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TOP TEN WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR CARBON EMISSIONS (AND SAVE MONEY AT THE SAME TIME) From Cooler Smarter: Practical Steos for Love ®Carbon Living Expert Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists 1. Switch to a car with better fuel economy. Upgrading from a 20 mpg car to a 40 mpg car can save you 4,500 gallons of gasoline over the car's life span. At today's gas prices, that's a total savings of more than $18,000. 2. Make your house more air tight. Even in reasonably tight homes, air leaks may account for 15 to 25 percent of the heat our furnaces generate in winter or that our homes gain in summer. If you pay $1,100 a year to heat and cool your home, you might be wasting as much as $275 annually. 3. Buy and USE a programmable thermostat for a 15 percent reduction in your heating and cooling emissions and save PR ,k.lh ). I 4r.PS P TVR,7,,f ,l'Vi➢l''P�,rvd k Mu ,If ry" p s V.. e�NA $180 a year. During the summer, a setting of 78 degrees Fahrenheit is optimal during the hours you are at home, and 85 degrees when you are away during the day. 4. Eat less meat, especially beef. An average family of four that cuts its meat intake in half will avoid roughly three tons of emissions annually. 5. Use power strips in your home office and home entertainment center to curb "phantom loads" and save a surprising amount on your electric bill. Keeping your laser printer turned on when not in use could be costing you as much as $130 annually. 6. Upgrade your refrigerator and air conditioner, especially if they are more than five years old. New ones are twice as efficient or more. For fridges: if they're old an upgrade can pay for itself in as little as three years in energy savings alone. 7. Get an electricity monitor from your local hardware store or even borrow one from many local libraries to see where the energy hogs are in your home. This can help you save hundreds of dollars annually. 8. Change those light bulbs. New LED light bulbs can give the same light for 15 percent the electricity. That adds up to more than $100 in savings for most families each year. 9. Wash clothes in cold water. They get just as clean with today's detergents. But hot water washes use five times the energy —and create five times the emissions. This could save you nearly $100 a year. 10. Buy less stuff. Reduce, re -use, and recycle —it's not just about pollution, but the strategy will lower your emissions too and help combat global warming. And one more... 11. Spread the word. If all Americans reduced their emissions by 20 percent we could shutter 200 of the nation's 600 coal plants, a great step in fighting the worst consequences of climate change.