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 |