Journal Entry #3

For this journal entry, I viewed a blog of a fellow classmate and decided to expand on some of her ideas :)  Before I started this blog, it never really occurred to me, how much I was already doing in this area.  There are tons of ways to help the environment and some of the smallest things added up can make a huge difference.  My husband and I had our home custom built for us in April of this year right before we were married.  I did a "walk through" of my house and never really noticed how much we were doing to help the environment right here at home. 

When were getting close to finishing our home, our builder had us pick out light bulbs for all our fixtures.  Looking back, I thought this was so silly.  I immediately went for the cheapest most inexpensive bulbs only to be stopped by our builder.  Not only were the energy efficient bulbs more economical, price wise, but they use less energy!   


By lowering your thermostat, you can also protect the environment by using less electricity.  In the summer months it is ideal to have your thermostat around 78 degrees while in the winter you should have it set to around 68 degrees.  Not only will this help the environment but it will help your power bill too :) 

By closing unused vents, you can help with your electric bill also.  My husband built a 3/2 home with about 1400 sq. ft.  This will be ideal when we start our family, but right now with just the two of us, we don't use that much of the space.  So for the rooms we aren't using regularly, we close the vents and keep the doors shut.  That way our ac unit is not working overtime to heat/cool those rooms.

 Our builder put in these standard shower heads in all our bathrooms.  The use of low-flow shower heads helps greatly with efforts to save water.

 

Planting trees is also a good way to help the environment while at the same time help yourself :)  Tree's produce oxygen and taken in carbon dioxide.  They also can increase property value, reduce urban runoff and capture dust particles too!

RECYCLE-RECYCLE-RECYCLE
Yes I know the Mountain Dew can in the background show that I am not eating as healthy as I should be, I am still making an effort to recycle when and where I can!

My husband and I try to make an effort is reducing the amount of exhaust and gas fumes in the air by using a motorcycle to commute to and from work if we can.  My husband probably is more religious about this than I am as he rides his motorcycle to work EVERYDAY rain or shine.