Purchasing a home in Canada is a long-term investment, one that gets you to pay monthly payments for about 25 years for most people. Now if common sense prevails, you would expect people to wa

nt to invest as little as possible into an investment and try to get the best return on their investment. If you purchase a house right now for $400,000, by the time you are ready to sell it, you would want the best return on your investment. However, this has not been the case for a lot of us. By not being environmentally friendly, we actually make it worse for ourselves in the long run.

The main argument put forth by people that do not support becoming environmentally friendly is that “one person can’t make a difference.” Well if that was the case, we would never even have gotten as far as we have. Economically and financially, it just does not make sense to pay for high electricity costs or for waste disposal when there are alternate options available.

What are some of the things I can do right now?

 There are short-term goals that you can set to make your home a more environmentally friendly place to live in and then once you have accomplished those short-term goals,       you can setup long-term goals.

- Change all your old light bulbs and install “energy efficient” light bulbs
  (A single 26-watt bulb is the equivalent of a 100-watt bulb and lasts 5-6 times longer)

- When printing, always print double-sided 
  (Unless someone specifically asks you to print on One-Side of the paper, why would you waste paper?)

- Now that it’s winter time, instead of leaving your heating on at all times, you can reduce that to maybe 50% of normal usage and wear extra clothing while the heat is off

- Don’t leave water running
  (While brushing, shaving, or washing dishes, please turn off the tap)

- Purchase a re-usable water bottle 
  (Plastic water bottles are harmful to the environment if not recycled)

- Follow the 3 R’s; Refuse, Reuse, Recycle
  (Properly discard everything – plastic, cardboard, paper, should be recycled)

- Clean your Air Vents
  (A clean air conditioner and air conditioning vents can decrease your Energy bill)

- Use power strips for your computer 
  (Even after your computer is shut down; power is still flowing to printers. This prevents energy from being wasted and costs less than $30)

- Turn off all lights when sleeping or going out

What can I do in the long-run?

 Now after you have reached your short-term goals and you can see the difference in your energy bill, you might consider taking on bigger projects to ensure environmental friendliness for the future. These ideas and projects will not save you a lot of money; they will also be a lot of fun and can be done by yourself.

- First and foremost, install solar panels to get your energy 
  (You can purchase a solar panel kit on amazon.com or ebay.ca in the price range

 of $800-$5,000. It all depends on your needs and your budget. You need to get an energy audit done in order   to be able to receive grants from the government. Once you have completed the energy audit, you can then purchase your solar panel, receive money from the government,    and follow step-by-step guidelines to help you install the solar panels)

- Bamboo for everything! 
  (Flooring, tables, chairs, blinds, trays, baskets, mats, and much more. Bamboo is the most environmentally friendly wood on the planet, and extremely easy to replenish)

- Paint your walls using non-toxic eco friendly paint
  (Next time it’s time to paint your house, consider investing in eco friendly paints)

- Insulate your home
  (This will keep you warm in the winter so you end up spending less on heating and cool in the summer so your air conditioner isn’t running at all times)