| Foreword: Making Up Your Mind to Be Energy Efficient--Why It's Right for You | ||
| What You Need to Know about Carbon Footprints | ||
| Some Common Misconceptions | ||
| Where the Energy Goes (includes charts and tables)YourCarbon Footprint | ||
| How Much Energy Is Too Much? | ||
| Reducing Your Carbon Footprint | ||
| Introduction: Making Your House an Efficient Home | ||
| Types of Renewable EnergyWhat Is an Efficient Home? | ||
| All the Shades of Green | ||
| LEED Certification and Other Confusing Terms | ||
| Assessing Your Needs | ||
| Doing an Energy Audit | ||
| Better Ways to Heat and Cool Your Space | ||
| Realistic Uses for Renewable Energy/ Sidebar: Pay a Small "Green Fee"--for Renewable Energy | ||
| Offsetting Your Travel | ||
| Detoxing Your Home/Sidebar: Peace Plants: A Breath of Fresh Air | ||
| Choosing the Right Materials | ||
| Walls & Ceilings: Low VOC (volatile organic compounds) & nonwoods | ||
| Floors: Recycled, renewable, & organic materials (w/ flooring chart)/ Sidebar: Why Bamboo Is for You | ||
| Appliances: Properly fitting your space with energy-efficient appliances | ||
| How Much Electricity Do Appliances Use? | ||
| How to Read the EnergyGuide Label | ||
| Your Home Office | ||
| Save $$$ with the Flick of a Switch: Compact fluorescents and Powerstrips | ||
| Stuff It: Plugging the holes and gaps around windows and doors (with map of sources of air leaks in your home) | ||
| Feature: Insulating with Sheep's Wool and Other Natural Options | ||
| Stopping the Flow: Eliminating junk and other unwanted mail and paper; buying less and getting rid of more | ||
| Heating Clean and GreenLow-Impact Cooling | ||
| Feature: "Paper" Houses and Other Renewable Building Materials | ||
| Make Your Clean Green: Low-impact Cleaning Products | ||
| Getting Clean with Less Effort and Energy | ||
| Laundry (Box: Mite-free Living with Organic Linens)Housecleaning | ||
| Feature: Cleaning Where You Can't See: Make Your Refrigerator, AC, Furnace, or Chimney Run Better by Cleaning ItDishwashingBath & ShowerPets | ||
| Vacuuming versus Other Options (w/ chart)Trash & Recycling | ||
| The Great OutdoorsnAround Your Home | ||
| Native Vegetation: Low-upkeep Is Earth-friendly | ||
| Birds, Bees, and Butterflies | ||
| Vegetables and Fruits | ||
| Flowers and Plants/Box: Worm Castings: Natural Fertilizer | ||
| Nontoxic Pesticides (including insects)Composting | ||
| Energy-efficient Landscaping | ||
| Shading | ||
| Windbreaking | ||
| Xeriscaping (Water usage)Outdoor Lighting | ||
| Feature: Eco-pools: Chemical-free Fun (featuring comparison chart) | ||
| Buying Local | ||
| The Cost of Moving Food on the Environment | ||
| Green Tips: Bagging It/Sizing Up: If you're going to use it up anyway, get more product for less packaging/Buying local also reduces packaging | ||
| Feature: DIY: From-scratch baking | ||
| How Green Is Your Ride? | ||
| Car Maintenance Tips for a Greener and Cheaper Ride | ||
| Feature: Low-Carbon Cars: Hybrids & SMART Cars | ||
| Ride-sharing & Public Transportation/Box: Green-transit Cities: Curitiba, Brazil & Portland, Oregon | ||
| Human Power: Walking, Biking, Skating, Scootering | ||
| Telecommuting: Focusing on Work Instead of How to Get There/Box: Your Home Office | ||
| Carbon Checklist: What You Do and How You Do ItAt Home | ||
| On the Road | ||
| At Work or School | ||
| On Vacation: Putting Your House on Hiatus |