How to Promote Sustainable Living at Home

Sustainable living is prioritizing the use of natural and renewable resources. Maintaining a home using sustainable living practices requires time, energy, and a commitment to reduce excess waste and save resources for future generations.

In addition to achieving environmentally friendly goals, the rewards of adopting green lifestyle habits can also include economic benefits, environmental impacts, and health advantages. Vowing to become environmentally friendly may yield results such as:

• Lowering Utility Bills. Developing environmentally friendly habits like decreased usage of heat and water will result in lower bills.

• Healthier Indoor Air Quality. Creating a green home means refraining from working with things such as paints, adhesives and finishes with high VOC that cause respiratory illnesses.

• Increase Home Value. Environmentally friendly homes can increase value by three to five percent.

There are various ways to begin transforming your home into a sustainable one. Certain methods are simple, and can jump start your journey to an eco-friendly home, like the following:

• Replace Bulbs. You can save 66 percent more energy when switching from incandescent to Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs.

• Unplug Unused Wires. TVs are left on standby for an average of 17 hours per day. Unplug devices to save electricity (and money).

• Clean with Vinegar or Hydrogen Peroxide. Implement natural ways to fight off mold, bacteria, and germs. Use all-natural cleaning solutions that are safer for the environment.

• Use Eco-Friendly Paints that contain low amounts of VOCs.

• Turn off the Water. Roughly 48 gallons of water are lost per week from a leaky tap and wasted water while brushing your teeth.

• Open Windows. Mold grows in humidity. Opening windows helps to decrease excess humidity, thus preventing the possibility of mold.

Additional Ways to Practice Sustainable Living

• Donate Unwanted Items. Most communities have a local donation center that recycles, resells or gives away second-hand clothing and goods that are still in good shape. This includes stained clothing, ripped linens and even old socks, which are sent to textile recycling centers. By donating, you are reducing the amount of waste going to landfills and giving your items another purpose.

• Mind Your Shopping Habits. Shopping can be wasteful. For example, a person consumes gas to physically go shopping and indirectly through online shopping. Additionally, consider the packaging materials used to deliver online purchases. If they cannot be recycled, they instead flood our landfills. Try to minimize your shopping trips and ask to have items sent in one shipment when shopping online. While it may prove inconvenient, every effort helps!

• Reuse and/or Recycle. Review your local recycling guidelines and if there are not any, think about getting involved and trying to get them established. There are also ways to repurpose certain items that you no longer use for their original purpose.

• Consider Growing a Garden. This is a great way to cut back on carbon emissions by supporting plant growth while also reducing trips to the grocery store.

• Use Public Transportation, a Bike or Carpool. While there are certain limitations with these options, it is well worth the trade-off as each reduces greenhouse emissions. Not to mention financial savings on gas and vehicle expenses.

• Enjoy the Great Outdoors. Just by going outside and enjoying the world around you can save you money and save greenhouse gas-producing energy simultaneously. Going for a walk, a bike ride or just sitting outside reading a book can cut down on energy use within in the home. It also helps to unplug for a while and experience the many things that make our world great.

Not only can you foster a sustainable environment at home, but this can be done at work as well. Is your company’s culture sustainable? We will explore this topic in the near future so stay tuned!

Cleantec aims to offer helpful information to our clients and friends. We currently serve all of New York, including the Syracuse, Ithaca, Manhattan, Rochester, Utica, and Buffalo regions. We also have operations in Palo Alto, CA; Denver, CO; Muscle Shoals, AL; Tampa, FL; and Sanford, NC. Give our sales professionals a call at (877) 469-0543 for a free consultation and quote regarding janitorial services. Learn how we can help your business achieve your cleaning needs.

Cleantec ensures all staff members are thoroughly vetted conducting background checks and drug testing. In addition to providing professional cleaning services, we are also a supplier of specialized cleaning products and green chemicals. Please call (315) 463-5353 to place an order.