Make Your Resolutions for 2009 Green

By Jessica Jensen, Huffington Post. Posted January 2, 2009.

2. Read your newspapers online. Or just convert to online for your weekday editions and keep your weekend papers to enjoy with your Sunday coffee. You'll save trees, energy, and money! If only 10 million people in the US canceled their Monday-Friday newspapers, we'd save almost 50,000 trees each year.

3. Find a way to drive and fly less and cut your carbon emissions this year. Can you bike to the grocery store? Can you walk to the bank? Can you talk your boss into letting you telecommute once a week? Better yet perhaps you can talk your boss into creating a telecommuting plan for your whole department? Or propose that you have meetings via teleconference rather than flying. Remember that the emissions from flying are a major contributor to global warming. Click here to learn about other ways to spread the good green word at work- Learn more about how to green your office.

4. Install a programmable thermostat. These nifty devices allow you to micro-control your home's heating and cooling. One of these can help you shave 15% off of your energy consumption (and save you money!). It's really quite simple to install -- will take you only 45 minutes. Find programmable thermostats here, and learn how to install them here.

5. Really investigate solar and wind energy options for your home. Many of us have told ourselves that we simply can't afford solar or wind energy. (And this certainly may be true.) But incentives have gotten much better in some parts of the country and costs have also come down. If a full solar electric system is too expensive, consider a solar hot water system -- which can be $4-6K to install and reduce your home energy use by 20-30%. Learn more about solar hot water here. And to get a quote on installation costs, you can find solar installers near you here and wind system installers here.

For many more ideas for how to make your home and lifestyle more eco-friendly, click here to visit our Green Projects page.

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Jessica Jensen is a leading voice in the environmental lifestyle movement. She co-founded Low Impact Living, Inc. (www.lowimpactliving.com) in 2006, and it is now the most popular green home-improvement site online.

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