Learn to Green
Becoming a greener and more sustainable household does not have to be more difficult. You just need to follow a few pointers and you are well on your way to leave a much smaller carbon footprint in your every day life.
Use the clock to determine peak times
The power you consume is mostly sustainable during off-peak hours, so any where between 9AM-4PM and 9PM-4AM. The peak hours (4PM/4AM to 9PM-9AM) are unsustainable because this is when most people wake up and/or get home to prepare dinner. You can also save a lot of money by washing, dishwashing or using your dryer in off-peak hours.
Replace only appliances when they need to be replaced
Replacing new devices and appliances is very strenuous for the CO2 that is consumed to design, develop and produce these devices. Even though your washing machine is old and consume a lot of power, your footprint will still be smaller if you only replace your appliances when they reach their end of life. 30% of the CO2 consumed by new devices is from design, development, production and transportation to you as the consumer. Our consumer-oriented way of buy-and-throw-out needs to be in the past.
Lower the temperatures on your wash programs
Most clothes can get clean just fine from 30 or 40 degree programs. The main CO2 consumed from washing machines is from heating water throughout the cycle. You can even get it much cleaner by adding detergent and set your appliance to a pre-wash to get most of the clothes cleaner from a first wash cycle.
Fill up your dish washer and washing machine - every time
It goes without saying that the less you wash the more you save. This is true for both clothes and dishes. Maybe you can fit more cutlery and dishes in the washer if you do a couple of pans by hand. And maybe you do not have to wash all your clothes after wearing it for just one day. Stretching a clothes cycle to two days will decrease the amount of washes you need to do by a factor of 2!
