Did you know that Americans use at least twice as much water and energy per person, as anyone else in the world?!?!  That’s a pretty astounding fact!  And considering that there’s a scarcity of both, it becomes somewhat concerning. 

For the next couple of weeks, I’m going to present some simple steps that we can each look at trying, to help make a positive impact on the environment.  The good news is that these won’t take a lot of effort.  I’m more interested in presenting you with options.  Options that you’ll look at and say “Hey, thats something that I’m willing to try and incorporate in to my life.”  

Being green, or trying to become an  environmentally concious, friendly person, shouldn’t feel like “work”.    All you need to do is take a look at these options and decide which you’re interested in giving a try.  You may be surprised as to how many you are able to do.  Maybe not all of the time at first, but like everything else, the more we do something, the easier it becomes and pretty soon we’re doing it all of the time. 

I challenge you to read these articles and to find something that you’re willing to try.  My hope is that you will become aware of the little changes that you can do that will make a big impact, and you’ll start to share those ideas with others!

I’ll start off with one idea that I’ve already incorporated in my life.  Taking a shorter shower.  Every two minutes that you save on your shower, can conserve more than ten gallons of water.  If everyone in the country saved just one gallon from their daily shower, over the course of a year it would equal twice the amount of freshwater withdrawy from the Great Lakes every day.  I’ll admit that I used to take a shower and after lathering up and washing the soap off, I would just sit under the faucet for 5 minutes, just letting the hot water wash over my head and body.  It just felt so good….but…..after becoming aware of how much water I’m wasting, it’s now a race against the clock to get out within 5 minutes.  Sometimes I challenge myself to a 4 minute shower!  If you make a game of it, a challenge of sorts, it isn’t that hard to do.  Granted, I still have a longer shower on the days that I need to shave, but the majority of days that’s not the case and I already feel like I’m really making a difference!

The next tip I have is to set your thermostat a degree higher for air conditioning and a degree lower for heating.  This one simple step could save you $100 per year on your utility bill.  The more you adjust, the more you’ll save.  If every home in America turned the dial, we could save more than $10 billion per year on energy costs.  That’s enough to provide a year’s worth of gas, electricity and natural gas to every person in Iowa.

Take the challenge this week and see how you do on these two steps.  I really believe that you’ll surprise yourself on how easy this can be.  You’ll be helping your water and electricity bills and helping the environment too!  Let me know how it goes!