TheGoGreenBlog.com

Add some plants to your daytime environment to boost the oxygenation. Plants not only produce oxygen during daylight hours, they also act as a great natural air purifier for our stale indoor air by absorbing carbon dioxide, pollutants and other toxins.

Some great air cleaning houseplants are: Chinese Evergreen, Bamboo Palm, Aloe Vera, Spider Plants, Mums, Dumbcane, Golden Pothos, Ficus, Gerbera Daisy, English Ivy, Heart leaf philodendron, Janet Craig, and Peace Lily.

As a rule of thumb, allow one houseplant per 100 square feet of living area. The more vigorous the plant, the more air it can filter. Keep in mind that plants will not do much to alleviate tobacco smoke or dust in the air.

Want to make your office a more energy efficient one?
Check out this article posted a few months back by Macworld. It features tips and tricks to going green at the office with your Mac.

My favorite tip is number 7 - Let your keyboard do the flying.

“Traveling not only requires that you spend money on plane tickets, lodging, and the like, but also includes a hidden cost. The average cross-country passenger-plane flight adds about one ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the air—per passenger. You can use the online CO2 calculator at macworld.com/ 2576 to more accurately estimate a particular trip’s impact (see “Emissions Calculator”).

When you need face time with far-off clients or colleagues, consider using technology to span the distance. With a high-speed Internet connection, iChat AV, and an iSight or a video camera, you can easily set up a simple videoconference. You’ll get the benefit of reading facial expressions without the hassle, expense, and emissions involved with traveling.

If you simply have to fly but are concerned about the CO2 you’ll create, consider donating to an organ-ization such as Native Energy or TerraPass. These companies calculate your impact and suggest a monetary donation—which goes toward projects such as building renewable energy sources or planting trees—to off-set it.”

Compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs, are an awesome way to go green everyday at home. They are low energy efficient light bulbs that use 80 percent less energy than incandescents, last up to 10 times longer and still provide the same amount of light. This all translates into better everyday energy practices and big cost savings.

However, there is one bad side to CFLs. As many of you already know, they contain small amounts of mercury. These small amounts are not dangerous for you, but in vast amounts they are. That’s why it’s important to recycle the broken and used CFLs so, the mercury doesn’t end up in the landfills and in turn our environment.

IKEA has been offering these energy-saving light bulbs for over ten years and has recently announced the Free Take Back program. IKEA now offers free recycling of any CFLs brought to their stores, even if the CFL wasn’t bought at IKEA.