by Cathy Perrins

Created on: September 10, 2008   Last Updated: September 17, 2008

Beep! Beep! BEEP! Whap! Blessed silence yay! - but still time to get up, sigh. Big head cracking yawn. Rub open the eyeballs, grab a robe, trip over the cat, stagger into the shower and turn the nozzles onto HOT. Depending on how things are set up this can be a very green routine or an ecological disaster. How we live our daily lives and go about our daily routines can be eco-friendly - or not - depending on our previous choices. While staggering around waking up is not the time to be making eco-friendly choices, so think about it now while you are awake. Green choices made earlier will provide daily green routines so we can easily be green while half asleep.

One of the biggest energy hogs in most people's houses is the water heater. If the electricity to your house is from a renewable resource photovoltaic, wind, hydro, then an electric water heater keeping fifty gallons of water hot all the time can be a green choice. However, many houses get their electric power from fossil fuels so using less electricity is green. If your house isn't powered by a renewable resource and if in one of your more awake moments you chose to put in a solar hot water heating system then stand under the shower in bliss knowing you are being green while getting clean. "On demand" or "tankless" water heaters are also good choices for saving energy since they only heat the water as it is being used. If you are renting or not able to choose your water heater, then extra insulation around the tank and a timer may be as green as you can get at this time. Other options which are at least tinted green are a low flow shower head and turning the water temperature down.

If you aren't the person making decisions about how the water is heated, then having a shorter shower or even just turning the shower on long enough to get wet, turn off the water, soap up and then turn on the water again to rinse off may be as green as you can manage without changing the equipment. Brush your teeth with cold water and turn the water off while brushing. Being green is easy once it is part of your routine.

A lot of the rest of a daily green routine is determined by choices made when purchasing items. When you bought your robe, you chose one made of natural materials and one which doesn't require heavy chemicals to keep it clean, right? The coffee is sustainably harvested and produced under fair trade? The rest of breakfast was produced as close to home as possible to save fossil fuels on shipping? And to be completely green, bicycle or walk to work.

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