by Jade Evans One of the major incentives to becoming a one car household is not just that it greatly reduces your carbon footprint, but that it also saves you a huge amount of money – an estimated $60K per year, actually, which includes gas, insurance, maintenance and repair, among other factors. But I’ve got to be honest, becoming a one car family is not for everyone. There are a lot of factors that you need to take into consideration when you’re sharing a car, like the availability (and closeness) of public transport, what kind of commute you and your significant other have to take for work, and how compatible your schedules are.

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3 Keys to Sharing a Car

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Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Lorna Li. Want to have some fun while also conserving energy and reducing your carbon footprint? These unusual power-generating systems are sure to make your friends and neighbors take notice

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3 Unique Ways To Generate Power In Your Home

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A: When Farai’s had his creative way with it! Farai is a member of the Mother City Craft Collective , a collective of traffic-light crafters who you can see selling their wares as you drive through the streets of Cape Town.   This group of Zimbabwean crafters have joined forces to expand their market and create an alternative outlet for their crafts, an online shop .  This has brought a new set of challenges for these artists, because the traditional wire & bead and wirework crafts that they produce are pretty heavy, which results in very high postage costs. To reduce the price of postage ( and consequently the carbon footprint of the piece ) Farai has come up with an interesting solution.  He’s using recycled materials that are a lot lighter than the materials that he usually works with. These recycled Coke can animals and more are available from the Mother City Craft Collective’s recycled range , and as you’ll see, both the cost of the products and the postage costs are considerably less than the traditional.  While buying crafts from this store makes a huge difference in the lives of these traffic-light crafters, by choosing from the recycled range you will be making a huge difference to the environment too

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Q: When is a Coke can an elephant (or possibly a giraffe)?

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Eco hostels are springing up everywhere, which is perfect if you’re after the fun and friendliness of budget travel as well as keeping your eco-conscience clean on holiday. Travel has huge impact on the environment (think about the carbon footprint of airlines, for one thing) but that doesn’t mean you need to make a lifetime ban on setting foot outside your neighbourhood

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A greener way to travel

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This article was written by Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan Clark, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 19th August 2010 06.30 UTC The carbon footprint of doing the dishes : Almost zero CO2e : by hand in cold water (but the plates aren’t clean) 540g CO2e : by hand, using water sparingly and not too hot 770g CO2e : in a dishwasher at 55°C 990g CO2e : in a dishwasher at 65°C 8000g CO2e : by hand, with extravagant use of water When it comes to long-standing green-living debates, washing up by hand versus using a dishwasher is right up there with hand-driers versus paper towels .

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What’s the Carbon Footprint of… Doing the Dishes?

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We are moving in a few months, and a couple of nights ago my hubby and I were discussing the possibility of planting indigenous saplings on the bare patch of earth that is opposite our new house, both to cancel out the carbon footprint of the building work that we are going to be undertaking at the house (very minor, but nonetheless) and also to help cut out traffic noise as they grow (we’re one road back from a very busy road). Turns out there are some who have been doing pavement pimping for years , and they’re encouraging you to pimp your pavement too . And no need to stop there, how about seed bombing the entire neighbourhood.  Be careful in ecologically sensitive areas, be sure to only bomb with indigenous seeds where appropriate.

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Pimp your pavement

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What’s your favorite way to relax after a long stressful day? Many people like to light some candles, turn on their favorite music, and curl up on the sofa with their favorite person, pet, or even a good book. But did you know that those candles could be polluting your indoor air and increasing your carbon footprint

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Breathe Easy With LED Candles

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