How to Reduce Your Environmental Footprint

Reducing your environmental footprint doesn't have to be difficult. You can reduce air pollution by making simple changes in your daily life. Follow these easy steps to help the environment and improve your health.

Things You'll Need

• Comfy walking shoes
• a bike
• a bus pass
• Your local hardware store that carries non-toxic cleaning supplies, compact fluorescent lights, and water-based paint instead of oil-based paint
• Your activism and voice

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Instructions

• 1

  For cleaner air and a healthier you, protect the environment and ditch your car. Instead, enjoy biking, walking, and using public transportation. If you need a car, consider making your next purchase an electric, hybrid or very low-emission vehicle.

• 2

  Keep your car well-tuned and support your state's smog check program to minimize the amount of pollutants in the environment. Additionally, buy radial tires for your car and keep them properly inflated.

• 3

  Save money and electricity by using compact fluorescent lights in your home wherever possible. They screw into standard sockets, but are environmentally friendly because they use about a quarter of the energy of a standard bulb for the same amount of light. And they last 10 times longer! Ask for them at your hardware or home specialty store.

• 4

  When doing a home improvement, purchase water-based latex paints, not oil-based. It's easier, and much less polluting to the environment. Drying paint releases more smog-forming fumes than all the areas' oil refineries and gas stations combined.

• 5

  Urge your elected officials to help protect the environment by supporting clean air legislation. Support national and state efforts to require better fuel economy and emission standards for all cars, SUVs, and light and heavy-duty trucks, and insist on the continued production and sale of Zero-Emission Vehicles.

• 6

  You can also reduce your environmental footprint by supporting organizations that provide some of these pollution prevention tips and help fight for clean air. The Coalition for Clean Air and the American Lung Association, the leading public health organization fighting for lung health and clean air, are great places to start!