Green Living Ideas
EnergyDo & Don'ts for Green LivingGreen Living GlossaryGreen Living: Combining ErrandsGreen Living with Computers: How to Save EnergyChoosing, Reusing, and Recycling Batteries
Setting up a Compost Pile"For Here"- Reduce Waste at the Coffee Shop or RestaurantBe Eco-friendly at the Grocery StoreThe Benefits of Composting and Which Materials to UseBeing Eco-Friendly with Coffee
Green Living Glossary
- Alternative Energy
- Alternative energy is related to green living as it includes energy alternatives to traditional fossil fuels. The main drive behind alternative energy is to find renewable, eco-friendly sources of energy like solar or wind power.
- Fair Trade
- Fair trade includes sustainable, environmentally sound agricultural practices, just like green living, and focuses specifically on fair labor practices and fair prices for farmer's crops across national borders.
- Green Building
- Green building, a subset of green living, is the practice of using eco-friendly building materials and designing homes and offices to be more energy efficient.
- Green Living
- Green living is an attempt to carry out your life in an eco-friendly, environmentally responsible manner, an attempt to minimize the size of your ecological footprint. Green living concerns itself with a range of topics and practices including conservation of resources, recycling, sustainability, green construction, alternative energy, organic food choices, and other environmental topics.
- Green Technology
- Green technology (aka environmental technology), a subset of green living, refers to various sciences whose aim is to advance technology to help conserve and protect the environment, like recycling or renewable energy.
- Organic Food
- Organic food, attractive to many proponents of green living, is food that was grown or raised with no or limited use of traditional pesticides, herbicides, and growth hormones. Regulations vary; read the package.
- Solar: Passive versus Active
- Solar energy is the conversion of the sun's rays to energy, very good for green living. Active solar technology uses electrical or mechanical equipment to convert the sun's rays into usable energy for heating or whatever. Passive solar technology does not use any outside non-solar energy.
- Renewable Energy
- Strictly speaking, renewable energy is energy that is replenished at the same rate it's used. As the center of green living, renewable energy encourages use of solar, wind, and other alternative forms of energy.
- Sustainablility
- Sustainability, central to green living, is about preserving the environment and natural resources for years to come. It is the process of maintaining a small ecological footprint so that one's life has no permanent detrimental effect on the earth. There are specific fields within it like sustainable architecture, sustainable agriculture, and sustainable development.
- Zero- or Low-Energy Building
- A zero-energy building has no net energy consumption when measured across a year's time. It uses alternative energy sources like solar and wind power. Both zero- and low-energy buildings are great for green living.
