| Location | Office | |||
| Home improvement | Yard improvement | |||
| Water | Green and clean | |||
| Lighting | Living green | |||
| Kitchen | Financing | |||
| Bathroom | Resources |
Location |
1. Green neighbourhoods |
| Buy a home in a neighbourhood close to work, transit, shopping, community centres and other services. |
2. Transit-oriented density |
| New, compact, complete green neighbourhoods are being built with transit as their focus. Instead of owning a car, join a car share cooperative, take transit, cycle or walk. |
3. Score your location |
| Walkable neighbourhoods offer health, environmental, financial and community benefits. Enter your address or the address of a home you want to buy at www.walkscore.com. This tool calculates a walkability score based on the home’s proximity to transit, grocery stores, schools and other amenities. |
4. Lower-cost luxury |
| If it’s features such as a gym or pool you want, buy a strata unit with these amenities and share costs. |
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Home improvement |
5. You choose, you save |
| BC Hydro and FortisBC offer a variety of incentive and rebate programs for home upgrades and rebates. |
6. Install a high-efficiency heating system |
| Make sure it’s ENERGY STAR rated. |
7. Weatherize your home |
| From windows to doors to insulation and weather stripping. Don’t forget to seal your ducts. |
8. Insulate your pipes |
| It will prevent costly heat loss. Here’s how. |
9. Insulate your hot water heater |
| Buy a pre-cut jacket or blanket for $10–$20. You’ll save up to 10% on heating costs. Learn more. |
10. Install a programmable thermostat |
| Set it lower at night and during the day when you’re away. Lower the temperature. Each degree below 20C saves you 3-5% on heating costs. |
11. Replace your furnace filter |
| This optimizes performance, as clogged filters reduce airflow, forcing your furnace to work harder. |
12. Get the most from your fireplace |
| Here's how to make it efficient. |
13. Use curtains |
| In the daytime during summer, close to help cool your home. Learn more. |
14. Use an electric fan |
| Skip the air conditioning. On hot summer days, place a bowl of ice in front of a fan to cool down. |
15. Install ceilings fans |
| The energy it takes to run a fan is less than an air conditioner. In summer, make sure the fan’s blades are rotating anti-clockwise for a cooling effect. In winter, the fan should be running clockwise, pushing the warm air down. Learn more. |
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Water |
16. Fix leaks, fix leaking taps |
| One drop per second equals 7,000 litres of water wasted per year. Learn more. |
17. Install a filter |
| Stop buying costly bottled water which adds to the landfill. |
Lighting |
18. Change your light bulbs |
| Lighting accounts for 15% of your energy bill. Replace old bulbs with ENERGY STAR rated bulbs. |
19. Motion detector lights |
| Turn lights off outside when not in use. |
20. Keep it dark |
| Light pollution is an increasing problem. Turn off outdoor lights to save energy and encourage night life such as bats and frogs. A single bat can eat tens of thousands of mosquitoes nightly. If you have safety concerns, use motion detector lights – which come on, only as needed. |
21. Holiday lights |
| Use LED lights. |
Kitchen |
22. Replace your fridge |
| An old energy guzzling fridge costs you about $90 a year to operate. Replace it with an ENERGY STAR fridge. BC Hydro will also not only come and pick up your old fridge free of charge, they’ll give you $30. |
23. Replace your freezer |
| Buy an ENERGY STAR freezer and save money with lower operating costs. |
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Bathroom |
24. Low flow shower |
| Hot water accounts for 25% of your energy costs. Showers can be the largest single contributor to overall hot water use in a home, accounting for 15% of total household energy use. Save with a low-flow showerhead. |
25. High efficiency of dual flush toilets |
| These are now required in new homes because of water savings. |
Office |
26. Use smart strips |
| Also known as power bars, this lets you power off all equipment at the same time. |
27. Buy energy smart electronics |
| Buy energy smart electronics and save. |
28. Recycle your old electronics |
| Here's how. |
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Yard improvement |
29. Conserve water |
| Fresh water comprises just 3% the world’s total water supply, so conserve. Get a rain barrel and harvest water you can use in your garden. Local governments such as Coquitlam and Richmond will subsidize the cost. |
30. Less lawn and low-maintenance lawns |
| Lawns waste water. Instead, conserve and beautify using indigenous plants such as ferns, tiger lilies and hostas. Or try a low-maintenance lawn that is made up of a diverse mix of hardy, drought-tolerant, slow-growing turf grasses, that require less mowing, fertilizing and watering than conventional lawn species. |
31. Elbow grease |
| Don’t power wash your driveway. Sweep it or use a scrub brush and pail. |
32. Drip irrigation |
| It saves water compared to sprinklers. |
33. Grow your own |
| How much more will you spend on food this year? Even a few miniature fruit trees and a small vegetable garden in a raised bed or in containers on your deck will help keep you healthy and save you dollars. Lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries and blueberries thrive in our climate. Learn more. |
34. Preserve your poduce |
| Invest in home canning jars and equipment and a small freezer and enjoy your produce year round – at considerable savings. Here’s how. |
35. Bee friendly |
| We need bees to pollinate, so plant a few bee-friendly annuals such as asters, marigolds, sunflowers, zinnias; or perennials such as clematis, foxgloves, hollyhocks, roses or shrubs such as Buddleia. Consider becoming an urban bee keeper, some municipalities like Vancouver allow bee keeping in your backyard. |
36. Go chemical-free |
| “Get rid of weeds without using chemicals that harm us and our pets,” advises REALTOR® and Richmond City counselor, Derek Dang, who led the way to a bylaw banning cosmetic pesticides. His suggestion, “Use dish detergent or weed by hand.” |
37. Plant fruit trees |
| They’ll give you shade and fruit. Growing guide. |
38. Compost |
| It will make your garden grow and divert waste from the landfill. |
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Green and clean |
39. Clean green |
| Vinegar, baking soda and lemons clean as well as expensive, chemical-filled cleaning supplies for a fraction of the cost. |
40. Upgrade your washing machine |
| Replace your old washing machine with an ENERGY STAR washer that gets clothes clean using cold water. Wait until you have a full load instead of washing clothes as you need them. Clean the lint trap of your dryer after every use. |
41. Green laundry detergent |
| Use phosphate-free, biodegradable detergent. |
42. Install a clothesline |
| Dryers use a large amount of energy. |
43. Get a rack |
| If your neighbourhood or strata prohibits clotheslines, buy a small drying rack. |
Living Green |
44. Recycle |
| Recycling keeps materials that can be recovered (paper, glass, metals, plastics, food etc) out of the landfills; and in the case of organics like paper, food, yard waste, it significantly reduces greenhouse gases from landfills. Learn more. |
45. Buy local |
| Buy local, organic and fair trade food. Your food doesn’t travel long distances, you support local farmers and the local economy and you consume less pesticides. |
46. Don't use paper or plastic |
| Use cloth bags when you shop or reuse your plastic bags |
47. Backyard chickens and bees |
| Become involved in your own food production, raise chickens for their eggs or bees for their honey in your backyard. |
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Financing |
48. Borrow green |
| Most financial institutions offer “green” mortgages, including: • BMO Eco Smart Mortgage offers home buyers preferred interest rates on qualifying green properties. • RBC Energy Saver™ Mortgage gives home buyers a $300 rebate for a home energy audit and preferred interest rates. • Vancity offers a Bright Ideas Home Renovation Loan at prime +1% to home buyers and owners making green renovations. • CMHC offers a 10% Mortgage Loan Premium refund and possible extended amortization for buyers purchasing an energy-efficient mortgage or making energy saving renovations. |
49. Loan programs |
| Pay-as-you-Save (PAYS) loan program will help home owners and businesses finance energy efficiency improvements through a loan from BC Hydro or FortisBC. Pilot programs starting in November 2012 in certain BC locations. |
Resources |
50. Green Tool Kit |
| BC Real Estate Association’s Green Tool Kit provides information, references and links. It also provides comprehensive information on rebates and incentives. |
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