Top 12 conservation tips for the holiday season
Our count-down of holiday conservation tips will help you save money and carbon this winter. The tips are centered around the theme of one day’s worth of carbon dioxide emissions for the average American, or 136 lbs. of CO2.
12. Recycle.
Most people know recycling is good for the planet, but they don’t connect it to climate change. In fact, the average bag of landfilled waste emits the equivalent of 5.77 pounds of CO2 while it decomposes. You can save 136 lbs. of CO2 by recycling or composting 2/3 of your waste for just 2 weeks.
11. Get outside.
Recreation is a major contributor to our carbon footprints. Get outside to enjoy winter while it lasts, and help keep winter cool in the process. Instead of loading the family in the car and driving to the heated movie theater with its high-power projector, go sledding in the park, or take a family bike ride.
Instead of paying a landscaping company to bring in their trucks, leaf blowers and snow blowers, give your kids some rakes, or grab a shovel, and get active. Instead of driving to the gym to exercise on an electric machine (a treadmill emits 2 lbs. of CO2 per hour), put on a hat and go for a jog in your neighborhood.
Already a skier? Consider ditching the crowds, the expensive resorts, and the energy-intensive lodges, snow makers, and lifts (a 250-hp lift emits 1750 lbs. of CO2 each day), and heading into the backcountry on Nordic or telemark skis instead.
10. Weatherproof your home.
Heating can account for over half of all home energy usage, so it isn’t just hot air that escapes through leaky windows and doors—it’s money, and it’s carbon. By installing storm doors, weather stripping, storm windows, and clear window films, you can dramatically reduce your heating bills and your carbon footprint. Even just closing all your curtains at night can make a big difference in preventing heat loss. Stopping your worst heat leaks will easily save you 136 lbs. of CO2 emissions every month.
9. Fly eco-light.
If you’re planning a flight over the holidays, there’s a lot you can do to minimize your climate impact.
Do everything you can to avoid flying at night—night flights have more than double the warming impact of day flights, because contrails trap much more heat in the atmosphere at night than during the day. Flying cross-country during the day instead of at night will cut your footprint by the equivalent of over 1000 lbs. of carbon dioxide.
Pack light—every pound of extra baggage decreases aircraft fuel economy. If all passengers shaved their bag weight by just one kilogram, the average airplane would reduce its emissions by 190,000 lbs. of CO2 per year.
Book direct flights—they use 10% less fuel by taking off and climbing once, and save more energy (and time!) by not stopping at out-of-the-way destinations.
8. Cool your house; cool the planet.
Getting creative with your thermostat can help you save big on home energy.
Turning down your thermostat 1 degree will save you 136 lbs. CO2 in 2 months; you won’t notice the difference. Or try turning it down 5 degrees, put on a sweater, toss another blanket on your bed, and save 136 lbs. CO2 in a few weeks.
Additionally, make sure your thermostat is programmed to heat the house to room temperature only when you will be at home and awake—keeping it at 55 degrees when you’re asleep and at work will save major dollars and pounds.
If you’re going away for the holidays, make sure you turn down the heat to 50 degrees before you leave.
7. Audit your energy.
Turn a home energy audit into a fun family activity. Have the kids search the house high and low, and compete to find the most inefficiencies. Drafty windows, vampire chargers, incandescent bulbs, inefficient appliances, blocked heating vents, exposed hot water pipes… the more inefficiencies you can find and correct, the more energy and money you can save, and the more we can teach eco- stewardship to the next generation. An audit that saved you just 1% of home energy usage would reduce your home CO2 footprint by 215 lbs. CO2 annually.
6. Lighten up on lighting.
One string of incandescent holiday lights burns through about 100 lbs. of CO2 over the holiday season, and chances are you have more than one. If you love your lights too much to take them down, there are some easy alternatives that will save lots of energy. Replacing a few strands of lights with efficient LED holiday lights, which only use 10% as much energy, will save over 200 lbs. of CO2 this winter. So will installing an automatic timer that turns your lights on only when needed—between dark and bedtime.
5. Give green.
Multiply the positive impacts of your giving. Thoughtful, eco-minded gift giving can benefit the planet as much as the recipient, save money, and distinguish your presents.
The first step is to focus on the gift item itself: give to charity in someone’s name, buy second-hand gifts, or give EnergyStar rated electronics and appliances. Vote with your dollars by choosing socially- and environmentally-responsible companies if you are purchasing new products.
Next, think about how you purchase your presents: shop online instead of driving to the store, ship your presents by ground instead of by air, and combine all your shopping into as few trips as possible. Every mile you avoid driving saves a pound of carbon dioxide emissions, which adds up fast.
Finally, wrap creatively: use recycled wrapping paper, newspaper, blankets, or even hide the gift, instead of wasting wrapping supplies.
4. Focus on the fire.
Most fireplaces are extremely inefficient, drawing lots of warm air from the house up the chimney, and transferring very little heat into the room. Ironically, the furnace often has to switch on every time you light a fire. Installing glass doors or an external air source can significantly improve the efficiency of your fireplace.
Huge amounts of heat can escape through open or leaky chimney flues. Making sure the flue is always closed after a fire can keep huge amounts of heat from escaping—but most dampers still leak, so consider installing a chimney-top damper that completely seals the chimney opening. If you almost never use your fireplace, consider sealing off your chimney permanently.
The best solution is to install a new wood stove—they are a very efficient way to heat your home, and are carbon neutral, assuming your wood is sustainably harvested. Heating half your home with wood instead of a furnace would save you 136 lbs. of CO2 every week.
3. Cruise with control.
When we drive to Grandma’s house, the shopping mall, or a ski mountain over the holidays, the miles really add up. It’s an important time to remember some simple things you can do in your car to save money on gas and reduce your carbon footprint.
Avoid idling. Whether caught in traffic, lining up at the drive-thru, or waiting by the curb, idling is extremely inefficient, and contrary to popular belief, idling does not save fuel. Ten seconds of idling uses more gas than restarting your engine. Also, resist the temptation to warm your car in the driveway, and just wear some gloves; modern cars don’t need any pre-heating the way old ones did.
Drive slowly and smoothly. Driving 65 instead of 75 will save you 1,400 lbs. of CO2 emissions every year, because speeding reduces your mileage. And accelerating and breaking slowly instead of abruptly can have just as great an effect.
Check your tire pressure. The EPA estimates your fuel economy falls by 1% for every PSI your tires fall below the recommended level. So if your tires are at 15 instead of 20, correcting the problem will save you 136 lbs. of CO2 emissions every 2800 miles.
2. Cook carbon-light.
The holidays are often centered around the kitchen, so this is a great place to achieve major energy savings. Making some simple changes in the way you cook and cool your food can really make an impact.
What you eat matters, too. The UN estimates that the livestock sector produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the transportation sector. A family of four going vegetarian for just one week will save the equivalent of 150 lbs. of CO2. But shop smart: local, organic meat may have a lower carbon footprint than agro-industrial soy products.
Fight back against the irony of using energy to cool your food in a heated house in winter: move that extra fridge or freezer from the basement (often the warmest place in the house during winter) to the garage, the porch, or even outside. 
Use the outdoors to keep beverages cold for parties, and to pre-chill hot leftovers before refrigerating or freezing them. And you can always send guests home with leftovers!
When using the oven, bake dishes together rather than separately, avoid opening the oven unnecessarily, and don’t preheat—things may take a little longer to cook, but the energy savings are worth it.
Run the dishwasher only when full, and use the low-energy setting. The standard dishwasher emits 64 lbs. of C02 every month, but most people don’t run them full.
1. Give the gift of carbon neutrality.
The One Day campaign gives people the opportunity to give the gift of carbon neutrality for one day this holiday season. Brighter Planet will donate 136 lbs. of carbon offsets—used to fund renewable energy projects—to each One Day participant.
adam thada said,
December 3, 2008 @ 8:27 am
I would take you to issue on #9 – that flying during daytime or taking direct flights will save on emissions. The price of your airline ticket is much more than the actual fuel that goes in your plane’s tank – it includes airplane construction, airline workers (who drive to work), etc. Like most sectors of the economy, it’s extremely complex, and flights are directed in a network, not between isolated cities. Indirect flights are cheaper probably because they use less resources overall – if they actually consumed more resources, they should cost more, right (assuming market signals are functioning)?
I learned this counterintuitive lesson from a National Geographic article on ant colonies, which I blogged about here –> http://athada.blogspot.com/2008/05/direct-flights-peering-through-green.html
If we didn’t fly at night, we’d have to push more flights into daylight and build more capacity, which is planes, which is carbon footprint.
I will concede that perhaps direct flights are only more expensive because they are more in demand (scarce). For example, my tiny Midwestern apartment goes for much much less than a Manhattan apartment, but probably consumes similar rates of electricity and raw materials (carbon footprint).
Anyway, thanks for all the other tips and the great videos!
helene eichholz said,
December 4, 2008 @ 5:24 pm
Excellent film…most of the information I already knew..and practiced…However, it was interesting to learn that one could lower the thermost to 50 degrees when leaving the house in winter..Was always afraid to do that, as thought it could contribute to pipes freezing. Differ with one suggestion..It is very necessary to preheat the oven for baking especially and when putting in a roast for the food to cook properly…
Dave Barrett said,
December 5, 2008 @ 6:51 am
Great tips you’ve listed here! I look forward to exploring them further!
dave – http://www.greenhomehints.com
Ian, Brighter Planet Staff Scientist said,
December 8, 2008 @ 4:12 pm
Adam,
You’re absolutely right that this is a complex issue, especially when you start to consider the cascading effects of your decisions.
I agree that if you “assume market signals are functioning”, cheaper flights probably use fewer resources– but that’s a huge assumption. Climate change is a problem precisely because market signals are NOT functioning: the price of fossil fuels does not reflect their true cost to society and the planet. Since the price of jet fuel doesn’t take into account the cost of mitigating the carbon released from its combustion, airlines will always use more fuel than society would like them to. Similarly, the operations of Air Liquide don’t take into account the environmental cost of transportation, nor does ant behavior take into account the health of its food source. So we have market failures.
This leaves us with two courses of action. In the long run, we should support cap-and-trade systems, carbon taxes, and other market mechanisms that properly price carbon. The beauty of such systems is that they will allow Adam Smith’s invisible hand to push every individual consumer towards the most (environmentally) efficient allocation of resources, just as the ants find the most efficient foraging pattern.
But in the short run, we must do what we can to identify and correct these market failures in our own lives, by conserving whenever we can (and by offsetting when we can’t). This is where making choices about airline tickets comes in.
Choosing to fly direct can have a big impact, especially on short flights where the extra fuel used during takeoff and landing makes such a difference, and especially if you’re flying between major hubs. Yes, there are situations where it would be better to fly from point A to point B to point C on big full planes, rather than flying from point A to point C on a small empty plane. But you make a good point that we should have some faith in the efficiency of airlines’ (profit-driven) networking algorithms – and that includes faith that they wouldn’t offer direct flights unless there is reasonable demand for that route. So while it’s true that direct flights aren’t always better, they’re probably better most of the time.
Choosing not to fly at night can also have a huge impact. This article in Nature explains that night flights comprise only 25% of total flights yet contribute 70% of radiative forcing. If we assume the average night flight uses as much fuel as the average day flight, then night flights account for almost half of air travel’s climate impact. So the savings from switching to all day flights would add up quickly, despite the added emissions from infrastructure expansion. And who’s saying we want to accommodate our current volume of air traffic? Everyone’s first priority should be to fly less.
So yes, saying “fly direct and not at night” is a bit of an oversimplification. But on the whole, a direct flight emits less than an indirect flight, and a night flight has a greater climate impact than a day flight.
Thalia Sparling said,
December 10, 2008 @ 8:30 am
I completely disagree that soy products are more eco-friendly than meat. That is short-sighted and nothing turns me off more than the thought of Tofurky on Christmas. It is true that the meat industry produces more CO2 than the transportation industry, but that is because of the refrigeration in combination with the machinery and the transportation OF the products, of across thousands of miles. Soy is one of the most harmful and draining crops on land– and one of the most susceptible to the trends of genetic-engineering, leaving millions of acres farmed by agri-business giants in the mid-west. We have a turkey and chicken farm less than 4 miles from our house. They slaughter right before the holidays and keep their freezers compartmentalized. Now they are one of the largest producers of poultry in our community. Please don’t try to convince me that driving 4 miles to pick up local meat is worse for the environment than eating a packaged, processed soy dish grown far, far away from me and shipped in a refrigerated truck half-way across the country.
I also disagree that shopping online is better. Maybe in some circumstances, but if you want to support your own local community, consolidate your trips, go together to run errands and patronize the shops in the towns closest to you. Also, give less. Make something, or give books, or donate, or agree to do something nice for each other.
carolyn said,
December 11, 2008 @ 8:27 am
Thalia,
Your point is well taken. Local, organic meat may have a lower carbon footprint than agro-industrial soy products. Poultry generally has the lowest carbon footprint of any meat, and poultry slaughter is sometimes less restricted than red meat, which must be processed in an FDA-approved facility. The fact that you have access to locally-raised and processed turkey is great, and points out that there are exceptions to the averages. Yet local seasonal vegetables probably have an even lower carbon footprint than your turkey.
-Carolyn
Sheri Kovac said,
December 19, 2008 @ 9:29 am
Wow! I never thought about the impact of night flights before. I rarely fly but I will certainly book accordingly when I do need to take to the skies. Also, we don’t do drive-thru’s anymore, rather park and walk in, turn off the car at long red lights, and honestly, walk, bike, and take public transportation around town far more than using the car. The car is relegated to our out of town trips mostly.
With regard to other lifestyle changes we have made: we use re-useable shopping bags, no VOC paints when repainting, started our own garden, stocking up at farmer’s markets and canning the produce for winter months on items we don’t grow, reducing all plastics that come in to our household i.e., purchasing soap bars instead of plastic pumper soap dispensers, no bottled water, food items in glass jars at the grocery stores, cardboard binders for school (find at rebinders.com), and that’s just the tip of the iceberg as it were.
Cool blog site. I’ll share this with friends. Thanks! :0)
Peggy said,
December 20, 2008 @ 6:36 am
I think going GREEN can be the BEST New Year’s
Resolution.
Sean said,
December 23, 2008 @ 3:48 pm
What about alternative giving? In the spirit of Brighter Planet – taking an existing consumer habit and purposing it for something good, shouldn’t #13 be “don’t buy stuff” – instead, perhaps buy something for someone in Africa, or donate to a water charity in Honduras or something. Take that need to give, and give elsewhere – kind of like what Brighter Planet does.
Jeff at economixt has some great thoughts on the program, an awesome parallel discussion going on over there:
http://www.economixt.com/2008/12/do-good-credit-cards-the-brighter-planet-case/
Alyssa said,
January 8, 2009 @ 2:13 pm
I’m still not sure what people mean by pounds of carbon dioxide? Is there a way to help visualize or explain this.
Just incase you’re interested in another very inspiring video about the environment. Check one out here: http://www.goforchange.com/