Reduce your Carbon Footprint

Use Cleaner Transport

• Walk, bike, or take public transport whenever possible.
• Avoid allowing your car to idle. If you'll be waiting for more than 30 seconds, turn off the engine, except in traffic. Park your car and walk to the utility instead of driving up and waiting in a car queue.
• Have your vehicle serviced regularly to keep the emission control systems operating at peak efficiency. Check your car's air filter monthly, and keep the tyres adequately inflated to maximize fuel mileage.
• Avoid short airplane trips-take a bus or train instead.

Add Energy-Saving features To Your Home

• Install compact fluorescent bulbs in all your home light fixtures-but remember, compact fluorescents contain mercury, so look for low-mercury models and be sure to dispose of old bulbs safely through your local hazardous waste program.
• Develop indigenous waste management programmes through the creative ideas generated by our school children
• Develop rain-water harvesting management techniques at the individual home level to store rainwater
• Weatherproof your home. Eliminate energy stealers like leaving the AC on to cool a room with windows or doors ajar.
• Insulate your water heater. Install
and use solar heaters in winter.
• Switch to a tank-less water heater,so your water will be heated only as you use it.
• Choose energy efficient appliances.

Adopt energy-Saving Habits

• Keep the thermostat relatively low and ease up on the air conditioning in summer. Clean or replace dirty air conditioner filters as recommended to keep the NC operating at peak efficiency.
• Unplug your electronics when not in use. To make it easier, use a power strip. Even when turned off, items like your television, computer, and cell phone charger still sip power.
• Dry your clothes outside whenever possible instead of using dryers.
• Make minimal use of power equipment when landscaping.
• Defrost your refrigerator and freezer regularly.
• Choose green electricity options: choose the option of digital inverters rather than fuel-powered gen-sets to combat power cuts - however to avoid lead contamination switch to solar cell technology
• Better still use solar power as alternative energy.
• Explore the option of carbon offsets in your community to make up for the energy use you can't eliminateask the neighbourhood people to donate generously for tree plantation drives
• Tree plantation can only be effective if every tree is adopted just as a child is - a member in the community agrees to water the tree, fence it and protect it from pests and tree cutters.

Reduce Your food footprint

• Eat more local,organic,in-season foods.
• Plant a garden-it doesn't get more local than that.
• Shop at your local farmer's market or natural foods store. Look for local, in-season food that hasn't traveled long distances to reach you.
• Choose food with less packaging to reduce waste.
• Eat lower on the food chain-go without meat for a month to make a difference. Globally, it has been estimated that 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions are associated with meat consumption.

Reduce Your Housing Footprint

• Choose sustainable building materials, furnishings, and cleaning products.
• Explore green design features for your building, like passive solar heating, rainwater harvesting or catchments or grey water ecycling system, and recycled materials.
• Choose efficient appliances, including low flow shower heads, faucets, and toilets.
• Choose furnishings that are secondhand, recycled, or sustainably produced.
• Plant drought tolerant plants in your garden and yard.
• Use biodegradable, non-toxic cleaning products.

Adopt Water-Saving Habits

• Take shorter, less frequent showers this not only saves water, but the energy necessary to heat it in winter months.Don't use the garbage disposal. Compost instead.
• Ban the use of non-recyclable plastics - at the personal level refuse to use it
• Run the dishwasher and the washing machine only when full.
• Wash cars rarely, or better yet, if you live in a metro like Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi etc. take them to a carwash. Commercial carwashes use less water per wash than home washers, and they are also required to drain used water into the sewage system, rather than storm drains, which protects aquatic life.
• Avoid hosing down or power-washing your walkways or driveway.
• Regularly look for and fix leaks In plumbing.

Reduce Your Goods And Services Footprint

• Buy less! Replace items only when you really need to.
• Recycle all your paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic. Don't forget electronics!
• Compost food waste for the garden.
• Separate non-biodegradable garbage - garbage that is not contaminated with degradable wasti can be more easily recycled and sorted, and doesn't produce methane gas (a significant greenhouse gas contributor) when stored in a landfill.
• Buy recycled products, particularly those labeled "post-consumer waste."