Kermit’s Korner

Kermit’s Korner is a new addition to the WCE Weekly Update. Look for the green the last week of the month at the bottom of the weekly updates! Or come back here at the end of the month to get those tips on how to make your homes more sustainable. We hope you will find them useful!

NOVEMBER 2011 – Here are some holiday wrapping tips from the Sierra Club: Most mass-produced wrapping paper you find in stores is not recyclable and ends up in landfills. Instead, here’s a great chance to get creative! Wrap presents with  old maps, the comics section of a newspaper, or children’s artwork. Or use a scarf, attractive dish towel, bandana, or some other useful cloth item. And for those larger or hard to wrap gifts, use a pillowcase, or even a bedsheet. If every family wrapped just three gifts this way, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields!

SEPTEMBER 2011 – Should I put my computer to sleep or shut it down when I’m finished using it? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, running a computer at night is akin to leaving on about 10 light bulbs. For every household computer you shut down you could save $10-$30 off your annual electric bill. Sleep mode uses less juice than full power, but shutting down has the added benefit of increasing you computer’s functionality. It gives your hard drive time to cool off (prolonged heat shortens its life span) and allows for automatic software updates.   Real Simple Magazine, September 2011