The average American’s ‘Carbon Footprint’ is 22 tons of carbon dioxide/year, far above the world average of 6 tons. This section provides tips to help you reduce your carbon footprint.

Carbon Footprint Calculators:

• GENERAL: stopglobalwarming.org.
• GENERAL: The Nature Conservancy.
• HOME ELECTRONICS: mygreenelectronics.com.

Convert your home to wind power– check out Groundswell and sign-up!

Perform an Energy Audit– you may be eligible for financial incentives to improve the energy efficiency of your home.

• The Association to Save Energy offers an interactive “Home Energy Checkup” that provides online instructions of what to do and estimates your cost savings.
• DC provides free audits. Also, check the new “Renewable Energy Demonstration Program”.
• The US DOE provides a great set of instructions for DIYs. Once you’ve done this, review the US Environmental Protection Agency’s A Do-It-Yourself Guide for Home Sealing and Insulating With Energy Star.
• The US DOE provides a set of instructions for having this done professionally.
• Find local contractors on the free US DOE site, in the Yellow Pages, or on the fee-based Angie’s List.

Replace your Incandescent Lights with Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In general, choose a bulb with the wattage ¼ the amount of the wattage in the bulb you are replacing. Bulbs are currently discounted at many sales locations (subsidized by PEPCO).

• The projected facts are compelling. Wash Post (1-20-08) reports: 5-10 percent of residential electricity goes into lighting. ‘If every American household replaced just one incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, the country would conserve enough energy to light 3 million homes and save more than $600 annually. It would be as if 800,000 cars were taken off the road.’.
• Bulb technology is changing. Manufacturers are making improvements: CFL bulbs come on faster; both halogen bulbs and LEDs are becoming more cost-effective.
• PEPCO is subsidizing purchases of CFLs through a surcharge on every bill. The surcharge will add less than 50cents to the average residential bill. Savings are $1.50 on single packs and $3 on multipacks at participating Home Depot, ACE Hardware, Strosniders, or COSTCO stores. The cost of replacing a single incandescent bulb with a CFL will pay itself back 10-times over in the first year alone in energy savings.
• Some things you should know about CFLs from Pepco’s January newsletter
• Use in open fixtures that allow airflow.
• For recessed fixtures, use a reflector CFL rather than a spiral CFL since the design evenly distributes the light.
• If the light fixture has a dimmer, you will need a special ENERGY STAR CFL designed for these fixtures. (Note: Not all of these work with every dimmer. Try one, and save your receipt in case  you need to return it.)
• Warning! CFLs contain a slight amount of mercury. Be careful if one breaks: open windows, use disposable gloves, put debris in a plastic bag and do not use the vacuum cleaner. earth911.org gives you a current list of recycling locations for your zip code.
• Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQs): see article on the City of Fort Collins, CO website.
• Nice guide to selecting the correct bulb.
• Purchase CFLs with discounts on-line..

Buy carbon offsets- The ‘Environmental Defense Fund’ launched a new website to make it easier than ever for businesses and consumers to buy carbon offsets. The EDF says they have identified projects that offer permanent carbon reductions and are also good for communities and the environment.

Recycling has become commonplace, but there are always opportunities to do more. Check out the Montgomery County website for information about local recycling as well as information on recycling electronics and other potentially hazardous materials.

Free-cycling is a movement to share resources and reuse as much as possible. Locally many people use the Olney-Brookeville Exchange listserv to share freecycle opportunities, but there is also a national database, and many communities have their own freecycle listservs. Check for one in your community here.