I have done a few things to save energy it may cost initally to do but in the end it saves you money I have a few examples on my web site over ***(site removed by forum administrator)*** Check em out there are so many things you can do and if you are here you are taking the first step you can get all kinds of information all over the web about easy things that you can do.

What easy things do you suggest? I know you are trying to promote your site, but this is a forum for discussion. Share with us what you see as the easy steps that people can be taking to go green.

steve,

I see that the site was removed, but do you actually do anything to green your home?

I picture a snuggy link got deleted from up above, though that would cut down on heater bills. We just replaced a 20 year old water heater with a tankless water heater. Hopefully that really does save some money in the long run.

A simple thing would be a rug on a hard wood floor.

brandon. I don't get it. A rug on the floor. How does that save money. I get that a rug won't feel as cold as a hard wood floor or a concrete floor, but is a rug really going to keep you warm?

I LOVE the snuggy as a sustainable technology. Nicely played.

While the site above was removed, I did want to agree that the web is a wonderful resource for finding information about green movements and green products. I do know that there are many who use the web to distribute false information and many others trying to sell products and services that aren't green in any way and just use the monacher to try to reel in buyers.

I know this thread has been dead for some time, but I think the idea of greening your home is a great one. I do wish however that as new homes are being built, that they would be built with sustainability in mind. We would have much less need to green our existing homes if we were building green homes in the first place.

I think there is pretty good momentum towards new homes being green. There is so much to overcome though. There are standard building methods, lack of funding for new developments, a stigma that green homes have less visual appeal, and the opinion that green homes are financially worth it. It will take some time to shift the housing market.

Living a sustainable life is just so complex, its not a single or even two path process. Its a life change and it will take time to get more and more people to adopt the new lifestyle. There will always be resistance to change from a large sector of the population.

chloe, I think you hit on the single most daunting hurdle that our species has to living sustainably. We all strive to be individuals (at least in western societies) but the idea of living sustainably means giving much of yourself and your efforts to the greater good and not to your own advancement. I see so many attempts at green products, green jobs, green....... What they all share is trying to recreate what already exists in a more sustainable form. Perhaps this is the way of the future but at some point we will either have to choose or be forced to live a different kind of life with different priorities, different products, different jobs and a different future.

You also should understand the economic issues of going green are a large deterrent. Most people can't afford the little extra that it costs to buy the sustainable product, especially in the current global economic downturn. Its about survival in the short term right now and unfortunately the free market economy that many think is the best, holds us hostage to the wasteful products of the "past".