- Environmental
- Human
- Financial
Bike to Work and/or Walk to your meetings
When you leave your car at home, you help reduce air, water, and noise pollution associated with driving.
Bicycling and walking are great ways to burn calories and the cardiovascular workout keeps your heart healthy too!
Lets face it, even when gas prices go down, its still expensive. Think of the money you could save by riding your bike to work or walking to meetings and thus saving gas, not to mention the wear and tear on your car.
Consolidate trash service in your neighborhood
By organizing to assure there is only one truck traveling down your street, you significantly decrease the miles traveled by trash haulers.
Getting to know your neighbors contributes to creating a healthy, safe, and vibrant community. Neighborhoods are the heart of Ft. Collins and important to the overall vitality of the City.
By partnering with your neighbors to use one provider, you are likely to see cost savings and negotiate a more appealing rate.
Take Advantage of Health Fairs
postural assessments, skin cancer screenings, bone density screening, grip strength, blood pressure, body mass index, body composition, and more!Save yourself multiple trips to the doctor, and the pollution caused by traveling to the doctors office. Get several health screenings while youre at a health fair!
Assessing, honestly and objectively, where you are in regards to your personal health is a key step to creating an overall wellness plan.
Health Fairs offers free health screenings that would cost you money at your doctors office.
Shop at the Farmers Market
When food is grown nearby, it doesn't have far to travel, therefore less gasoline (fossil fuel) is used for delivery from farm to plate. Less gasoline means less pollution. Less pollution means healthier air, water, and people.
Local fruits and veggies can be picked at their peak ripeness unlike non-local produce which is usually picked under-ripe to reduce damage and bruising during transport. Would you want to eat a two-week-old hamburger? The same goes for fruits and veggies. Fresh-picked looks, tastes, and feels much better.
Believe it or not, buying food in season may actually be cheaper than going to a major grocery store. Plus, you are infusing dollars directly into the local economy! Support the farmers in your town, city, or region and they will help support you by stimulating the economy.
Sign up for curbside recycling
The true value of recycling comes from preventing pollution and saving natural resources and energy, not landfill space. Still, it's important to note that recycling is largely responsible for averting a landfill crisis in many parts of the country. Landfills are the largest source of human-related methane emissions (a major greenhouse gas) in the United States.
Recycling materials reduces the amount of waste that goes into landfills. Not only does this reduce methane gas production, but it helps save resources. If products can be made out of recycled materials instead of new resources you are helping to slow the depletion of natural resources world widenow that's GOT to make you feel good!
By "right-sizing" trash containers to best fit individual households, residents who recycle are able to save money in avoided trash charges through the city's "pay as you throw" system. The average savings is $60/year ($5/week) if you downsize from a 64 gallon container to a 32 gallon. Recycle more of your trash, right-size your container, and save money!
Take the stairs
Elevators run on electricity, electricity takes energy. When we use less energy, we need to generate less energy at power plants. This, in turn, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves the quality of our air and provides other environmental benefits.
Burn baby burn! You can burn approximately 5 calories each time you choose to take the stairs versus the elevator. 5 calories may not seem like a lot, but it ads up quickly. By doing small things like taking the stairs, we can make a big difference in our overall health.
Using less energy means saving money. It may not hit your pocket directly, but energy costs are often passed along to consumers. Help keep everyones costs low.
Turn off the lights
when leaving and Turn off your computer before going homeThese easy measures can greatly reduce energy use. As mentioned earlier, this reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Turning off lights also reduces waste and saves money by increasing the life of your light bulbs.
Turning off the lights and your computer when they are not in use reduces greenhouse gas emissions that are a byproduct of producing energy. This improves air quality and the overall health of the environment which directly affects all of us.
The average cost savings of turning off the lights at night in an office with 50 fluorescent bulbs per month is approximately $50.00. Turning off a computer before you go home can save approximately $10.00 per month.
Sign up for Electronic payments/statements
Less paper, less trash! Its that simple.
Many people find online financial management easier and less time consuming than traditional paper methods. Think of all the things you could do for yourself during the time you've saved by automating financial processes.
Now you wont have to buy stamps or waste gas driving to the mail box. Some entities even offer financial incentives for switching over to all electronic statements.