• Save on electricity bill
With the continuous crises in fuel resources, fuel inflation is also continuous, giving people with no choice but to pay their high electricity bills. You can save a lot of energy by simply switching off your lights when not necessary, by unplugging all unused electric appliances or you may use surge protector. You can also replace your light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs like fluorescent, they last longer and they are energy savers. You may also stop using hot water in the laundry. Cold water can also clean your clothes as effectively.

• Save on gas
By avoiding using your vehicle to get to short destinations, you are saving yourself from a lot of gas expense, not to mention gas emission. You may also practice carpooling. Just ask your neighbors if they need a ride located near your destination. This will be cheaper for you and for your neighbors. You may also want to try public transportation. This may not be as comfortable as having your own car but they can save you a lot of money. You may also convert your car into bio fuel or any other alternative fuel to minimize the cost. By simple looking at these examples you would be able to not just help the environment but save money too.

Enter “Eco Balls”, amazing little balls which, when thrown into your wash, do all the work your regular soap does (and claim to kill bacteria too) without any chemicals, detergents and the like. When you work out what you save on soap, the savings are enormous, with something like 6 cents a load with the balls, to approx. 80 cents with detergent, more depending on what brand you buy. You can buy kits which come with refills, stain remover (it doesn’t do that great with heavy stains) as well as dryer balls for “fabric softer” role.

So does it really work? While I wait for my order to arrive, I found a good review worth checking out. The verdict? Some liked it, others were disappointed with its cleaning power. There was also one complaint about how the ball came apart and broke her washing machine. Either way, its a product I think worth trying out for yourself -because I think eliminating detergents would be a great thing.

Using organic skincare products is more than just saving your skin from possible chemical irritation—it’s also saving the earth from home. However, that is only if you are using the real organic skincare.

Why Use Organic Skincare?

Organic skincare products are made up and processed without using any chemicals like synthetic fertilizers, pest killers, and preservatives. Thus, supporting organic skincare brands means encouraging chemical-free farming and processing.

That’s less pain for the earth and less damaging effects for the environment. As for your skin, that means less irritation, less potential damage, more natural glow, and more youthful appearance.

Beware of Some “Organic” Skincare Products

The dramatic increase of environmental concerns is taken advantaged by manufacturers. Adding the words “natural,” “organic,” “eco-friendly,” etc. on the label can instantly transform a poorly sold product into a market hit.

As a consumer, you need to be vigilant. Otherwise, you might only be contributing harm to the environment despite your desire to help. And the most painful part is, you are not aware of it.

Organic Skincare Labels

All products can say that they are “organic skincare.” But only few can have the real seal of being organic.

There are groups that are responsible for certifying that organic skincare products are really organic like the Australia’s Organic Food Chain, ECOCERT, USDA, UK’s Soil Association, and Germany’s BDIH.

They give certification depending on how organic an organic skincare product is. For instance, those with “Certified Organic” seal have at least 95% organic ingredients while those with “Made Organic” have at least 70%.

In the end, making your own organic skincare recipe is still the best way to make sure that you are using organic. But with the hectic lifestyle, using trusted organic skincare brands is a better and more comfortable way to save your skin and the environment.

Do you have living plants inside your home? Just the other day I realized that while I made sure my garden was in good condition, I hardly had any living plants inside. When we first moved into this house a year and a half ago, I had two large houseplants inside, one very tall, reaching my double height living room ceiling, and the other one of those spider plants, like the one above. I’m not sure why, but both languished for the next few months, and when I found a nasty termite hole under the pot of the large one, I moved both plants outside.

This I now regret, because I have since learned that the amounts of chemicals inside our homes were huge – and this is just from ordinary, everyday living. And one way to combat its ill effects (like cancer) are non-other than the humble houseplant. Here are some examples of the big baddies which are most probably in your home as we speak.

Formaldehyde
This nasty one causes cancer and is shockingly found in pretty much everything (if you bought your furniture/clothes etc. etc. at regular stores) – your dining table, your carpet, your pad of paper – even the gas for your stove! In the past I always associated it with preserving the dead, so it’s an even scarier idea, for me especially, that this stuff is actually on the tabletop my family eat off on, and maybe even my makeup.

Benzene
This is another bad one, and a known carcinogen found in a huge assortment of everyday stuff like ink, plastic, glue, solvents, rubber, oils, paints, detergents, and even some meds. It can affect you even with low levels, from milder maladies like headaches to anemia and blood diseases like Leukemia. There are actually lawyers who are dedicated in litigating against the environmental effects of Benzine, and their website has a concise list on what products have Benzine in it.

Trichloroethylene
Exposure to this (in high doses) affects your nervous system, heart, lung and can seriously cause severe damage to your liver. It is found in dry cleaning materials, paint and adhesives.

Carbon Monoxide
We all know this one, which is found cigarette smoke, gas ranges, fire places, car exhausts, wood stoves and other gasoline-powered equipment. You cant see or smell it, but high levels can kill you FAST.

So aside from being more careful the next time you purchase a piece of furniture, decide to do some dry cleaning, or have the house painted, you can also protect yourself and your family by surrounding your home with chemical-fighting houseplants – more on that in my next post!

One of the mantras in my household is “Wash your hands please”. When the kids get home from school, before mealtimes, before cooking, after playing, after touching the pets and so on. But when you’re out of the house, using water and soap obviously isn’t the most convenient thing. And the solution a lot of people have been using come in the form of antibacterial gels, which are cheap, plentiful and found just about anywhere. The problem with it though, is that terrible ingredient, triclosan, an antibacterial agent found in a lot of products nowadays, from soap to socks! But the fact remains: Triclosan is no better than plain soap.

Several months ago, I read a very disturbing article by a Mom, aptly called: “Cancer or Germs? I’ll Take the Germs!”. She took the time out to do research on the stuff (the things a Mom will do!- bravo) and it made me ban triclosan from my household forever – why? because among other nasties, it causes cancer and is bad for the environment. Enough said. If you want to know more about it, or what products contain it, please go here.

Okay. So we know antibacterial gels with triclosan are bad, but that doesn’t really solve our problem about killing germs while we are on the go. Mind you, soaps have it too, so be wary and always read labels. Well, the best solution is to buy the natural stuff (like Clean Well), or better yet, make it yourself.

Here are some ideas:

Grapefruit seed extract: diluted with distilled water, makes a great all-around germ-killing spray for hands, air, surfaces and even wounds!

Vodka and essential oil: Mixing vodka, essential oil (like lavender) and distilled water, is another easy and cheap alternative. Put it in a spray bottle and keep it handy.

Essential oils and water: Simple yet effective, take your favourite essential oil and mix it with water to create a very natural antibacterial. The most potent are: cinnamon, cloves, verbena, lavender, angelice, juniper, sandal, cedar, thyme and lemon.

Well think again. You may not be aware of it but the chemicals in some hair products can be awfully harmful to the environment. Would you really want excellent looking hair at the expense of the environment?

Here’s an alternative – using natural products that work just as well, maybe even better. I found a formula to make your hair look fuller and to get rid of the effects of the sun and wind.

Big Body Hair Rinse
2-4 tablespoons dried nettles
1 cup purified or distilled water
3-5 drops lavender essential oil (optional)

1. Combine herbs and water in a stainless steel or glass pan. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer, covered, for half an hour. Remove from heat and let cool, then strain out the liquid and discard the spent herbs.

2. After shampooing, gently towel-blot your hair, then wrap a towel around your neck. Leaning over a sink or basin, apply the rinse with a spout bottle. For extra potency, pour over a basin so the rinse won’t drain away, then pour the collected liquid through the hair to use every drop. Do not rinse out. Blot hair dry with a towel.

I think that you can buy nettle tincture from the drugstore to make things easier for you. I mean, who would have the time and means to go walking around looking for nettles?

But did you know that forests are being affected negatively because of the tissue paper industry? (Of course you cannot discount other paper products.) I just read a report by the National Resources Defense Council and this is what it contained.

If every household in the United States replaced just one box of virgin fiber facial tissues (175 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 163,000 trees.

That’s a LOT of trees. It’s hard to imagine using “bad” facial tissues not made of virgin fiber, though. How about toilet paper?

If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees.

Okay, that’s a much higher figure! I guess I can deal with non-virgin fiber toilet paper much easier. And how about kitchen paper towels?

If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 544,000 trees.

Here is my suggestion: more than using kitchen towels made of recycled paper, maybe we can start using cloth rags every now and then?

More energy is wasted (as opposed to being saved) by recycling.
This argument is usually backed up by other ideas such as the gas and manpower that the trucks will use to run around town will offset any benefits of recycling plastic bottles and aluminum cans. The truth is, however, the energy needed to create new aluminum cans is so much more than what it takes to recycle. The bottom line is that recycling is still more beneficial.

“Natural” cleansers are not disinfectants.
Have you heard people say that natural cleansers are not effective against bacteria. According to experts, though, hydrogen peroxide mixed with apple cider or undiluted white vinegar is strong enough to kill bacteria such E. coli. What you can do is put the two liquids into separate containers and then spray one liquid first, with the other next. You can use this to clean your kitchen counters and even to clean fruits and vegetables.

It’s better to keep your heating settings at one temperature than to turn it up and down.
The rationale is that it will take more energy to heat up the room if you totally turn it off. That’s why some people think it’s better to keep the room heated at all times. Ask the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) – you will still save more by adjusting the temperature as needed.

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!

With housing prices slumping all over the world, Gerd Niemoeller’s invention, The Universal World House, couldn’t have come at a better time. Primarily designed for refugees and migrants in the third world, the prototype costs just $5,000 for 36 sq.m, weighs a mere 800 kilos and can be set up virtually anywhere.

Gerd Niemöller said recently in Der Speigel:
” From the very beginning, our goal was to create practical, environmentally sustainable, and, most importantly, cheap living quarters for the slums of the Earth….Now, that is possible.”

So if it’s paper, will it blow away? And what exactly is it made of? Well, the answer is NO, it won’t blow away. It’s made of resin-soaked cellulose made from recycled materials – cardboard and newspapers. The material actually resembles a honeycomb and is extremely resilient to the weather when an air vacuum fills each of the units. Its being flexible also means it is virtually earthquake-proof!

Niemöller’s company who patented the house reported that thousands of orders have already been made, mostly from Africa, through organizations like World Vision. The paper house is a much better alternative to the tin and plywood shanties seen in many developing areas of the world, especially as it used recycled materials. According to an article in the London Times, it was built so that families can slaughter their dinner on the veranda, and conveniently hang the meat out to dry in the bathroom’s line:

“The house has eight built-in single and double beds and a veranda with a sealed-off area housing a shower and a lavatory. It has been designed together with the German development aid agency GTZ, and with the architect Dirk Donath, from the Bauhaus University in Weimar.

Apart from the sleeping area, there are shelves, a table and benches. It has been designed so that a family can slaughter an animal on the veranda, wash it in the shower and hang it, along with fish, on an integrated washing line. The whole wall of the kitchen can be tipped open to let air in and to blur the distinction between inside and outside. “