Monday, Oct. 6
Today’s Tip: Buy local food.
This week The Green Zone gives you hints and tips for reducing your carbon footprint. If you want to do your part to halt global warming, the most important commitment you can make is to decrease your use of carbon-based energy sources like oil, coal, and natural gas. The three main areas of concern are:

1. Space/water heating and cooling (buildings account for 40% of energy consumption)

2. Transportation (how you get from point A to point B)

3. Food and where it comes from (the way we move food around from farm to distribution center to store to home almost literally transforms petroleum into food).

So take a look at these areas of your life and see where you can adjust your daily life to lower your carbon footprint.

One important action you can take is to buy local food. Ask where your food comes from. Keep your food dollars in the local economy. Shop farmers’ markets. Tell your local grocer you want local food. Eat at restaurants that serve locally-grown food.

When it comes to food, time and care yield quality that matters. Find that in local farmers, not industrial farming practices.

Tuesday, Oct. 7
Today’s Tip: Get a furnace system checkup
This week The Green Zone gives you hints and tips for reducing your carbon footprint so you can do your part to halt global warming. Remember, the point is to decrease your use of carbon-based energy sources like oil, coal, and natural gas. The three main areas of concern are:

1. Space/water heating and cooling

2. Transportation

3. Food and where it comes from

So take a look at these areas of your life and see where you can adjust your daily life to lower your carbon footprint.

Buildings account for 40% of energy consumption in the U.S. Begin by having your heating and cooling system serviced once a year. Fall is the perfect time to assure that your system works properly and efficiently throughout the winter. Call an experienced professional technician and ask for a complete checkup, including filters and ducts. Ten to 30% of conditioned air in the average system escapes from ducts, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. So be sure all leaks are sealed.

This not only saves energy, it saves you money and goes a long ways toward reducing your carbon footprint.

Wednesday, Oct. 8
Today’s Tip: Seal it up.
This week The Green Zone gives you hints and tips for reducing your carbon footprint. The three main areas of concern are:

1. Space/water heating and cooling

2. Transportation

3. Food and where it comes from

So take a look at these areas of your life and see where you can adjust your daily life to lower your carbon footprint.

Begin this fall by blocking drafts and sealing air leaks in your house.

Did you know that the total energy escaping from the average American house through leaks each year adds up to the same as leaving a window open all year around? That’s a lot of waste, and a lot of unnecessary carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere.

Before the weather gets below freezing, caulk around windows, chimneys, and electrical outlets. Block drafts around doors with weatherstripping. Seal up your house good and tight to keep valuable heated air—what you pay dearly for each month—inside the house where it does some good.

Thursday, Oct. 9
Today’s Tip: Green your water heater
This week The Green Zone deals gives you hints and tips for reducing your carbon footprint. Do that by decreasing your use of carbon-based energy sources like oil, coal, and natural gas. The three main areas of concern are:

1. Space/water heating and cooling

2. Transportation

3. Food and where it comes from

So take a look at these areas of your life and see where you can adjust your daily life to lower your carbon footprint.

Begin today with your water heater. Insulate your water tank, and at least the first six feet of piping with inexpensive jackets available at most hardware stores. It costs less than $100 and is an easy do-it-yourself project.

Adjust your water heater. Lowering the temperature from 140 to 120 degrees F. can reduce your water heating costs by 6 to 10%. Many people find that tweaking the dial can be addictive, and it’s easy to reduce the temperature further to 115 or lower.

Use cold water, not hot. Today’s detergents work just as well in cold water as they do in hot. And washing hands in cold water gets them just as clean as washing in hot. It’s the friction that gets hands clean, not water temperature.

Friday, Oct. 10
Today’s Tip: Don’t drive everywhere.
This week The Green Zone gives you hints and tips for reducing your carbon footprint. The three main areas of concern are:

1. Space/water heating and cooling

2. Transportation (how you get from Point A to Point B)

3. Food and where it comes from

So take a look at these areas of your life and see where you can adjust your daily life to lower your carbon footprint.

Start this week with transportation. Instead of driving, walk to that errand that’s under a mile. If 10,000 people walk five miles a week instead of driving, in a year we’ll eliminate the CO2 created by 240 cars.

Take the bus! The Des Moines bus system is always improving and now takes you to most areas of town without hassle. Some day when you have an extra hour or two, hop on the bus and see where it goes.

Make one day a week a car-free day and get around some other way—walk, bus, bike.

Reduce your carbon footprint, now.