When you make the switch from working outside of the home to working from home, you do something wonderful for the environment by cutting out your daily commute to and from work. Even if you were not driving a very long way to go to work, cutting out that vehicle trip five days each week does reduce your effect on the environment. Now that you work from home, you may be spending a lot more time at your house than you did before. This is a great opportunity to take some time to learn a few new habits that can reduce household energy consumption – which is great news for the planet and your wallet.
Did you know that you can use window coverings like shades and blinds to warm your home in the winter and cool it in the summer? Opening the blinds in the morning on cold days lets the sunlight in. This free source of warmth can enable your heating system to take it easy. Close the blinds at night to keep the heat in. When warm weather comes along, closing the blinds keeps some of the sun’s warmth from entering your home so that your air conditioner does not have to work so hard. On some days, you may not even need to run the heat or air conditioner if the window coverings make enough of a difference.
We all know that it is a good idea to turn off the lights when you leave a room. The same goes for your computer. For some reason, many people leave their computer on all of the time. This is certainly not necessary and it does use some electricity. Also, go a step beyond turning it off and unplug it. Unplugging computer and cell phone charging cords can also contribute to a lower electric bill.
These are just a couple of simple things that you can do to run an environmentally conscious home – based business. Take a little time every once in a while to see what other things you can do with your specific business to make it just a little bit greener – whether it be paperless billing, using recycled packaging materials, or something else altogether.
Photo by aconant on morguefile.com.