The following tips can help you fight climate change, but will help you in other ways too:

Take public transit, carpool, walk, rollerblade or cycle. Additional benefits:

• You’ll save money on parking, gas, insurance and maintenance costs for your car.
• Your car will last a little longer and have less mileage if you sell it.
• You’ll use more of your “natural fuel“—that’s calories. Exercising more has proven health benefits.
• You’ll spend less time inside your car, which has very high levels of pollutants compared to outdoor air (up to 4 times the benzene levels and 10 times the carbon monoxide levels*).
• The air will be cleaner.
• Our roads will last longer.

Keep your vehicle maintained, watch your speed and reduce idling time. Side benefits:

• Your car will last longer.
• You’ll spend less on maintenance in total by maintaining your car properly throughout its life.
• You’ll spend less on fuel.

See more transportation tips.

Turn down the heat or air conditioning when you are not home. Side benefits:

• You’ll save on energy costs.

Use less water to wash dishes and clothes, take shorter showers, and install a low-flow toilet. Side benefits:

• Many municipalities offer rebates for water-saving Energy Star appliances and low-flow toilets.
• You’ll be conserving fresh water, one of our most precious resources.

Learn more about protecting and saving water.

While you’re at it, “green up” your laundry. Use cold water to wash your clothes, only run full loads in the washing machine, hang your clothes to dry, and don’t use harsh detergents. Side benefits:

• Your clothes will last longer if washed in cold and hung on the line to dry. Heat (in the dryer too) breaks down the fibres, makes elastics and fabrics with stretch less resilient, and fades colours.
• Hot water can “cook” organic stains right into your fabric, and heat in your dryer makes it worse. Cold water helps lift stains such as blood, food, and grass.
• Your clothes will also last longer if you launder them less and with gentler detergents. Washing often and with harsh ingredients in detergents, like chlorine, breaks down the fibres.
• You’ll save money on electricity. You’ll also reduce your clothes budget if they last longer.

See more green cleaning tips.

Save electricity any way you can. Choose Energy Star-rated appliances, lower the thermostat on your water heater, unplug or cut the power to cell phone chargers, computers, televisions, etc.

• You’ll save money.
• Some municipalities give rebates on Energy Star-rated appliances.

See more energy-saving at home tips.

Buy local and buy efficiently. Local products take less energy to get to you, and so release less carbon emissions from transportation in the process. And by buying less, you’re reducing the carbon emissions released in the manufacture and shipping of stuff you don’t really need in the first place. When you do buy, choosing energy-saving products saves your money and helps to create demand for innovative green products.

• Obviously, you’ll save money by buying less. You’ll also save storage space.
• Buying local boosts the local economy.
• Buying less also reduces the amount of waste we produce.

See more shopping tips.

There are hundreds of money-saving ways to reduce carbon emissions. Check out our tips section for more or send us some tips of your own.

[fine print]* from Child Health and The Environment—A Primer by the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health & Environment.