- Make Repairs
Why throw away something that costs $50 dollars when you can repair it for $15? Fix-it shops which have long been on the brink of extinction are seeing a resurgence. Repairing your gear is a lot greener than replacing it, because it uses fewer resources. You’ll also save a bundle of money, especially if you take the time to repair things yourself. - Energy-Efficiency
You don’t have to buy solar panels to reduce your electric bills. Doing small things, like using CFL light bulbs, putting padded drapes, insulated blinds, plastic, or bubble wrap over the windows, turning off lights, putting appliances on power-saver mode, sewing draft snakes and a host of other cheap solutions will save you a few hundred dollars a year. - Water Conservation
The water that flows to you home comes at a price. Reducing the amount of water you use, will reduce the amount of money you spend. Don’t flush every time, build and use a sawdust toilet, use organic soaps and re-use that grey water for the flowers outside, don’t water your grass. - Gas Mileage
Simple things like keeping your tires inflated, taking heavy objects out of the car and not letting your car idle are all eco-friendly ways to reduce emissions. They will also save you money. Use a bike! - Renting/Borrowing/Buying Used
Do you really need a brand-new copy of 50 First Dates? I mean, how many times do you need to watch it to make it worth $24.99? A movie ticket doesn’t even cost that much? You can watch movies online through NetFlix or you can find them used for a fraction of the price. You can also just borrow a copy from a friend and spend no money. - Make Your Own
Why buy it when you can make your own? You can make your own shampoo, your own sawdust toilet or just about anything if you put your mind to it. - Reuse
Why throw it in the trash bin if you can put it to practical use? You can reuse almost anything! - Home-Cooked Meals
You can make a meal from scratch rather than buying a prepackaged one. Most meals are cheap if you make them out of their base materials, and you will be able to make more for less. It’s also healthier than buying a lot of that processed junk. - Drink Tap Water
A filter on your tap is a relatively cheap investment. It reduces waste significantly. And if you’re drinking five or so bottles of water a day, it will yield significant savings. You can also just drink straight from the tap with no filter, and you’ll probably be fine. I mean, if there is a health problem with your water, your water provider is legally obligated to inform you. - Alternative Travel
Traveling by plane is expensive, it’s also not that great for the environment. Not vacationing, vacationing locally or taking the Greyhound and in some cases the train are all less expensive and eco-friendly ways to travel.
You don’t have to buy anything to go green. You just have to put in a little effort.
From TreeHugger;
When the first plows turned the rich soils of the Midwest grasslands, some soils were 20% carbon. Now, after years of chemical farming and cultivation, many soils are 5% carbon or even less-some as low as 1%. As a result, that “lost” carbon now lives in our atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). Furthermore, the loss of soil carbon can deplete the soil’s ability to manage water.
Prior to our cultivation of the Midwest, ruminants played an important role in healthy soil ecology. These former grasslands were historically populated by the American bison, which numbered at about 60 million. In contrast, there are about 96 million beef and dairy cattle in the US alone. As a ruminant, the bison grazed the plains for thousands of years. Moving in expansive herds, the bison ate the grasses down as they traveled in search of greener pastures. While migrating to new grazing areas, each ruminant would leave natural fertilizer: animal waste and plant litter. This natural process helped to build the rich and fertile soils of the Midwest.
Grass Grazers: More Than Your Average Hamburger
Similarly, well-managed cattle can greatly enhance the growth and propagation of grasses. These grasses can sequester huge amounts of carbon annually, especially when grazing practices include high density, short-term exposure efforts with the cattle eating the grasses down and moving on to let the grasses grow back. This sustainable grazing technique causes some root shedding below the soil line, leaving lots of organic matter, and thus, carbon. On just one acre of biologically healthy grassland soil, there can be between 0.5 – 1.5 tons of carbon deposited in the soil annually. This is equivalent to taking up to 5.5 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere and sinking it into an acre of soil.
While this impressive level of carbon sequestration is impossible in the high desert of New Mexico with little rainfall, it is absolutely viable in Florida, the East and Midwest, as well as the North West where there is rain or available water to grow pasture. With proper management, ruminants can once again contribute to the life and water cycle supporting ecology of our biological system, where cattle may be absolutely critical to the health of our soils. This amazing ecological interaction on 11 billion global acres of grazed land would equate to sequestering 60% of human-caused CO2.
Furthermore, let’s not throw stones at cattle as methane culprits, when we have larger human-caused methane problems–namely from fossil fuel use and landfills. Our unrestrained use of coal, natural gas, oil, and petroleum products combined with our over-consumption of just-plain-stuff that ends up in landfills produces over three times the methane emissions as ruminants in this country. Cattle must be saying, “Stop pointing fingers! You single-stomached humans are contributing more methane emissions than our digestive systems could ever hope to!"
Well-managed beef and dairy cattle living on pasture are not only an asset to us all, but also to a bio-diverse earth.
More on Sustainable Grazing Techniques:
Ranching for Profit
Carbon Farmers of America
Holistic Management International
Managing Wholes
Rodale Institute Organic Transition Course-Livestock
