GREEN LIVING: Why It Pays to Go Green

9 no-cost ways to reduce your home energy use while saving you money:

Not only can these free tricks save the average household more than $200 a year in energy costs, but the carbon dioxide reductions are equivalent to taking 10 miles off of your daily commute.

* Based on information from green.yahoo.com

Top 10 Reasons to Recycle*:

1. Good For The Economy: Companies rely on recycling programs to provide the raw materials they need to make new products. Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60-watt light bulb for up to six hours!
2. Creates Jobs: Recycling in the U.S. alone is a $236 billion a year industry. More than 56,000 recycling and reuse enterprises employ 1.1 million workers nationwide.
3. Reduces Waste: The average American discards seven and a half pounds of garbage every day. Most of this garbage goes into to landfills, where it's compacted and buried.
4. Good For The Environment: Recycling requires far less energy, uses fewer natural resources, and keeps waste from piling up in landfills.
5. Saves Energy: Recycling offers significant energy savings over manufacturing with virgin materials. (Manufacturing with recycled aluminum cans uses 95% less energy.)
6. Preserves Landfill Space: Toxic pollution from landfills including cyanide, dioxins, mercury, methane, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid and lead escapes into the air and leaches into groundwater.
7. Prevents Global Warming: In 2000, recycling of solid waste prevented the release of 32.9 million metric tons of carbon equivalent into the air. Recycling one ton of glass results in energy savings of more than 300% and lowers carbon dioxide emissions by 3.46 tons.
8. Reduces Water Pollution and the Use of Toxic Chemicals: Making goods from recycled materials generates far less water pollution than manufacturing from virgin materials. Making products from already refined waste materials reduces and often avoids altogether the need for manufacturers to use toxic chemicals.
9. Saves Trees and Protects Wildlife: Half the Earth's forests are gone, and up to 95 percent of the original forest area in the U.S. has been cut down. Using recycled materials reduces the need to damage forests, wetlands, rivers and other places essential to wildlife.
10. Creates New Demand: Recycling and buying recycled products creates demand for more recycled products, decreasing waste and helping our economy. Recycling alone will not end resource destruction but it’s an important step along the road to a world of Zero Emissions and Zero Waste, or Z-squared. A Z-squared community promotes the sustainable and equitable use and distribution of resources. Zero Emissions refers to emissions from transportation, energy and production - choosing alternative means of travel, alternative fuels, conservation, efficiencies, and renewable, abundant and non-polluting sources of energy like wind and solar. Zero Waste refers to redesigning our production and consumption systems to use resources more efficiently, to prevent waste before it happens, and to incorporate all leftover materials back into the production cycle rather than discarding them as waste.

Green Jobs that Make $30/hr (from Yahoo HotJobs):

1. Regional sales manager. Sales managers for environmentally conscious companies make sure better products reach their target audience. With stimulus funds going to research and development of more energy-efficient goods, particularly in batteries, growth is expected in green sales-manager jobs.
• Regional sales manager: $87,200 per year / $42 per hour


2. Environmental engineer. This engineering specialty focuses on developing solutions for better water and air quality. Other fields for environmental engineers include recycling, waste disposal and environmental cleanup. With stimulus funding for many of these areas, demand for environmental engineers is expected to rise.
• Environmental engineer: $68,600 per year / $33 per hour


3. Computer systems analyst. Technological savvy will be needed to design systems that will allow electric transmission systems and broadband networks to operate with greater energy efficiency. Demand is so great for this IT expertise that the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts nearly 50 percent growth in the field from 2006-2016.
• Operating systems analyst: $63,000 per year / $30 per hour


4. Urban/regional planner. Urban and regional planners have a chance to dramatically impact the landscapes under their jurisdictions. They aid governments in designing and locating schools, roads, and other infrastructure in a city or rural area, with an eye to minimizing environmental impact. They can also design zoning codes to help support environmental goals.
• Urban/regional planner: $60,600 per year / $29 per hour


5. Hydrologist. This scientific specialty centers on using your knowledge of geology to locate and study bodies of water and suggests methods for keeping it pure. Hydrologists use advanced techniques and instruments to assess water quality.
• Hydrologist: $68,100 per year / $33 per hour


6. Construction project manager. A great move-up job for workers with construction experience, project managers coordinate and oversee large construction projects. The field of construction management is becoming one where environmental concerns play an increasing role. They're using recycled materials in building new buildings and then recycling the old building.
• Construction project manager: $68,000 per year / $33 per hour


7. Nonprofit executive director. Chief executives at an environmental charity or advocacy group have the opportunity to shape their groups' agenda, organizing their constituencies to improve the environment, preserve land or ocean habitat, or change environmental laws. It's a chance to use managerial, marketing, and media skills for green ends.
• Nonprofit executive director: $60,000 per year / $29 per hour

Source: All salary data is from PayScale.com. The salaries listed are median, annual salaries for full-time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses, commissions or profit sharing. Hourly rates are calculated by dividing the yearly salary by 2080.