The Stern Report has everyone talking about what measures companies and governments are going to take to mitigate the acceleration of climate change. Here at Chartreuse, since we are first and foremost about adopting a green approach in our personal lives, we would like to take this opportunity to remind our readers (& ourselves) of some simple steps we can and should all take to reduce our carbon footprints.

1. Replace your lightbulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs.
If every American switched ONE lightbulb in their house to a CFC, we would save enough energy to light >2.5 MILLION homes for a year.
A couple of CFL facts: They use 1/3 of the energy of regular incandescent bulbs and last up to 10X longer and will save you $30 over the life of each bulb. To find a store carrying CFLs near you, click here.

2. ENERGY SUCKERS:

• Don’t keep applicances on STANDBY. The UK is considering banning these buttons altoghether as they use 8% of all domestic energy. Factor in Americans’ desire for TV sets in everyroom and our general fetishism of electronic appliances, a study conducted at Berkeley estimated that Californians’s standby buttons are draining anywhere between 6 and 26% percent of their energy.
• Chargers: Cellphones, Blackberrys, etc…. You may have taken your phone with you, but if the charger is still plugged, it is still draining energy so much so that a source inside the EPA suggested cell phone chargers alone negated savings made through the Energy Star program.

No one wants to run around switching off power and pulling out plugs - make it easy on yourself and invest in a few power strips. you can just flick one switch and leave your house with a clear conscious. Some of them are so smart, if you plug in your computer and related peripherals, turning off your computer will signal to the strip which in turn will turn off printers, scanners etc. Check it out here.

Another innovative strip glows according to how much energy items plugged in are using - A very visual reminder!

Tune in next week for 2 more tips to make a difference