Green Tenant

MyKeys Top Ten Fun Green Tenant Tips

• 1. Lighting
  Lighting is one of the easiest places to start saving energy. Replacing your five most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with ENERGY STAR qualified lights can save more than £65 a year in energy costs.

• 2. Laptops
  Save energy and wear and tear on your hardware by shutting down your computer at night. You'll save an average of £90 of electricity a year.
  Heating.

• 3. Heating
  It definitely pays to give a thought to turning up the heating, since most households shell out 50 to 70% of their energy budgets on heating and cooling. For every degree you lower the thermostat, you'll save between 1 and 3% of your heating bill.
  
  
• 4. Pets
  Plant an Indoor Lawn for Your Pet. Many pets graze on grass for digestive reasons. Since apartment living often means living without a lawn, provide your pet with their very own patch of grass suitable for nibbling. It will give them something to eat besides the houseplants, and ensure that they aren’t consuming fertilizers or pesticides. MORE INFO: Plant an Indoor Lawn for Your Pet.
  
  
• 5. Work with your Landlord
  Show your landlord the energy-efficient light – pass on some eco-tips that speak to their bottom line, like energy-efficient appliances, eco-options for floors, countertops, and paint, and efficient windows. If 10,000 landlords of high-rise apartment buildings make Energy Star-suggested changes, the energy saved could power their each of their TVs for 1,640,625 years. MORE INFO: Share the Green Love With Your Landlord.
  
  
• 6. Water
  Water wastage has always been a huge problem in England, and that’s not down to the rare summer showers we have, it’s because we carelessly take our water supply for granted. There have been hosepipe bans on multiple occasions to help slowdown our water consumption. Here are a few actions you can take to save water around the home:- Plant during the spring or fall when the watering requirements are lower.
  • Use a broom instead of a hose to clean your driveway or sidewalk and save 80 gallons of water every time.
  • Check out www.wateruseitwisely.com
    
    
• 7. Home Office
  The modern home usually has a office, and there are a tonne of ways you can make your office greener, or at least follow active steps while in the office to be a greener person.- Laptops use a lot less energy than the standard desktop computers- Flatscreen monitors, or LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screens, use less than half the energy of traditional CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors. LCD screens are lighter, more adjustable, and cause less eye strain as they don’t flicker plus their sharp display makes it easier to read text. Instead of throwing away thousands of sheets of paper a year, recycle, recycle and recycle. Obviously this doesn’t just apply in the office you can generally recycle any type of paper e.g newspapers, magazines..etc
  
  
• 8. Green Fingers
  Keep your garden green in every sense possible.
  • Consider using an old-fashioned push mower, especially if you have a small garden. The only energy expended is yours.
  • Use compost instead of synthetic fertilizers. Compost provides a full complement of soil organisms and the balance of nutrients needed to maintain the soil’s well-being without the chemicals of synthetic fertilizers.
  • Use native plants as much as possible. Native plants have adapted over time to the local environment and support native animals. They also use less water and require less of your attention.
  • Stop using chemical pesticides. These toxic chemicals escape gardens and concentrate in the environment, posing threats to animals and people, especially children.
    
    
• 9. Mail
  Reduce unwanted mail by registering with the Mailing Preference Service, visit www.mpsonline.org.uk.
  
  
• 10. Recycle
  Check out services such as www.freecycle.org to give away (and get) things for free in your home town thus reducing landfill and emissions.