How to make a home more eco-friendly? Here Are Some Tips & Tricks

Climate change is real. Unless we buckle up & become more eco-friendly, Mother Nature is not going to forgive us for our wasteful actions. If you are searching for ways to become more eco-friendly, in your daily lives, your home – you are in the right place.

The term eco-friendly broadly means being benevolent to our nature, Mother Earth. It means we leave nature better than when we started using it. This entails primary care for our actions, preventing ourselves from taking the easy way out by degrading the environment. Being conscious of our activities is one of the significant ways we can start on the path of creating a difference. Being eco-friendly means leaving the natural resources of the Earth, its ecosystems alive & able to cater to the needs of the generations to come.

There are a lot of ways you can become more eco-friendly. However, it would be best if you started somewhere. The best place to start is your natural habitat – your home. There are multiple ways ahead of you, and you can choose how you want to leave your mark. But first, you need to know your carbon footprint. Carbon footprint is measured by how much greenhouse gas – mainly carbon dioxide you emit to the atmosphere, as a result of your actions.

This is how you can calculate your carbon footprint over the period of a month (30 days).

1. Electricity

Measure the amount of electricity you use in a month. You can easily get this reading from your electricity provider or your power bills. Make sure you convert it into kWh. Unless you are using Solar Energy for all your daily activities, you are probably using electricity produced by burning fossil fuels – coal, natural gas, petroleum and the likes. To consider how much carbon emission happens, you can consider multiplying it with a factor of 0.0002532 kgCO2e/kWh. Based on your country your electricity provider can provide you with the exact value for that factor but for starters – use the global average. This is the foremost hurdle preventing you from making your home more eco-friendly.

2. Natural Gas

Many of us use natural gas for the preparation of food. Natural gas has excellent heating quality, so it is the most efficient household fuel. But can you imagine how much carbon dioxide is produced just for preparing food – it’s really much more than it should be. Get how much natural gas you use in tonnes units – your gas supplier can provide you with this value quickly. This is the second most significant hurdle to making your home more eco-friendly.

3. Heating

People living in cold regions often use wood, heating oil for keeping themselves warm inside their home. This prevents them from escaping hypothermia – a fatal and deadly occurrence and burning such fuel releases a lot of carbon dioxide in the air – not an eco-friendly practice. It will be an uphill task – but you need to find out how many tonnes of such fossil fuels you use per month. Multiply it with 1.9 to find the amount of carbon dioxide emitted.

4. Carbon Footprint

Simply add all these values to get your carbon footprint. Don’t worry if the value is too large – it just means that you have so much scope to make your home more eco-friendly.

So now that you know how much your carbon footprint is, it is time to get working to reduce it. Here are some of the most effective ways to make your home more eco-friendly.

1. Go Solar

Solar Panels convert the sun’s energy into electricity. Solar Energy is non-polluting, has zero carbon footprint & produces the same electricity that you can use to run your household. With a little initial investment into your own Solar Power plant, you can cut down on the biggest cause of your carbon footprint – electricity generated from fossil fuels.

2. Use Energy-Efficient Electrical Devices

To measure the efficiency with which your appliance uses electricity, a five-star rating system is used. The higher-rated your machine is the lesser electricity it consumes. This means that five star rated devices consume the least electricity and are the most efficient. To be eco-friendly ensure that the big appliances you use – AC, Refrigerator are all rated 5-star. This will reduce your electricity expenses while making your home better.

3. Use LED lights

LEDs use 75% less energy & last 25 times longer than any incandescent lamp according to research published by the US Department of Energy. Not only do they save the environment, but they also increase the beauty of your home while reducing a chunk of your electricity bill. So, now you can make your home more eco-friendly and less costly at the same time, how awesome is that.

4. Use eco-friendly fuel

Petrol, diesel are fossil fuels high on carbon content. The more you drive around your vehicle, the more carbon dioxide gets released into the air. So, switch to an electric car. EVs are cheaper to use, more eco-friendly & way cooler than traditional automobiles.

5. Stop using Plastics

Plastics are light, durable, long-lasting and also the biggest polluter on Earth. We use so many plastic items just because they are easy to get – plastic bottles, carry bags & so many more. According to the world economic forum, plastics can take more than 500 years to decompose hence they cause irreversible damage to the ecosystem. Samples of micro-plastics have been found in aquatic & marine life which came from polluted seawater. But there are multiple options available – paper-based carry bags, bamboo/metallic bottles. By identifying plastic items, you use them in your daily life & actively switching to natural alternatives will help reduce your carbon footprint by a large factor.

6. Recycle using compost

Food waste in landfills is a significant contributor to greenhouse gases in the air, reveals one study. All the biodegradable waste you discard can be used to compost. Composting is a negative carbon process, which means it reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. You can use composting to create your own eco-friendly zen garden. This not only reduces greenhouse gases in the air but by planting more trees you grow the amount of green on Earth – which the world desperately needs today. Having your own garden in your house makes it look beautiful with better oxygen content in the air you breathe.

7. Prevent wastage of water

Leaky taps, running water leads to wastage of almost five gallons of water every day. With the levels of groundwater decreasing day-by-day & increased contamination of groundwater, many areas in this world are experiencing severe seasonal droughts. Droughts make fertile agricultural land barren & if this continues the world would soon be dealing with intense food shortages. So, fix that leaky tap, use water-efficient showers, low-flow toilets to reduce water wastage by 150 gallons per month. This will make your home so eco-friendly.

8. Use eco-friendly paint, shampoos

Paints on the interior walls of your house contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which release carbon dioxide in the air as they decompose gradually. Using eco-friendly paint is not only aesthetically better; it also makes your home cleaner. Search your local supplier for eco-friendly paint. Same goes for your shampoos – use organic ones. Not only are they better for your hair they pollute significantly less than synthetic ones.

Now that you know how to make your home more eco-friendly, it is time to swing to action. It is better to start off with the more manageable milestones & work your way to the top. You should be proud of yourself, and you are making the world a better place to live.

Also read:

1) How to Make Online Business More Eco-Friendly?
2) Do You Consider Yourself to be Eco-Friendly? Let’s Check!
3) How to Build an Eco-Friendly House?
4) What are Organic & Eco-friendly Products? How to start this business?