Save Our World
Little Things You Can Do Today
By Emma Kirkman
As much as we talk about reducing our carbon footprint and saving the planet, we often don’t talk about how much this can cost your pocket to do so. It’s one thing to try and reduce your carbon footprint and your impact on the planet, but what if it costs you more than you currently pay – then why do it? Hopefully the suggestions below will help in saving YOU money, while saving the planet as well!
1) PUT DOWN THE TAKEAWAY MENU
Not only does your delivery driver burn fuel bringing you your food, but in this region we waste a huge amount of food that has been flown in from around the world to reach our shelves and menus. Instead of ordering delivered food each lunch time, why not make your lunch at home and bring it in. Not only will you be using less fuel, but you will also be reducing the waste from packaging and disposable utensils that will be going straight in the bin. Who knows, your leftover vegetable soup may become a new favourite!
2) CRUISE CONTROL IS YOUR FRIEND
Whilst there are a few of us who drive at high speeds, you can save fuel, and money, by using cruise control as much as possible. This eliminates the small accelerations and decelerations and keeps the engine at a constant rate, saving petrol. Even if you don’t have cruise control, if you keep your pace steady, the optimum fuel saving speeds is often between 40 and 90 kms/h. It also reduces wear and tear on your car, which means that your break pads and other replaceable items may not need to be replaced quite as frequently.
3) KNOW YOUR PRINTER
Some of us (quite often me) will have an argument with our printer at some stage of the day. But you may get a long with it a little more through a little investigation. Work out which side of the page your printer prints on, and feed in scrap paper the other way up, so that you use both sides. You may end up halving your paper costs and reducing the amount of paper used in your home and office. You can now also buy recycled cartridges online, often from your printer brand who would take the old casing and put new ink in it again, thereby saving the plastic packaging from going in the bin! So, with a little forethought you’ll see that saving your money can also help our planet!
