10 Ways You Can Improve Earth's Health

1. Change light bulbs

• There are now highly efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) that last for years, use a quarter of the energy of regular bulbs and actually produce more light.

• Drive less. Telecommuting and public transportation are great options-once a week saves a ton of carbon dioxide a year-but even piling multiple errands into one trip helps. If you can walk instead of drive, even better.

• Tune up your heating system. This one thing every couple of years can reduce your heating costs by 10 percent a year.
• Clean vents, close unused vents, and change filters in the vents.
• Add two degrees to the AC thermostat in summer, and two degrees in winter.
• Make sure windows and doors are sealed.
• Ceiling fans, instead of AC, can reduce your cooling costs by more than half.

• Refrigerators are the single biggest consumer of electricity in the average household, responsible for 10-15 percent of the electricity you use each month.
• Turn on your "energy saver" switch near the thermostat and be sure that the doors are sealed appropriately.

• Turn the hot water heater down a couple of degrees, or turn on the "energy conservation" setting.
• Insulate the pipes
• Install a timer on your water heater to turn off at night and just before you wake up in the morning.
• Wash a few dishes by hand. Over time, that will save a few loads in the dishwasher, conserving energy.
• Wait until you have a full load to run the dishwasher.
• Wash clothes in warm water, not hot. The clothes will be just as clean, and you'll cut energy use by 50 percent.

• Choose hardier plants, plant things in groups that need more water and put in mulch to help keep moisture in. When you mow your grass, make sure you do it smartly-with sharp blades, and only when the grass needs cutting. Finally, make sure you water your lawn sparingly. All of these will conserve energy.

• Many utilities now give consumers the option to buy "green power." Ask for it!

• Eat locally grown food. If the food doesn't have to travel far, there's less carbon dioxide from the trucks that ship it.
• Eat fruits and vegetables in season. This saves the enormous transportation costs.
• Plant your own vegetable garden. It's not as hard as you might think.

• Recycled is often considerably cheaper than non-recycled, so it's cost-effective as well as conservation-minded. For instance, recycled paper can be as much as a third cheaper than non-recycled paper.

• Every time you buy something, energy has gone into getting that product to you. So the less you buy, the more you save energy-wise. It's a simple equation.