What You Can Do
Sustainability starts at home! The following are some simple steps to help you on your way to making North Grenville a more sustainable community:
Good | Better | Better Still | |
Domestic Hot Water | Take shorter showers; use cold water for laundry | Install low-flow shower head and front-load washer. | Install tankless or solar domestic water heater. |
Room Temperatures | Reduce your thermostat at night | Install a programmable thermostat | Keep unused rooms much lower. |
Furnace | Check and replace filters often. Keep burner cleaned and well serviced. | Install ECM motor in furnace fan. | Install high efficiency furnace. |
Air Conditioning | Use natural night-time ventilation. | Raise temperature by 2 degrees. | Only cool rooms that are in-use. |
Lighting | Turn off unnecessary lights. | Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents bulbs. | Replace T-12 Fluorescent bulbs with T-8’s. |
Small Appliances | Unplug phantom loads | Put phantom loads on timers or power bars with switches. | Replace appliance with more efficient model. |
Food Shopping | Use cloth or re-usable bags | Take your own containers for meat or cheese | Buy bulk food in season (local is best) and can it yourself |
Food Growing | Grow your own veggies in a grow bag | Start a compost | Make your lawn into a garden |
Community | Turn off the tv or computer | Invite your neighbours for a home-cooked meal or pot luck | Work together on a project for your neighbourhood. |
Spend real family time | Share a skill or interest | join (or form) a local club or group |