Sustainable Living the basics

1 - Keeping your car tyres pumped to the right pressure can save up to 100 kg of CO2 emissions a year.
2 - Using a leaf blower emits as much greenhouse gas in one hour as a car does in five hours, so use a rake!
3 - The earth has warmed, on average, by about 0.7 °C since 1910 with nine of the ten warmest years on record occurring in the past decade. Australian temperatures have increased by almost 0.9 °C over the last hundred years, which is slightly more than the global average.
4 - Using a toaster instead of a grill reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75 per cent.
5 - Recycling one aluminium can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours, while doing the same for 40 plastic bottles will run a fridge for an hour.
6 - Australians go through four billion plastic bags a year. The petroleum used to make one bag can drive a car for 11 metres. If we ditched the bags, it would equate to taking 3000 cars off the roads each year.
7 - More than 90 per cent of the materials in mobile phones can be recycled into new products such as plastic fence posts and jewellery.
8 - Each Australian worker uses around 10,000 sheets of A4 paper each year, which is the equivalent of a full-grown tree. Set your copier to print double-sided as its default setting.
9 - Four ways to saved 100,000 litres of water each year:
1 - Use a front-loading washing machine and save 15,000 litres each year.
2 - Install a water-saving showerhead and save 20,000 litres per annum
3 - Fix a leaking toilet and save 7000 litres per annum
4 Use a good quality mulch and your soil will retain 70 per cent of its moisture, potentially saving 58,000 litres of water per year.
10 - Insulate roof cavity, walls and, if possible, under floor boards. Use both reflective sarking and bulk insulation.
11 - Turn off appliances such as computers, TVs, or anything with a transformer at the wall switch when not in use to avoid phantom loads. This can reduce electricity consumption up to 10 per cent.
12 - Replace light globes with compact fluorescent globes and turn off all lights not in current use.