Green Tips – RISING HOPE FOUNDATION FOR CHANGE

Green Tips

OUR GO GREEN

SAVE GREEN EARTH TIPS

CONSUMER

Choose organic produce when in the supermarket.

Take your own shopping bags with you when shopping, each time you purchase bags, they are likely to go straight into a waste bin and on to a landfill.

Always buy locally produced, in-season goods, save the planet by reducing the carbon emissions that come from importing products.

Avoid unnecessary paper use, printing and photocopying, purchase recycled paper and always use both sides of the page.

Buy product made in your (Cameroon) Country rather than imported goods-less fossil fuels used in transport.

When you’re out on the town and eating out, remember this initiative seeks to inform consumers and retailers of the status of fish stocks and to shift consumer demand away from over-exploited species to more sustainable options.

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ENERGY

Turn off your lights in unused rooms

Lower your geysers’ heating temperature.

Choose a laptop over a desktop, it consumes 5 times less electricity.

Replace the traditional incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps. One at a time.

Unplug appliances that are not in use — don’t leave them on stand-by mode

Only fill the kettle up with as much water as you need

Use less hot water, it takes a lot of energy to heat water

Opt for a solar water geyser instead of the conventional water geyser

Over 30% of your home’s heat escapes through the roof, install a layer of insulation and you can save on heating and cooling costs

Use public transport so that there are fewer cars on the road

Buy fresh foods instead of frozen food, which uses 10 times more energy to produce

Use gas rather than electricity for cooking

Insulate your house so that it is warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

WATER

Use a low-flow shower head, this can save between 50% – 70% of your shower water.

Most toilets have a dual flush option that allows you to save water by using only a half flush. If you do not have this option, reduce the toilet flush volume by placing a 2 litres plastic bottle filled with water in your system, this can save you up to 20% water consumption.

Repair leaks and dripping taps.

Capture rainwater and use it to irrigate your garden.

Greywater: re-use bath water, dish water, hot water, bottle water, these can all be used to water your garden.

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WASTE

Start a compost heap at home, discard of all your biodegradable materials from the kitchen in the heap, include grass cuttings, leaves from the garden and any garden cuttings, this will all make for excellent compost

Start an earthworm farm, use off-cuts from the kitchen, egg shells and cardboard to feed your worms. The juices your earthworms excrete make excellent organic fertiliser.

Recycle waste so that less energy is used to make new things

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ECO-FRIENDLY COOKING TIPS

Cook slowly on heat to preserve nutrients.

Don’t fry foods-boil or steam instead.

A very good and cheap way is to cook food in a hotbox and helps to save electricity.

Steaming is the most healthy way to cook. Steaming helps to preserve the vitamins and minerals in vegetables and herbs. When you boil vegetables lots of the goodness in them(minerals and vitamins) is destroyed so they do not provide you all their nutrients.

Eating raw food, like raw spinach, cabbage, herbs etc in salads is really good because it preserves all the nutrients in the vegetables and leaves.

TRAVEL GREEN

Reduce your car usage as far as possible; try car pooling, it’s a fun change from just listening to your radio.

Change your driving habits; you can save a lot of money and fuel by avoiding harsh braking and accelerating.

Check your tyre pressure regularly, under-inflated tyres can cause fuel consumption to increase.

Open a window and dress appropriately instead of using air conditioning.

Reduce your air and road miles by making use of teleconferencing/Skype.

Plant trees to counteract your carbon footprint.

Investigate the policy of the airline you fly with; it’s always better to fly with an airline that has an environmental policy and is green conscious.

GREENING AND RECYCLING

Plant a Tree — a single tree will absorb one tone of carbon dioxide over its lifetime and shade provided by trees can also reduce your air conditioning bill by 10% – 15%.

Grow as much of your own food as possible-it saves on transport and packaging, it’s more nutritious, and cheaper!

Make a conscious effort to separate and recycle glass, plastic, paper and biodegradable products in your home and at work Avoid excessive packaging, much of the packaging on products in stores is unnecessary.

Re-use glass containers, jars and tubs in your home or office, this will help you to avoid purchasing additional packaging materials for your home and office.

Choose glass, tin, paper or cardboard packaging as these are all recyclable or biodegradable.

Favour plastic bearing a recycle mark and number, this means that this plastic is recyclable and is not for example a mixed substance that cannot be recycled.

Avoid materials which are not easily recyclable: Cling wrap Sweet wrappers Cellophane wrappers Wax coated cardboard boxes (for example in certain fruit boxes) Cardboard/Plastic mix containers such as those containing some long life milk and fruit juices

Choose glass packaging over plastic as it can be recycled more willingly than plastic or cans.

Do not dispose of empty ink cartridges into the bin, call Green Office to collect your empty ink cartridges.

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