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Never doubt that your efforts to live greener, both large and small, make a difference: Every act, when multiplied over many days and many people, produces meaningful results. Remember, just because you can't see change doesn't mean it's not occurring.

Save Energy:

-Nationally, the electric industry is the most polluting industry in the country.
-Currently, 84 percent of U.S. energy needs are provided by fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels contributes to smog, acid rain and global climate change.
-The excavation of nonrenewable fuels from sensitive wild places displaces wildlife, degrades the land, and pollutes water sources.
-Inland Northwest consumers get more than 50% of their electricity from high impact hydro projects that change natural river flows, degrade water quality and block fish migration.

*If every household in the U.S. replaced incandescent bulbs with fluorescent bulbs in just one room in their home, the nation would save more than 800 billion kilowatts of energy and keep one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases out of the air. The energy savings would be equivalent to the annual output of more than 20 power plants.
* By using a few inexpensive energy-efficient measures, you can reduce your energy bills by 10% to 50%. For the typical home this means a savings of $140 - $ 700 annually.

Conserve water:

-Less than 1 percent of all freshwater on earth is available for human consumption, and the number of people making use of it and per capita demand for water is outpacing freshwater recharge rates.
-When we use more than our share of water, we threaten other needy and disserving entities including but not limited to fisheries, wildlife, riparian vegetation, groundwater supplies, and populations further downstream.

*In one day, the average person uses up to 183 gallons of water for drinking, cooking, washing, flushing and watering, yet it is estimated that normal and efficient household use could save 31 percent of that, or 57 gallons a day per person. This amount of savings on the part of Americans would reserve more than 6 trillion gallons of water every year.

Reduce reliance on toxic products:

- Over 2,000 chemicals are used in high volume in the U.S.--many of them untested by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and many of them known by their manufacturers to pose risks to humans and wildlife.
-Trade secret laws enable manufacturers to hide up to 99% of a product's "inert" ingredients. Inert ingredients, however, can be as or more toxic than "active" ingredients requiring disclosure.
-It is estimated that 12 billion pounds of household cleaning products are poured down the drain each year of which a percentage re-enters the environment and fouls water quality.
-Americans generate 1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste per year from buying more than they can use of products that contain corrosive, toxic, ignitable, or reactive ingredients.

*Switching to less toxic or nontoxic alternatives to conventional, chemical-laden household products will reduce the volume of chemicals in commerce and HHW, help protect water quality and create demand for products that better protect humans and the environment during their manufacture, use and disposal.

Reduce waste:

-The average American today creates 65% more garbage than they did in 1960.
-If waste cannot be composted, recycled or reclaimed for second use, it must be put somewhere or burned. When burned it can be a source of energy, but it is also a source of pollution. When landfilled, waste becomes a massive and near permanent structure: Deprived of the light, moisture and air it needs to break down, landfill refuse will be preserved for generations. Landfills also leach contaminates into groundwater and release poisonous gases into the atmosphere.

*Thoughtful purchasing can reduce waste immeasurable. Buy things that are minimally packaged, durable, reusable, recyclable, and use resources conservatively.
*Reuse of useful items prevents over production of new items and obviates the disposal of useful items.
*Recycling, including composting, diverted 69.9 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2000 and thus obviated the consumption of a nearly equal amount of virgin resources for industrial and consumer products.

Buy recycled:

- The average national recycling rate is only 33%--a primary reason being insufficient demand for the raw material. If recycling is to be successful at solving significant waste problems by diverting usable material from landfills or incinerators, consumers need to buy products made from the recycled material.

*By seeking out and buying products with recycled content, markets are created for the raw material elevating recycling to a competitive, profitable and therefore sustainable endeavor.
*Nearly all recycling processes achieve significant energy savings compared to production using virgin materials. According to the EPA, in 2000, recycling resulted in an annual energy savings of at least 660 trillion BTUs, which equals the amount of energy used in 6 million households annually.

Avoid too much plastic:

-Plastic is made from non-renewable petroleum resources and requires the use of toxic chemicals during production and processing.
-Plastics production produces 14 percent of toxic air emissions in the U.S., and each plant emits an average of 300-500 gallons of contaminated wastewater per minute.
-Though most plastics are technically recyclable, only types 1 and 2 are commonly recycled. That means that the majority of types 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are being thrown away. As a result, less than 3 percent of the 60 billion pounds of plastic produced nationwide every year is actually recycled.
-Very few facilities collect and recycle plastic bags, and they end up primarily as litter or landfill material. As litter, plastic bags can and do harm or kill wildlife. Those that make it to a landfill will last for several lifetimes.

*If just 5% of U.S. consumers switched to cloth bags, nearly 700 million plastic bags would be saved this year.
*Reducing our reliance on plastic would reduce pollution, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste liabilities.

Manage your use of virgin wood products:

-Americans consume 700 pounds of paper products each year per capita, compared to the 1994 world average of 97 pounds, and more than 90 percent of the printing and writing paper made in the U.S. is from virgin tree fiber.
-Every year nearly 900,000,000 trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills.
-Pulp and paper mills are among the worst polluters to air, water and land of any manufacturing industry in the country.
-Paper bags use mostly virgin fibers to give them the strength to hold up to heavy groceries.
-Trees do not renew quickly enough to keep up with current demand. As deforestation accelerates, forests are unable to provide climate control, soil conservation or wildlife habitats.

*Reusing paper and buying paper made of recycled fibers and non-wood fibers saves trees.
*If U.S. consumers used half as many paper bags as they do today, we would save more than 11 million 15-year-old trees in one year.
*Alternatives to virgin wood products that make use of recycled and salvaged materials reduces the pressure to cut more trees and diverts valuable material from overburdened waste systems.
*When it's necessary to buy virgin wood, asking for Certified Sustainable Wood products promotes responsible forest management.

Eat less meat:

-The demand for meat in the U.S. has led to massive-scale, industrial farming practices. The EPA blames these farming practices for 70 percent of the pollution in the nation's rivers and streams, making livestock agriculture the primary non-point source of water pollution.
-Pound for pound, far more resources go to produce meat than non-feed grains, fruits and vegetables, resulting in gross inefficiencies. To produce one pound of beef protein takes vastly more water, land and energy than to produce one pound of vegetable protein. In fact, more than half of all water and one-third of fossil fuels used in the U.S., and eighty-seven percent of our agricultural land is devoted to raising animals for food.
-All told, meat production is a leading contributor to deforestation, soil erosion and desertification, water scarcity and pollution, loss of biodiversity, depletion of fossil fuels and global warming.

* Reducing your meat consumption (both red meat and poultry), or giving up meat altogether, could improve the environment on almost every level.

Buy sustainable foods from sustainable producers:

-About 2 million acres of prime cropland are lost annually in the U.S. due to erosion, salinization, and water logging caused by conventional, unsustainable farming practices that rely an mechanization, chemicals and ineffective irrigation.
-Over fishing and indiscriminate destruction of fish and marine wildlife throughout U.S. and international waters is devastating species and altering ocean ecosystems.

*Sustainable, organic farming protects the land, air and water by relying on natural growing methods. Buying organically produced foods will help organic farmers survive and persuade more conventional growers and producers to go organic.
*Buying fish from sustainable fisheries will protect the existence and health of species and their habitats.

Offset the effects of over consumption:

- Americans on the whole are voracious consumers--out-consuming any other industrial nation per capita. It is for this reason, that associated activities like raw material extraction, manufacturing, packaging, delivery, end-use and disposal take such a tremendous toll on the environment.

*Renting, borrowing, or sharing when it is practical will eliminate purchases for things we need only seldomly or temporarily.
*Extending the useful life of belongings by maintaining, upgrading, repairing, refurbishing, refinishing, reupholstering, etc. will obviate the need for so many new purchases.
*Begin to develop an awareness of and allegiance to companies and products that don't needlessly harm the planet. Buying earth friendlier products will send the message to earth-offending companies that they must either change to stay relevant and competitive, or disappear.
*Collective buying that supports reuse and earth-friendly businesses will expand markets increasing our choices and lowering prices.

Drive less:

-Motor vehicles are the biggest single source of atmospheric pollution worldwide. Six of the seven chief air pollutants come from automobiles. More than 125 million Americans live in areas with unacceptable air pollution.
-U.S. cities have lost 21 percent of their trees in the past 10 years, due primarily to urban sprawl and highway construction.
-Over 16 million hectacres are paved over to accomodate the car including roads, parking lots, driveways, etc. Runoff from these impervious surfaces deposits road salt, dirt, fertilizers, pesticides, antifreeze, engine oil, and other pollutants into aquifers, lakes, rivers, streams and oceans.
-The U.S, with just 5% of the world's population, uses 40% of its gasoline. The exploration and extraction of petroleum products contributes to pollution, habitat destruction, imperiled wildlife, and loss of scenic beauty.

*By driving two less day per week, the average person can save about 143 gallons of gasoline and keep about 2,778 pounds of CO2 out of the atmosphere in a year. If only 1 percent of all licensed drivers followed suit, 273 million gallons of gasoline and 5.3 billion pounds of CO2 could be saved this year.
*Driving the most fuel efficient, low emissions car that fits your needs will reduce our reliance on oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, conserve natural resources, and protect wildlife and the environment from aggressive oil exploration and drilling.
*The owner of a 40 mpg vehicle will spend $480 less each year on gasoline than the owner of a 20 mpg vehicle (if driving 12,000 miles and paying $1.60/gal).