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a recycling program; offering free bins and a low cost monthly fee. If all you have to do is sort your recycling and put it on the curb with the garbage, why are you not doing it? You will notice a dramatic decline in the amount of waste you put in your garbage can.

5.Buy local or organic

This one seemed difficult at first, going from farm to farm and getting all squash in one pick-up because it's what was being harvested, but today there are so many more options for those who want to buy locally or buy organically. Joining a Food Co-Op or Community Supported Agriculture program will get you a variety of goods, sometimes delivered to your door; organic, local and cost effective. Visit www.localharvest.org for more information on CSA's.

Still easy yet a bit more complex, consider these next five tips as a bit more advanced:

1.Leak check your house

When I decided to install a new heat pump in my house, the decision was based on saving energy and thus saving money. What I found out was the heat pump is only as good as your house is free of leaks. Paying a few hundred for a leak test is easy and what you get are suggestions on how you can seal your house for greater energy efficiency. The suggestions were easy and the tools were found at a local hardware store. Contact your local utilities district, they will either have resources or they may have an energy saving team to help you out.

2.Ensure your house is properly insulated

The installation of the heat pump in idea one above sparked another area I had no idea about, which was how insulated my house was. It was a newer house and it had enough insulation in the ceiling and walls but we found it had no insulation under the flooring. Although this can be a bit of a costly fix to a house, the correction of this has proven to help the heat pump, shown in the lower electricity bill. The idea is, are all four sides of your dwelling insulated?

3.Think Green

What does it mean to "Think Green"? You are doing it right now by reading this article and thinking about how you might add some of these points to your daily life. What you will find is once you start adding green ideas to your life, your mind will start to think in green terms; "Do I really need to drive to the store?" and "Wow, that flight to Paris to visit Jim Morison's Grave is going to blow all my green efforts for the year out of the water!". Maybe it still worth it to visit Jim but "Going Green" eventually turns into "Thinking Green".

4.Rainwater collection

Maybe a tad bit technical but surely a concept that makes sense. Every day the average American screws on a green garden hose to the house faucet and waters their plants with clean drinking water, often processed with chlorine so how clean is it? Today's water collection barrels are hidden and sit at the base of your gutter downspouts, using gravity and a hose you now have the cheapest and cleanest water source for your plants. Try www.gaiam.com for more ideas.

5.Carbon offsetting

When you have to take that trip to visit Jim's grave in Paris but you are worried your green efforts for the year will be washed clean, why not try a Carbon Offsetting program like www.carbonfund.org where their tagline is: "Reduce what you can, Offset what you can't". As a traveling executive, I worry about how my efforts at home are ruined with each flight I take for work, at least now I can still think green until the airlines come up with a cleaner engine.

With some simple steps and a little conscious thinking, everyone can find "Going Green" easy and fun.

Learn more about this author, Kris Vockler.
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