Sustainable living should be a main objective for any family which has the means to do so. With that said, making the transition isn’t always easy for those used to consuming an overabundance of energy and natural resources. But there’s a more immediate and personal incentive behind making such changes, other than doing what’s best for the environment and for the planet’s future, as important as these things are. For families, that incentive is the savings that can be gained from leading greener lifestyles.
What’s great is that you don’t have to tackle this challenge alone. There is an array of online resources you can use in your pursuit of a more sustainable household. Calculators are particularly useful for getting an up-close look at the numbers involved in the changes you could be making. Before you start scoping out best cash rewards credit card options to make ends meet, see if you can’t free up some income by using the following online calculators to lead a more sustainable life:
Based on the energy-usage habits of your household, this calculator will provide you with an accurate estimate of the carbon emissions your family is releasing into the atmosphere every year. It doesn’t transfer the pollution into dollars and cents, but it can get you thinking about ways to lower your energy usage and thus your energy bill.
If you use an automobile to get to work and will be in the market for a new one soon, use a fuel economy calculator when considering your options. It’s a critical step in determining not only the least-environmentally harmful option, but the most cost-effective one as well.
- Commute Cost Calculator
In addition to fuel economy, take the time to consider how much driving you do. Use a cost-of-commute calculator to see how many miles you travel every year, and how much money you’re spending on gasoline. In conjunction with a free online maps service you can easily find the most fuel-efficient routes to work and other routine destinations.
While the emissions estimator focuses on how much you have and always will be contributing to the ecological destruction of Earth, the Home Energy Saver uses the same information as well as additional data to determine the most practical ways for you and your family to lead more energy efficient lives. Whether that’s solar panels or CFLs, chances are it’s a vast variety of everything in between.
This calculator, provided by the Nature Conservancy, holds nothing back in determining the size of your carbon footprint. While the biggest costs you worry about when flying tend to be the caveats of using your airline credit cards with no annual fee, this calculator incorporates your time on airliners to figure what you’re costing the upper atmosphere. It even uses your dietary habits, an often overlooked aspect of our carbon footprint.
If you can go green, then you must attempt to do so. Not only for the sake of the future of our planet, but for the current need to save as much money as possible. Countless solutions exist. Find them, calculate their worth, then put them to good use.
