New Year’s resolutions are usually personal in nature and are more often than not broken promptly. Perhaps resolutions to help our environment would be easier to make and more importantly, easier to keep. The following are categorized by topic and rated for difficulty.

1. Save Your Energy
   * Green: Replace worn out incandescent light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lights. CFLs use 75% less energy than conventional light bulbs and are widely available. * Greener: Install motion detecting lights and buy a water heater blanket. These simple steps will reduce your energy consumption and save you money on your energy bills. * Greenest: Conduct an energy audit of your home. Then repair leaks and faulty insulation. To learn more visit www.eere.enery.gov/consumer.
2. Detox Your Home
   * Green: Keep live plants in your home to naturally filter the air. * Greener: Replace your cleaning supplies with biodegradable, non-toxic alternatives. Eco-friendly cleaning products are available at health food stores and many grovers. * Greenest: Switch to low VOC paints for all home renovation products. Conventional paints emit low levels of toxic chemicals for years after application.
3. Eat Better
   * Green: Buy organic and fair trade prodcts. * Greener: Buy local at your neighborhood farmer’s market. 8 Greenest:Volunteer at a neighborhood garden project.
4. Travel Smart
   * Green: Bike or walk when distance and weather permits. *Greener: Offset your carbon emissions by purchasing carbon credits from companies like TerraPass. *Greenest: Rather than owning a car, join a car-sharing network.
5. Save and Re-Save
   *Green: Replace bottled water with reusable water bottle. *Greener: Recycle old electronics, paints, household chemicals, batteries and clothes (such as running shoes). *Greenest: Initiate recycling programs in your community and office. www.afreshsqueeze.com

So you’re not the type of person to carry cloth bags to the grocery store and driving a hybrid just isn’t your cup of tea. That doesn’t mean you are unaware of the need to be more “green”. When making New Year resolutions this year, think of adding a few of these easy to accomplish “green” choices to your list.

The following list contains small ways you can make a difference without greatly impacting your life-style. In most cases, little or no money is necessary to follow these suggestions.

1) Take Your Bags back to the Store

While you may not be the type of person to carry and use cloth bags while shopping, simply resolve to return the old plastic bags to the recyclable center located at your local grocery market or ask for paper.

2) Gas up When it’s Coolest

Fill your tank when adding gas and try to arrange to get gas early in the morning or after the sun sets. This will help minimize the vapors that are released.

3) Save Up Your Errands
If possible, try to save your errands to run all at once. Cutting down on the trips you make out a day or week will result in less gas being used and gain you some free time!

4) Check your Air Pressure
Maintain the correct air pressure in your vehicles tires saves wear and gas.

5) Give Items Away instead of Trashing Them
Whether it’s an old chair, a broken microwave, or a box filled with old running shoes butter containers someone probably has a use for it. Join your local craigslist (http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html) and/or freecylce (http://www.freecycle.org/) and post items you no longer want. You can leave items you don’t want outside and respondents will pick them up.

6) Use Rechargeable Batteries
Purchase a battery charging station and some rechargeable batteries for the items you use around your house the most.

7) Clean Your Air Filters
Clean or replace your air filters once a month so your air conditioning system runs more efficiently.

8. Switch Light Bulbs
Replace your old standard light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. You can average savings of $30-$50 in electricity during the life of the new bulb; per bulb you replace.

9) Turn off the Water while Brushing Your Teeth
This couldn’t be simpler. After wetting your toothbrush, turn the water off until you are ready to wash. In a years time, you can save an average of 15 gallons of water.