In changing your ways to greener living, the key thing to remember is:

“little things mean a lot”

Meaning, you don’t have to go out marching in Washington or move your family to a yurt in the wilderness to save the earth.

Take your weekly trips to the grocery store, for instance. Just by being aware of what you buy can make loads of difference. For me, the main thing I’ve done in my home is to switch the cleaning supplies I use from the nose-burning, toxic, chemical-laden stuff to non-toxic, bio degradable brands. It was the smell that actually bothered me the most (especially when I was pregnant), so switching to the lovely natural stuff I use now as a surface cleaner, which uses orange oil, is such a great thing.

A small local company in my area makes most of the stuff I buy now (more points for saving on transport fuel) , but even the bigger guys are starting natural, eco-friendly lines now, like Clorox Green Works, which launched early this year. Did you know they bought Burts Bees too?

Here’s a part of a good article I found which should help you in the grocery. Read and heed.

Buy local. When food doesn’t have to travel far, it requires less packaging materials, fewer preservatives and often fewer pesticides. Not only are these processes bad for the environment but they also take away from the taste of the food. Another benefit to buying locally grown food is the shorter distances the produce needs to travel, which results in less damaging greenhouse gases.

Buy environmentally friendly products. Many companies are trying to be more environmentally conscious so look for brands that offer natural products in recycled packages.

Take fewer trips. Car emissions continue to be a major contributor to greenhouse gasses in Canada making carpooling and fewer trips to the grocery store a must. Making a grocery list in advance can help cut down on trips to the store for one-off forgotten items. Organizing a grocery store carpool with friends or neighbours is also a fun way to spend time with people while reducing the number of cars on the road.

Cut down on plastic bags. Canadians use approximately 10 billion plastic bags each year. Reducing that number means bringing reusable grocery bags with you to the store. If you don’t already have some, most stores have their own brand of reusable bags you can purchase while you are there. Another alternative is to use cardboard boxes to carry your groceries or paper bags that can be recycled.

Global warming or climate change means that the Earth is being affected by the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere largely because of man, industry and globalization. Think of the carbon like a thick wooly blanket that keeps the hot air in, making the Earth hotter than it has been in 650,000 years, resulting in shocking images we’ve all been suddenly exposed to – like polar bears clinging onto tiny patches of ice because so much has melted. And have you noticed that there seem to be an awful lot of tropical storms around the world, more violent and more widespread than you remember growing up?

Do you find the picture above as disturbing as I do?

Here are some of the shocking facts, according to the National Geographic:

• Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

• The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century’s last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.

• The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004.

• Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss.

• Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana’s Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.

• Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching—or die-off in response to stress—ever recorded in 1998, with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70 percent. Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise.

• An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires and strong tropical storms, is also attributed in part to climate change by some experts.

To become more active and do your bit to stop this, visit Stop Global Warming.

Fly economy instead of first class. The latter may be more comfortable but since there are fewer people in first class (more space is given per person), it technically uses up more fuel. More than this, however, you should also consider taking the most direct route. It is common sense, as it will get you to your destination faster, but flying directly also lessens your carbon emissions contribution.

Better yet, take the bus. Yeah I know, the bus is not your first choice. If you have time to spare, however, and you do not have that much luggage on you, why not take the bus instead of driving or flying? You will save a LOT on fares and your carbon footprint will benefit from it as well.

Avoid holiday traffic jams. We all want this, but probably for a different reason – who likes getting stuck in traffic anyway? Another reason for avoiding traffic jams, however, is the fact that your car uses up much more fuel when sitting idly. This means higher emissions. As such, plan your trip so that you won’t have to battle it out on the roads with other travelers.

Any tips of your own?

Photo courtesy of Boeing

So what is green furniture? This kind of furniture has at least one of the following characteristics.

Sustainable – green furniture should be made from raw materials that come sustainable sources. These include man-made forests that are reforested regularly so as not to strip the natural resources.

Recycled – some furniture can be made from recycled materials such as plastics and metals. Instead of using newly made materials, recycled materials will lessen the strain on the environment and usually come cheaply as well.

Low toxicity – you might not know it but some products have high levels of toxic materials. Green furniture, on the other hand, is made of materials that have low levels of toxic elements.

Durable – green furniture should last you a long time. This implies that you will be using your furniture for at least a year (or even more!). Naturally, this means that you will not be buying new furniture as often. Another point is that repair should always be an option.

Local – green furniture is produced locally. Shipping over long distances increases the carbon footprint of products. If your furniture is produced or obtained locally, the carbon footprint is decreased.

The next time you buy furniture, you might want to consider these things.

Previously we asked you what your carbon footprint was. Well as we’re bloggers, maybe we should start with the very activity that we are doing at this minute- blogging!

J. Angelo Racoma, a member of our team at Splashpress Media, wrote on one of our sister sites about this very topic- giving 10 Ways To Reduce Your Blogging Carbon Footprint:

The new year has come, and among some bloggers’ resolutions include being more environment-friendly. Sure, oil prices have plummeted, partly because of the worldwide economic crunch. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start being more efficient in your energy use. TIME Magazine’s latest feature tells us that there is a renewable-energy resource that is perfectly clean, remarkably cheap, surprisingly abundant and immediately available, and it is not some new-technology power plant or biofuel, or whatnot. It’s simple: energy efficiency.

I’ve actually tried to start a blog about becoming more green, but the idea of becoming more eco-friendly seemed a bit trivial to someone like me who spends almost all day in front of the computer (and so the blog has not had much activity for some time now). But then it hit me–being environmentally friendly should start at home, or better yet for a blogger, right at your fingertips.

And so I’ve thought of a few ways to reduce one’s carbon footprint, specifically from blogging. First and foremost, we define carbon footprint as the greenhouse gas emissions caused by your activities, whether directly or indirectly. So with blogging, this is mostly related to your use of energy or electricity.

You can either reduce consumption altogether. For instance, you can limit yourself to just a couple of hours of online activity every day. But that would only result in conservation and not efficiency. That’s doing less with less. What we want is to be able to do more with the same amount of energy, or even less.

1. Unplug, unplug, unplug. Or at least turn off the main switch. I must admit I’m guilty of this environmental sin. Most of our electronic gadgetry these days come with a soft power button. That is, you press a toggle button and your TV, monitor, component, or whatever gadget turns on and off in an instant. But turning it off this way does not actually cut off the power supply from the device. Chances are, leaving something on standby will consume about 5% to 30% of its powered-on use.

Standy power accounts for about 5% to 8% of household electricity use (sources: 1 (PDF), 2, 3 (PDF)), and results in about $3 billion in wasted electricity annually in the US alone.

One good solution is to plug your devices in a power strip (or AVR), which you can simply turn off after use.

2. Use a laptop computer. In the old days, I used to do online work on an ancient Pentium-IV desktop computer with a CRT monitor. Not only was it noisy, hot and slow, it was very power hungry, too.

Desktop computers typically consume 350 Watts, while laptop computers would usually draw just 45 Watts or so. You can check your power supply to see how much maximum power draw your gadget takes when plugged in. For instance, my Compaq Presario laptop uses a maximum of 65 Watts, while my Asus EeePC takes in about 36 Watts maximum.

If you’d rather stick with a desktop, you can use alternatives like nettop computers or smaller, energy efficient models. I hear Macs are more energy-efficient than their PC counterparts! I’ve gotten rid of my old desktop, and now I use an Apple Mac Mini (G4), which consumes the same amount of electricity as most laptops (plus the monitor, of course).

3. Switch to LCD. If you still haven’t done so, then this is the right time. LCDs are getting cheaper and cheaper by the moment. These days, CRTs are usually only appreciated by hardcore gamers who need really fast refresh rates, and some graphic designers (who for some reason are able to calibrate their CRTs better than LCDs). But for writing, emailing, blog reading, and the occasional online video, LCDs are appropriate. They’re easier on the eyes, lighter on the desk, and they consume less power, too. A typical LCD would consume less than half the consumption of its similar-sized CRT counterpart.

And while we’re at it, you can reduce your monitor’s brightness to a comfortable, but not too bright, level.

4. Set your computer to sleep/standby or hibernate. Most laptops would have this setting by default, but not everyone is aware how to change or activate this on a laptop or desktop. In my case, whenever I need to take a short break, I just close my laptop’s lid and it goes to sleep. That way, the computer’s screen and keyboard are protected, and I save a bit on consumption. Or in case I forget, my computers are set to sleep after 20 minutes of inactivity (and my desktop hibernates and turns itself off altogether after a couple of hours).

This is especially important on desktop computers. Screensavers don’t give any savings at all, but the difference between sleep mode and powered-on is dramatic (see tip #1). Of course, it’s still best to turn off and unplug when not in use, but for brief bathroom, stretching or coffee breaks, sleep mode does wonders to the environment.

With both Mac and Windows machines, this is fairly straightforward.

5. Minimize the use of the A/C or heater. In cool weather, I no longer turn on the air conditioner at my home office. Or when it’s really warm or hot, I share A/C use with the wife and kids (either the kids play at my office room, or I work at the bedroom). Sure, we need quiet time to concentrate on writing. But isn’t it fun to share the warmth (or cool) with someone you love? You get to save on the electricity bill, too!

Case in point: Our electricity bill for December was just 50% of our usual bill during warmer months. This should also apply to folks in cold countries, although it would be the other way around.

6. Use energy-efficient lighting. If you blog from home, then you should switch to energy-efficient light bulbs, like compact fluorescent. Incandescent bulbs burn up more than 96% of the energy it uses as heat. So a 15 Watt CFL bulb is usually as bright as a 400 Watt incandescent bulb.

If it’s daytime, then open those blinds or curtains. Let the sun shine in!

7. Brewing coffee? Why not brew enough for two or more cups? I normally only get to consume one cup per sitting, but on those all-nighters, I brew myself an extra cup just to be sure. Brewed coffee will go stale if you leave it warming on the hot plate for more than 20 minutes (that is, if you’re using a drip-brewer). But if you’re consuming more than one cup anyway, it would be a waste of electricity, water, soap and even coffee grinds if you were to brew twice or more. Why not brew enough to last your blogging run? You can actually keep coffee in a thermal carafe or thermos for about five hours, and it will still taste as good.

If you prefer getting your caffeine fix at the neighborhood cafe, then you could try walking or biking if it’s not too far. Or if you have to use the car, then perhaps you can plan your trip. Why not bring some family members along if they’re running some errands?

8. Consolidate your blog hosting. Unless you run blogs purely for SEO, or unless your blog gets DUGG every day, why not host your blogs under a single hosting account? Most hosting accounts these days offer more than enough bandwidth and space for one single blog. If you run your blog from a hosted service like WordPress.com or Blogger, this shouldn’t be an issue. But if you run a self-hosted blog, or perhaps you run your own hosted blogging service, then this could make a difference. Not only do you save on hosting fees, you help save the environment, too!

9. Work more efficiently. I guess this is subjective, but you definitely reduce your carbon footprint if you do more with less time or with less resources. So rather than spending hours upon hours pointlessly sifting through your feed reader trying to find something interesting, why not get your thoughts more organized? Why not plan ahead, noting down topics you’d like to write about, and clipping quotes and URLs in a handy notebook, so when you’re ready to write, information would be easier to access?

Or how about reducing your workspace clutter? At any given time, I have dozens of tabs open in several browser windows. Not only does this clutter my current window, it also clutters my taskbar and on-screen real-estate. Every once in a while, I shut down my browser altogether and open only the tabs I really need, like my Gmail, feed reader, and Twitter window, among others. This way, I get to focus, and I’m able to produce better output.

Working smarter beats working harder. You get more things done with less effort! You help save the world, too.

10. Write shorter posts. I’m not a fan of one-liners, but posts that are too long tend to tire me and cause me to spend a little more time than I want to. At the very least, split your post into headings, bullet points or lists, to make reading (or scanning) easier.

And I think this should be the last tip, because I’ve just violated it with my post going past the 1,000 word mark!

Contributing to the increasingly popular concept of carbon footprint-reduction does not necessarily entail drastic lifestyle changes. Even a few adjustments here and there can make a difference. And even if these savings result in just a small reduction, the sum can add up to something big, if we all do our part.

Don’t forget to contact us if you have any suggestions as to what you’d like to see us post about here at Yurto- we always like to hear from you!

It seems logical to me that when wanting to create a greener home, the first question we should ask ourselves is this:

“What is my carbon footprint?”

If you don’t know what that is, it is simply how you personally contribute to the Earth’s global warming. It is:

” The measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide“.

That means the electricity and gas you use at home, how much fuel you consume each day driving, how much you travel by air and so on – it DOES affect the world around you.

Now I have a pretty large household and combined with the amount of travelling we do and power we use at home, calculating my personal carbon footprint was a scary task.  And let me tell you, the results were not pretty. And that’s coming from someone who already has a small awareness of the environment – we recycle, use diesel, have converted all our lightbulbs and try as best we can not to waste electricity and water.  Even my kids brush with the taps off and now bathe together to save water. But in spite of all these little things, our carbon footprint was still terrifyingly high.  Which I am afraid to think, but probably is the case in many homes like ours. But now that I know, the more I am determined to make that footprint a little smaller.

So, have you worked out your CARBON FOOTPRINT? You can do it here.

Welcome to Yurto, the blog about eco-friendly living in the home. Inspired by the yurt, an ancient circular dwelling place built in tune with nature, we hope to explore the ways we can all make a change for the better in the world that we live in – beginning from our homes.

Why is it so important to go green? Al Gore, who woke up the world with his now-famous documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, puts it succinctly:

“…Some of the leading scientists are now saying we may have as little as 10 years before we cross a kind of point of no return, beyond which it’s much more difficult to save the habitability of the planet in the future…”

10 years??? Now that’s a scary thought.  If you have children like me, that’s enough reason to stop procrastinating and do something about NOW.

So from plastic to canvas, wasting to conserving,  lets find ways to care for the earth while we can and live healthier, happier lives.