Happy Office, Happy Planet

Global Warming issues are becoming a concern more and more every day. Anyone who has spent their time in Saint Louis this past “winter” would understand the effects of our atmosphere on our planet. Usually Saint Louis snows and ices everyday in January almost all the way through March but this year it has snowed maybe three times and has recorded temperatures as high as 70 degrees in December. So just what can we do to get our earth back on track?

These simple tricks and tips can be used in the office or even at home. According to thedailymind.com, there are 10 easy and quick changes that we can do as inhabitants of this planet to help our atmosphere. For now, I’ll discuss the most important ones.

The number one tip that I found the most interesting was the switch from plain Google to Blackle. Google uses a white background which creates thousands of tons of greenhouse gases every year. Blackle is an alternative to Google but, here’s the best part; Blackle is powered by Google! It is the exact same search engine we all know and love, it just uses a black background instead of a white one. How cool is that!

The biggest change we can make in the work and home environment is just simply turning off lights when we don’t use them. According to the dailymind.com, if 1000 people turn off a light that burns 60 watts an hour for one hour, we would save 22,000,000 watts of energy a year. Now imagine if 100,000 people did that. What a difference that would make on our planet! The final tip for this blog is to turn the A/C up one degree. If your A/C is set to three degrees higher than whatever it is now, you will save over 400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Breathe easier my friends and don’t turn yourself into an icebox on hot days.

Personally, these are all great tips that I will be starting ASAP. I especially love the Blackle one. The black background on the search engine is even a little easier on my eyes than the bright white one Google and most other websites use. If you have any other tips or tricks on how to stay Eco-Friendly, feel free to leave comments!

Written By Taylor Kincaid