50 More Ways to Save Energy - Guest Blog Post by Uma Campbell, Writer

By now, you’ve probably heard the phrase “going green” being tossed around by family members, friends and politicians, but you may not be sure how you can start living a greener lifestyle. One of the best and easiest ways to go green is to cut back on your home’s energy use, but why should you feel motivated to become more energy efficient?

For starters, being mindful of how much energy you use at home can help you lower your gas, water and electric bills. How? It’s simple: the less energy you use, the less your electric, water or gas company will charge you for their services. Therefore, every energy efficient upgrade or home improvement project you tackle will help put money back in your pocket.

But besides the financial benefits, an energy efficient home can also help the environment. The less energy you use at home, the less of a demand there is for energy sources such as oil, natural gas and coal. The drop in demand prevents these resources from quickly depleting from our planet. When you’re energy efficient at home, you are also doing your part to reduce the carbon emissions released into the atmosphere by power plants, cars, and the handling of waste.


You may think making changes around the home to be more energy efficient is a hassle, but the truth is, you’ll be more comfortable after the improvements are complete. For example, a programmable thermostat that allows you to preset temperatures will help keep your home at a comfortable temperature at all times without wasting energy. It only takes a few minutes to install, but you can enjoy the benefits of it every minute you’re inside your home.

Ready to be more energy efficient but not sure where to start? Luckily, there are dozens of changes you can make—both big and small—to help you cut back on your home’s energy usage. Here are 50 ways you can save energy around your home:

Two Great Resources for Choosing Green Travel Options for You & Your Business

For the Conservation-Conscious Traveler

So you’ve bought the hybrid car, completed an energy audit on your home, invested in some level of renewable energy to power your home, and researched energy-conscious companies to support. What are other choices can you make to live more sustainably?

Making sure you are choosing green and eco-conscious travel options is another way to ramp up your sustainability quotient.  Whether you are making domestic or international travel plans, the growth of a number of green and ecotourism associations can help you locate green lodging, restaurants, resorts and more.

The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) is a non-profit association committed to promoting responsible tourism practices that benefit conservation and communities. With a global network that spans more than 190 countries, TIES is leading the way to make travel and tourism more sustainable. TIES offers a fully searchable database of environmentally-conscious businesses that can help travelers find destinations that fit their conservation and sustainability ideals.

Virginia’s Green Travel Alliance encourages green practices in the state’s tourism industry. ​ More than 1600 tourism businesses and organizations have self-certified their environmental commitments with the Virginia Green program, making it the #1 state-based green tourism program in the United States. 

For Businesses Looking for More Green Choices

Joining organizations like TIES and VGTA not only provide tourism-related businesses with increased visibility, but offer access to cutting-edge conservation and sustainability innovation and training for best practices.  

VGTA and TIES offer a number of business-enhancing opportunities. Some specific programs include:

Industry-Specific Best Practices Resources. Organizations like VGTA and TIES help your business incorporate best practices specific to the tourism industry via workshops, conferences and regular updates on projects, industry events, publications, speaking engagements and networking tools.

Access to data, reports and annual awards can also help businesses measure the benefits of incorporating more green practices and promote that aspect of their company to a wider audience. With hotels alone spending an estimated $7.5 billion on energy per year in 2012, having accurate data on what the introduction of wind turbines, solar panels and/or a myriad of other energy efficient technologies can do to reduce a company’s operating expenses, as well as knowing that such investments can be used as a highly-desirable marketing asset are invaluable resources for many tourism businesses.

Education & Engagement. Educating and engaging the general public towards making environmentally sound consumer choices is also a huge part of the VGTA and TIES missions. Showcasing green products and services at expos around the world like this recent event in Washington, DC is just one way that these type organizations are supporting and promoting green businesses.

The Virginia Green Travel Alliance adds an additional “lead by example” aspect to their educational efforts by recruiting, training and deploying “green team” volunteers at festivals and sporting events around the state to effectively bring recycling, waste reduction, and composting of food wastes to an increasing number of activities each year. This not only makes for greener events, but it emphasizes the importance of choosing green options for travel and entertainment activities.

Act as a Clearinghouse & Green Network. One of the main focuses of Virginia’s Green Travel Alliance is support and promotion of innovative practices and projects through unique partnerships. The Virginia Green Supplier Network is a great example of this business benefit, which provides Virginia Green participants access to a database of green products and services. TIES offers a similar member-only network that promotes information, products and services exchange between members.

Choosing green options for running your business or for vacation planning is easier than ever, thanks to the ongoing growth of organizations like the Virginia Green Travel Alliance and The International Ecotourism Society. Consumers and businesses alike can reap the benefits of better energy and conservation practices through education, promotion and networking via collaborative efforts like these, and know they are doing right by our communities and our planet!

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Are you a destination business looking for ways to decrease your energy impact but are not quite ready for a major installation? Contact Sunrunr today for some effective entry-level options for your tourism business. www.sunrnr.com jennyf@sunrnr.com

3 Small Personal Changes, Immediate Positive Impact on EPA's 30% Carbon Pollution Reduction by 2030 Proposal

photo credit: epa.gov

Whether talking about food, water, electricity, consumer goods, or anything else, it is never a bad idea to understand where things come from, why they cost what they do, their availability, their unintended consequences, and their future impacts.  Americans, for the most part, have been blessed with exceptional access to these and other "commodities", even sometimes taking them for granted or becoming disgruntled if temporarily unavailable. Gratefully, public awareness of these concepts of cause-and-effect, need-or-want, and "what-if?" and the related reasons for making these choices seems to be on the rise.

Examples (and possible motivators):
- concerted efforts to buy locally-grown food (mistreatment of animals, growth hormones, local economy, reduced transportation),
- choosing American-made over price (quality differences, anti-overseas sweatshops, support US manufacturing),
- recycling (awareness of waste, pollution, consumption),
- increased self-reliance, self-responsibility (numerous reasons!)

These choices and changes usually take thought and effort.  Once I decided to stop supporting the use of plastic grocery bags, aka "New Jersey tumbleweeds" (petroleum-product, landfill burden, animal hazard), until it became habit I can't tell you how many times I'd get just inside the grocery store before realizing I had to go back to my car for my reusable bags.  If each of us could change a few tiny things like this ... even just three in the next month, we'd cumulatively make great changes.  And each future change becomes easier.  We make these changes for our own personal beliefs or reasons, but the results can have global ramifications.

It would be great if our utility companies would support us all with the next small change.  If they would give each household a P3 Kill-A-Watt-EZ Energy Usage Meter (or offer at reduced rate), American families could have fun with increasing their knowledge of energy in general and consumption/conservation in particular.  Such a neat little inexpensive device with so much potential impact - see what it takes to make a pot of coffee, how big an inverter is needed to run your microwave, how much stored power your fridge would require during power outage, or how you could do laundry purely by solar.

Let's apply the source/cost awareness above to energy and the EPA's proposed ruling last month seeking a 30% reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions by 2030 from existing power plants based on emission levels from 2005.  Yes, 30% is a large number, possibly inflated to leave room for compromise, but no matter where you stand on global warming, you most likely agree that pollution in any form and consumption of finite resources is not a good thing for mankind.  If we could each cut our electricity consumption by 5-10% through decreased consumption, increased efficiency, usage awareness, or conservation, we would be handing these power plants a 5-10% head-start or more on this requirement.

One place to learn about other easy changes you can make to make a difference is at energy.gov's energysaver website.  Another way, and with immediate impact, is to consider supplemental renewables like portable solar generators.  PSGs come in various sizes, but any comparable to SUNRNR specifications can sustainably provide at least 5% of an average American home's energy usage (given some sun and/or wind:)  They have the added benefit of being available for power outages or for use at non-grid locations.  PSG uses are similar to those of gas generators.  Both provide power independent of the grid, which is beneficial to this power plant proposal, but one still pollutes, robbing Peter to pay Paul using lumps of coal.  And no one in their right mind would want to run a gas generator continuously and sustainably like they could a PSG, to do their part toward requiring less electricity from power plants.