleaners. Phosphates, sodium, potassium, and other harmful chemicals are common in many car-washing products. These chemicals can be dangerous for aquatic life, especially since dirty water from home car washes will eventually find its way to streams, lakes, and rivers.
• Use soap sparingly. Even if you are using green products, they likely still include some level of toxin inside. Therefore, use as little as is necessary to get the job done!
• Use a water spray gun attachment to limit water usage. The precision of a spray gun gets the job done quicker and uses much less water than your regular hose attachment.
• Wash your car on the gravel or grass. This way, the dirty water will be filtered before it enters the ground. If you simply wash your car in the driveway, water might find your storm drain or some other path that won’t filter the water before it reaches its final destination.
• Dump your dirty bucket into the toilet or in the sink. Household wastewater is treated before it reenters waterways, so this ensures that the toxins and chemicals (not to mention all of that dirt and grime) will be safely taken out.

Of all of these options, going to a commercial car wash is definitely your best choice for energy efficiency and eco-friendly!

Looking to increase the energy efficiency and eco-friendliness of your car? Check out our Bright Insights blog post to learn how to choose the best green car for you and your family!

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But while grilling is clearly energy efficient, is it eco-friendly?

Is grilling better for the environment than cooking inside with your oven?

The answer depends on where your energy is coming from. And for your grill, it depends on what type of fuel source you are using.

A grill running on natural gas is the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly way to barbecue—it is even better for the environment than using electricity!

The one exception, of course, is electricity from renewable energy sources. You can’t beat zero emissions!

What’s the best grill option?

Beyond being eco-friendly, your ideal grill should also be reasonably priced, as well as easy to find and operate. Therefore, the easy answer to this question is still natural gas grills: they are widely available, easy to use, and incredibly eco-friendly.

In terms of availability, ease of use, and price, the only real competitor to the natural gas grill is the tried and true charcoal briquette grill. However, since we’re trying to measure eco-friendliness, the charcoal grill ultimately falls flat.

Both grills certainly have their fair share of pollutants, but charcoal also has some nasty volatile organic compounds and particulate matter such as byproducts that will pollute the air around the grill. These emissions can lead to health problems if inhaled, and they can even damage the ozone!

Cleaner alternatives?

There are also a few alternatives to gas and charcoal grills that offer varying levels of energy efficiency and eco-friendliness.

Pellet grills, for example, run on compressed wood nuggets and burn more efficiently and cleaner than charcoal grills. The catch, though, is that they require a small amount of electricity to operate.

There are also renewable energy grills that can cut your emissions down to zero! The GoSun Stove is the perfect example: it collects solar energy from the sun and stores it in an internal battery that can be used at a later date. The one downside to this brilliant design: it doesn’t have a flat, wide surface like conventional grills and is therefore not the best option for getting that char on a hot dog or burger. But you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that you’re helping the environment!

Have you bought your seasonal grilling supplies yet? If not, make your next purchase through our Star Energy Rewards app and receive cashback!

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What is eco-friendly furniture?

Strictly speaking, eco-friendly furniture is any variety of furniture that is created in a way that does the least amount of damage possible to the environment. For example, eco-friendly furniture might use wood that comes from renewable sources and chemicals that don’t pollute the environment.

There is a surprising amount of furniture on the market today that is by no means eco-friendly. Previous generations of furniture were often made from large amounts of wood and designed to withstand the test of time. These pieces of furniture are incredibly well built, but the process of building them is quite messy on an environmental scale.

Furniture has moved in a different direction during the past few decades. We now live in a world ruled by Ikea, where cheap, modular, self-assembled furniture is incredibly popular. However, these products, like their predecessors, aren’t eco-friendly in the long run. Low-cost furniture’s matching low quality results in a short lifespan and an early trip to the landfill—which means the cumulative effects on the environment are far from good.

What type of eco-friendly furniture to choose?

One great option for eco-friendly furniture is any one that is created using recycled materials. Models that are made from recycled plastic or other forms of rubbish keep these materials from going into landfills while creating comfy furniture in the process—it’s a win-win!

Another sneaky type of eco-friendly furniture is used furniture. From an environmental perspective, these pieces of furniture already did their damage to the environment when they were created long ago. Therefore, by choosing an existing piece of furniture, you won’t have to pay for another piece to be created (leading to more pollution).

Check out the rest of our Bright Insights blog for more information on renewable energy and energy efficiency advice!

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The Good

As mentioned, wind farms are great for the environment in at least one obvious and significant way: they help wean us off of our reliance on fossil fuels and reduce our carbon footprint on a societal level. This is very good for the environment!

What’s more, one of the benefits of renewable energy is the ability to have on-site energy production. This leads to further carbon emission reductions because energy (traditionally in the form of fossil fuels) won’t have to be delivered to remote locations.

The Bad

Unfortunately, there are some downsides to wind farms from an environmental perspective. For one thing, wind farms require a lot of space and therefore end up consuming a lot of land.

There are also concerns over how wildlife interacts with large wind turbines. Bats and birds are most affected, and many are killed each year as they fly into turbine blades. In addition, offshore wind farms can have an impact on ocean life, as de-icing fluid from the blades inevitably spills into the ocean waters.

However, it is important to note that these risk factors are not unique to wind energy—or even renewable energy. In fact, one could argue that carbon emissions are worse for the environment than wind farms, considering the impact they have on wildlife and the long-term issues that global warming could pose on the global ecosystem.

What’s Next?

To combat these issues, more research must be done into making wind farms safer for the environment while also increasing their energy efficiency. As technology becomes more advanced, it will inevitably become cheaper, safer, and more efficient—we just have to be patient!

Looking for more information on this topic? Click here to learn more about wind energy, wind farms, and their impact on the environment.

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Eco-Friendly Moving Tips

• Plan ahead! Planning ahead of time for the best route to travel, how you’ll pack everything up, and how many trips you’ll have to take can save you a lot of headaches. It will also keep you from wasting time and fuel making unnecessary trips!

• Don’t feel obligated to move everything you have! Having a garage sale or donating items to charity can easily help you downsize your load and make the moving process much easier. You’ll save on fuel costs by lightening the weight that you have to haul, plus you may even be able to score some extra cash to help finance your move!

• Figure out how you’ll handle moving boxes. Two solid options are either getting high-quality plastic containers that you can use over and over again, or searching around for used cardboard boxes in your area so that you don’t have to buy new ones. Then, when you are done with them, see if you can recycle them or put them to use around your home.

You can also ditch the bubble wrap and use old newspapers (recycle them when you’re done) or towels/clothes that you were already going to take with you.

• Try to find an eco-friendly moving company or alternative. Depending on how far you will be moving, there are a few different options that you should consider. For a local move, search for a local eco-friendly moving company; there are many around the country. However, if you are moving across the country, you may want to consider a more energy efficient and eco-friendly option. For example, you might try a service like Move America or sending your belongings with freight on a train.

• Use green cleaning products when you are tidying up your old place or making the new one shine!

• Don’t forget your mail! Moving naturally means having to sign up for mail forwarding and a change of address with the USPS. While you are thinking about your mail, consider cutting down on your junk mail by cancelling those subscriptions to magazines you hardly read and for coupons and flyers that you ignore. What’s more, take a look at how many bills you receive through the mail and see if any of them have a paperless option. Taking these steps can seriously cut down the amount of paper that is sent to your home, thereby lowering your overall carbon footprint.

Here’s some more advice that you might find useful during your next move!

• 33 Brilliant Moving Tips from BuzzFeed
• Great Moving Tips from moving.com

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If you’re looking for a way to help out, paying attention to the carbon footprint of your transportation is a great place to start. Luckily, there are many forms of eco-friendly technology and several methods that you can use to begin leading the green lifestyle!

How to travel green

• Choose the best option for your travels that will have as little impact on the environment as possible. According to Center for International Climate and Environmental Research’s Jens Borken-Kleefeld “traveling alone in a large car can be as bad for the climate as flying, but driving with three in a small car could have an equally low impact as a train ride.”
• When traveling by plane, train, or bus, buy electronic tickets when booking to save paper. Plus, many of these services have apps that you can use that are more convenient than printing off a boarding pass!
• Book nonstop flights whenever you can, as a significant percentage of a plane’s carbon emissions come from takeoff and landing.

Vacation advice

• Plan as much of your trip beforehand as you can, so that you can take advantage of eco-friendly options. For example, you might find a nice green hotel to stay in or a rental service that offers eco-friendly green cars.
• Pack light! Not only will it make it easier to carry your luggage around and keep track of your belongings, but it will decrease the amount of fuel used to transport you and your gear around.
• Explore local transportation options at your destination.
• Don’t splurge on souvenirs—you’ll save a few dollars and you won’t have to figure out how to transport them home!
• Instead of buying bottled water, carry a refillable container and fill it when you have access to free drinking water.
• If you will be on vacation for a long period of time, unplug appliances and other electronic devices that don’t need to have access to power in your absence. Add this to your regular preparations for being away from home.

Here is some further reading if you are interested in learning more about saving energy on your transportation costs!

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Are green hotels any different than a regular hotel?

Aside from their positive impact on the environment, there isn’t necessarily a noticeable difference between eco-friendly hotels and standard lodging. From the hotel owner’s perspective, it is argued that implementing eco-friendly solutions (such as installing renewable energy technology) will increase the property value of a hotel in the long-term, which can easily be argued to be a benefit. And from the consumer’s point of view, this increase in property value may result in lower prices or expanded services and perks!

However, there are some that worry that while investing in these eco-friendly programs is good for the environment, it might actually cost hotels too much money in the short-term to be worth the investment. Would the necessary costs of investment, and the increased prices of rooms, drive consumers away?

According to one study, this clearly doesn’t appear to be the case. The study, Hotel Sustainability: Financial Analysis Shines a Cautious Green Light, found that average booking revenue stayed about the same for eco-certified hotels. But the study also found that eco-friendly hotels made better use of their resources, and therefore were found to be more productive than their less sustainable counterparts.

Why should you stay in a green hotel?

There are many reasons why you might choose to stay in a green hotel. First and foremost, you are likely to seek out a green hotel if you are interested in supporting a hotel or business that is actively taking steps to become more environmentally friendly. You can look at your decision as another way to reduce your personal carbon footprint on the environment.

How do you find green hotels?

You could spend hours tracking down all of the green hotel options for your upcoming trips if you had to manually review each hotel’s website. Luckily, aggregators like Expedia make the process of finding eco-friendly lodging much easier. Aggregator sites allow you to easily search for a green hotel in the area you wish to stay.

Looking to learn more about green hotels? Check out our helpful list of resources below!

• 30 Gorgeous Eco-Friendly Hotels—Via Mashable
• For general information on the benefits of green hotels, visit the Green Hotels Association

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Alternative lighting

One of the easiest ways to cut down on energy bills is to make the switch to fluorescent or LED light bulbs throughout the house. If you have the money, consider investing in remotely controlled LED lights that can be turned on, off, and dimmed with a smartphone or tablet app. Set your lights on a timer when you are away from home for additional safety and adjust settings for your individual needs.

Programmable thermostat

Adjust the temperature of your house and set timers for heat and air conditioning with programmable thermostats in order to use as little energy as possible. Some programmable thermostats are also remotely controlled, an added bonus if you go out of town and forget to turn off your air conditioning.

Low flow faucets

Changing out your kitchen and bathroom faucets and showerheads for low flow alternatives is a straightforward and relatively simple DIY project that will save you money in the long run. If you want to further save water in your home, set some water usage ground rules such as taking limited length showers, turning off taps while brushing teeth, and running full loads only on the dishwasher and washing machine.

Air drying laundry station

Tumble dryers are one of the biggest energy wasting culprits in the home. For an instant green fix, set up an air drying station in your laundry room (a slotted air drying rack on the wall or back of the laundry room door will do the trick) and air dry as many of your clothes as possible. In the summer, make use of your backyard’s natural solar power and dry your clothes the traditional way – in the sunshine.

Upcycled furniture

Going green at home is about more than saving energy. Recycling and reusing are just as important as reducing energy bills. When updating furniture and home accessories, consider rehoming items you already have (old trunks, wicker baskets, and sideboards) or buy from charity stores and flea markets. Upcycled furniture adds charm and vintage aesthetic while being sustainable as well.

Kitchen wall vertical garden

Even the least green thumbed homeowner can easily set up a windowsill garden at home. Think out of the box and hang your potted herbs and vegetables on the kitchen wall to add color and creative flair to your cooking and dining space. This project not only looks good but also saves money on fresh produce bills. If, after completing this task, you feel confident in your gardening skills, consider setting up a garden in your backyard to continue your sustainable food production.

Kaitlin Krull is a writer and mom of two girls living the expat life in the UK. Her writing is featured on Modernize.com and a number of home decor sites around the web. She can also be found blogging from time to time on her personal blog, A Vicar’s Wife.

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