Here are some useful green tips that you can practice everyday.

1. Salt

Salt can be used for a lot of things in the home, including yourself. You can use it to test an egg’s freshness, extend cheese life and shell nuts easily. You can treat mosquito bites and ease sore throat using salt. You can keep ants away, repair walls and tame barbecue flames. You can clean sink drains, clean greasy pans, refrigerators and glass coffee pots. Feel free to share your other uses for salt at home.

2. Moving Homes

Moving homes can be such a hassle. Trying to figure out which goes and which stays, packing the ones staying in boxes and hauling them from the old to the new house. When you’ve figured out which ones are not coming with you, consider placing an ad on Craigslist, Freecycle or eBay. Or just have a good old-fashioned garage sale. Pack the stuff you’re bringing in reused boxes you can purchase for a small price or for free. Pay it back by offering it up for the other movers. Lastly, use one large moving van and make sure everything is done in one trip.

3.  Baking Soda

Like salt, baking soda can also be used in numerous ways around the house. You can use it to freshen your mouth and use it as a facial scrub and body exfoliant. You can use baking soda to freshen sponges, clean the microwave, oven, floors, furniture and shower curtains. Use it to deodorize your refrigerator, sink drains, trash cans, lunch boxes and dish washers. You can also use baking soda to extinguish fires and scrubs fruits and vegetables.

4. Vegetable Garden

Gardening is hard work and if you don’t pay attention, your plants will die. But there are some vegetables that you can easily grow in your garden that even the laziest or clueless gardener can do. Asparagus needs a full sun and non-soggy, and a little sandy oil. Kale will grow in many climates. And bunching onions will grow even in cold climates.

5. Bathroom

There are a million ways to “prolong the life” of your bathroom products. For shampoo, just use a small amount for your hair. Short lengths only need to use a nickel-sized amount. Longer lengths will need a little more. For toothpaste, only a pea-sized amount is needed, the most important thing is how you brush your teeth anyway.

What other green tips can you recommend to our readers? Share them in the comments below!

So we all know how composting works, right? Whatever goes into the compost container takes time to decompose, then comes out as an earthy, dark and crumbly substance. Usually when we talk about composting, we refer to the composting of kitchen and garden wastes. Did you know that we can compost human waste?

Okay, I know that sounds gross, but composting toilets are actually very clean and effective. They are starting to sprout up in many state parks and even some green college campuses. Think of it as a very upscale and green portable toilet. The building pictured actually contains a composting toilet. It is the Canaan Valley Institute in Davis, WV. It is a LEED-certified building. This facility also uses a green filtration system to reuse their water for flushing toilets. (There is actually only one compositing toilet in the building; the rest are normal toilets.) They keep their drinking water separate from their water filtered by plants, though their measurements indicate that the water they filter on their own would be safe of drink. Their energy bill is amazingly low, not much more than a typical home.

Owning a personal composting toilet is not anything I expect anyone to be doing any time soon. It just doesn’t fly well when people have to think about dealing with their own waste. However, if you know of a nearby park where there is currently a portable toilet or simply no toilet at all, consider recommending a composting toilet for the area. Composting toilets are much cleaner (and smell less) than normal portable toilets, and they help our world become a little bit greener. On Seguin Island in Maine, there is a composting toilet that a boy built for his Eagle Scout project. When I visited the island with some locals, they told me I had to use the toilet. They were actually quite proud of their composting toilet, believe it or not. The facility was indeed very clean and did not smell like waste or chemicals. Properly built composting toilets protect ground water from contamination or provide optimal nutrient recycling.

An article on Yahoo highlighted a woman’s transformation from a high-consumption life to an eco-friendly one by making a few instrumental changes in her life. Do you want to know how she did it? Here are a few tips she shared in the article.

1. Natural Cleaning Agents

Instead of buying the pre-made cleaning products in the stores (which are filled with all kinds of chemicals and bleach), make your own using items already found in your home. These items include vinegar, baking soda, natural soaps and lemon.

2. NO to Bottled Water

Buy a filter for the faucet or a pitcher with its own filter and start drinking from the tap. When going out, bring your own mug and fill it with tap water. Just this act alone can eliminate usage of at least 300 bottles a day.

3. Reusable Shopping Bags

Make it a habit of bringing your own shopping bags to eliminate the use of plastic or paper bags for your items. The bags only cost between $0.99 to $2 (some cost more but you don’t need to buy those) and use them again and again.

4. Avoid Plastic Wrap

When putting leftovers in the fridge, don’t use plastic wrap to cover your food. Use container covers or brown wax paper.

5. CFLs and Energy-Saving Appliances

Switch to CFL bulbs and energy-saving appliances and notice the big change in your electricity bill.

6. Grow Own Food

If you have the ability and the space to do, grow your own food. Just buy some pots, soil and seeds and plant away. You can plant spinach, mushrooms, tomato, eggplant, any kind of fruits or whatever else will fit in your space. Don’t forget to take care of the plants, though.

7. Don’t Be Afraid To Buy Used

There are some items that you can always buy used, like furniture (including book cases, chairs and tables, etc.), clothes, DVDs, CDs and other items that won’t compromise your health or will be with you for the long haul.

8. Say NO To Paper

Go paperless for all your bills and statements. Cancel all catalogs, print newspapers and other subscriptions and choose to view them online instead.

So are you ready to switch to a green lifestyle? Take the challenge and start now!

What could be better than making sure you’re practicing green tips in your own house than to build and design your dream green home?

Styles

There are several styles to choose from. Conventional styles are the usual styles anyone and everyone uses to design their own home. It can be Victorian, Southwestern or Bungalow. Contemporary or traditional styles may be used, depending on your own taste.

A Rounded style simply means that a significant part of the house has a rounded or curved appearance. This could be the roof or the floor plan. These styles usually convey a cozy and comfortable feeling inside the home.

An Earth-Sheltered home is either fully or partially nestled in the earth. Temperature rarely changes in an earth-sheltered home and uses less energy to keep it cold or hot. Be sure to keep the part of the house in the underground well-insulated, as it can be too cold.

Materials

There are a lot of natural materials that can be utilized to create your dream green home.

Adobe, cob and rammed earth are the most common materials from the earth. Traditional burlap bags can also be used and stacked vertically or horizontally to create walls. You can fill the bags with rocks, adobe, shells or sand.

Wood is the most common choice of material for anything, including green homes. Make sure that the wood comes from certified sustainably harvested trees.

Other materials that can be used include straw, bamboo and stones.

What other styles and materials can be used for your future green dream home?

Just remember to make sure that all materials were provided through sustainable harvesting and production. Otherwise, it will defeat the original purpose for having a green dream home.

For a lot of us, we have dedicated ourselves to living a green life at home. But what about outside the home? What about at work? Is it easy to translate the same dedication to a green life at the office or at work?

Redefine commuting

Let’s face it. Bringing your own car has more cons than pros. You need to worry about traffic, gas, tolls, parking spaces, parking availability and parking fees, among others. Consider carpooling with your friends or officemates. If your city has a great public transportation system, consider taking the bus or train going to work. You could walk or take your bike to work.

Telecommuting

Another option to avoid even being on the road, if you don’t have to, is telecommuting. Work from home instead of the office. Commute to the office only if you have to but limit it to just some days in a week. You can maximize email, instant messaging and video conferencing to communicate with your other co-workers at work without having to leave the house.

Computers and other office equipment

Be sure to activate your computer’s energy-saver settings. When leaving for the day, don’t just press standby and shut down your computer. Make sure to unplug other equipment (including printer, scanner, etc) when not in use, as they contribute to power wastage when plugged but unused.

Green Materials

Use only recycled materials for papers and envelopes. There are also recycled pencils and refillable pens and markers available for use. Better yet, go paperless and keep communication online. Reading memos and reports online, instead of printing, saves paper and space, by eliminating file cabinets.

Break Time

Bring your own lunch to work in reusable containers. It’s cheaper and eliminates or minimizes packaging waste. Bring your own tumbler to work, too, where you can pour in water, your coffee or juice. You don’t have to stay inside with your lunch, though. Go outside and walk to the park or nearby benches and have your lunch there. It’ll be good to breathe in the outside air and will re-energize you through the rest of your workday.

Influence Others

Encourage your co-workers, family and friends to join you in living a green life. It’ll be more fun to share this lifestyle with other people. And it’ll be more fun for the environment.

Let’s start the year the green way. Here are some green tips for different parts of your life.

Spring Cleaning

Remove all the clutter. Go through drawers, cabinets, inside the closets, the garage, attic and everywhere you can think of. Start going through all your things one by one. It will take some time to get through all this, so be sure to set aside time for this activity. Or better yet, get the help of a family member or a friend. Create separate piles for things you’ll never use, things you can reuse and things you can donate or recycle.

Spring Break

Plan the ultimate road trip and avoid flying to your destination. Travel with family or friends to take advantage of the car’s space. Be sure to stay at a green hotel with good ratings. Or stay at a rental house with lots of other friends. You’ll save money and have more fun! Support local establishments. Eat local and buy local. And always remember to dispose trash properly and recycle.

Dating

How to find someone who shares your green ideals? Try online green dating sites like Green Singles or Green Passion. Or volunteer at your local environmental organization to meet other like-minded people. Take them to green restaurants or restaurants that serve locally-sourced food. Or make your own food and plan a picnic. Cook food for your date using locally-sourced food and organic alcohol.

Work From Home

Choose an area in your place that will give you no distractions and allow you to be very productive. Determine what kind of desk you’ll need, if you need lots of drawers or a wide space or a foldable one. Be sure to do your research and invest in desks made of sustainable wood. And make sure your chair is ergonomic and has good lumbar support designed to go easy on your posture and muscles. Before buying office supplies, check your place first for supplies you already may have to avoid overstocking.

Workout

You don’t need to join a gym to work out. You can do it at your own home. Do lunges and squats while watching your favorite shows on TV. Lift weights while watching the news. If you want to go out, go running or biking outside. Encourage other people to join your workouts. And don’t forget to go green with the equipment you use. Buy used bikes and/or weights, eco-friendly yoga mats.

Next time, we’ll discuss how to apply green tips in your life.

Did you know that sewage contains 10 times the energy needed to treat it? If you think about it that way, you would wonder why we have not been actively reusing what is available in order to produce energy. With all of the talk about finding new sources of energy, such as hydrogen fuel cells or solar power, why have we not been using our own waste?

Ironically, wastewater treatment plants are some of the major users of energy. In the U.S. alone, they consume about 21 billion kilowatt hours per year. Think about it, wastewater treatment plants can use their waste directly in wastewater treatment. This would reduce the facility’s overall need for conventional electricity. Turning sludge into energy is beneficial to the environment as well. Most methods of sewage sludge disposal are harmful to the environment. Some of these methods are land filing, ocean dumping, compost, and incineration. These methods contaminate the underground water reservoirs and ocean waters.

There are different methods of turning sludge into energy. One way would be to use a low temperature thermochemical conversion from sludge to oil. In this process the sludge is dried to evaporate any unwanted water and useful materials are conserved and extracted. These useful materials are substances, such as gas, oils, and chemicals. However, companies, such as Energy Answers International, have developed technology that will co-combust the different types of sludges with municipal solid waste to form energy in combustion facilities.

There are many different groups of people all working to find new sources of energy with the focus on renewable energy. Using sludge may be one of the cheaper ways to form energy, but it is still technology that needs to be developed. Seeing that the idea of using sludge is not that new, I am curious to see if this field really will ever expand into something big, or if fuel cells and other ideas will overpower the interest in sludge.

How can one practice a green lifestyle? Start at home first! Once you’ve perfected this lifestyle at home, going out will seem quite easy.

Kitchen

Stock up your fridge with organic food. Buy from the farmer’s market or natural and organic grocery stores. Replace your old dishes and bakeware with eco-friendly products. Replace your dishwasher with an energy-efficient machine that uses less water and energy. Use teflon pans for cooking environmentally friendly recipes.

Living Room

Paint your living room with a vibrant color using non-toxic paint. Use environmentally-friendly glass cleaners to clean the glass in your house. Buy environmentally-friendly furniture. If you can’t afford to buy it all yet, start buying it one at a time. Buy furniture with reclaimed wood. Or choose one with unfinished wood and just finish it yourself.

Bedroom

When choosing wood from your bedroom, be sure to choose from the following materials:

• Bamboo
• Cork
• Concrete
• Forest Stewardship Council Certified Hardwood, Softwood, Laminates and Reclaimed/Salvaged Lumber
• Linoleum
• Recycled Tile and Stone

Bathroom

Use green cleaners to clean the air in your bathroom. Be aware of the chemicals in your cosmetic and beauty products. Use environmentally friendly paper products and bath towels. Use water-saving toilets or properly maintain the one that you have.

Office

Try to invest in solar chargers. Charging with the sun lowers your electricity bill by eliminating plug-in chargers. Balance your time and try to work from home sometimes. It lessens the amount of carbon footprint you create by traveling to work. Don’t just discard your old papers. Reuse and recycle them.

What other ideas do you have to practice a green lifestyle starting at home? Let us know all your ideas!

Hoping to live the green life in Chicago? Here are some key green places.

1. Hotel Burnham

At Hotel Burnham, part of the Kimpton Hotels, caring for the environment is very important. As part of the EarthCare program of the Kimpton Hotels, guests always are provided with eco-friendly bath amenities, in-room recycling bins, paperless check-in/out service for all guests, organic coffee and tea, as well as organic snacks, the linen and towel reuse program and a comprehensive recycling program.

1 West Washington, Chicago IL 60602; Tel. (877)294.9712

2. green exchange

green exchange is the only mall that also doubles as a green building. They are LEED certified and have a state of the art green roof. They have solar thermal panels to deliver hot water and air-conditioning. They have a rain cistern to capture rain water and use it for irrigation and other water features. They low toxin paint for all the building walls. They have energy efficient windows that are built to bring in natural light and have the ability to control the temperature. They also have a state of the art recycling program.

2545 W. Diversey Ave, Chicago, IL 60647

3. Fox and Obel Market

Passionate about food and service, Fox and Obel Market features products such as locally grown produce, dry-aged beef on premise, freshly baked artisan breads and pastries, fresh seafood and the finest cheeses. There is also a cafe inside, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.

401 E. Illinois Ave. Chicago Il 60611; Tel (312) 410-7301

4. Green Genes

Green Genes opened on Earth Day 2008 through the combined efforts of owners, Heather Muenstermann and Christina Isperduli. They use Green Genes to contribute to making the earth a little better than what it is now. They only source out organic and natural products created and manufactured through fair trade and sustainable production. They specialize in children’s clothes, bath products and toys. They’ve also made sure their store reflects their environment-friendly policies. The floor and the front counter are made of bamboo and kirei board, both renewable resources. Walls were painted with low VOC paints, and furniture was salvaged and recycled to look brand new. They only use packaging and gift wrap made from recycled and biodegradable materials.

5111 N. Clark St, Chicago, IL 60640: Tel. (773)944-9250

What are you waiting for? Visit these places and start your contribution to a greener environment!

Next stop: Boston, Massachusetts

Dropping by Seattle, Washington? Be sure to check out these eco-friendly places.

1. Alexis Hotel

Alexis Hotel, in Seattle is part of the Kimpton Hotels and an active participant in the EarthCare: Eco Program designed to take care of the earth through responsible practice. As part of the EarthCare program, they promise to deliver premium guest experience while practicing and using earth-friendly products and services. All their corporate collaterals are printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink. All complimentary coffee at the lobby is organic, shade/grown or fair trade. They implement recycling programs for bottles, cans, papers, etc. Recycling bins are provided in every guest room, as well as organic snacks and beverages. Hotel Vintage Park, also part of the Kimpton Hotels in Seattle, is an alternative choice for a green hotel in Seattle.

1007 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104; Tel. (206)624-1844

2. University District Farmers Market

The University District Farmers Market is the largest and oldest farmers market in Seattle exclusively selling farmers only products. Open year-round on Saturdays, this farmers market features eggs, meats, poultry, seafood, preserves, fall and winter produce, among others. Local and seasonal fruits and vegetables are also available for purchase, including wild mushrooms and herbs as well as organic products including free-range chicken and eggs and pastured organic beef.

4519 1/2 University Way NE # 202, Seattle, WA 98105; Tel. (206)547-2278

3. Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market is managed by the Market Foundation in its effort to support the Market’s services for low-income individuals and families. Hundreds of vendors sell their own fruits and vegetables, dairy products, fresh produce, meat and poultry. A variety of nuts, honey, jams and juice can also be purchased at the Pike Place Market.

Parking Garage, 1531 Western Ave, Seattle WA 98101

4. Pagliacci Pizza

Craving pizza? Be sure to have some at Pagliacci Pizza where going green is part of their work practice. They compost their pizza-stained pizza boxes, which can’t be recycled anymore, earning them the 2008 Recycler of the Year in Composting and Food Waste award. They use green power to operate their businesses. They use Greenware cups for their drinks and Ingeo Polymer packaging for their salads, which are made from natural corn materials.

Next stop: Portland, Oregon