Get a Home Performance Assessment. Have a professional conduct a home performance analysis of your house and make recommendations to improve energy efficiency, durability, comfort and indoor air quality. For a comprehensive assessment you can contact a Home Performance with ENERGY STAR participating contractor at www.southfacehomeperformance.com or www.energystar.gov. Alternatively, your local utility company may offer free abbreviated energy audits.

Reduce Water Consumption. Commit to one of the following this year: Install low flow faucets or water saving toilets in your home or business or retrofit your existing fixtures with aerators and toilet tank displacement devices. Plant native and adapted species because they are water wise and/or install water efficient irrigation or capture rain water for irrigation use.

Use Clean Energy. Make a pledge to switch to certified, renewable energy sourced electricity or if it is not avail-able in your area pressure your local energy company to make a plan for clean energy and offset your home and transportation CO2 emissions by purchasing Green Tag offsets. Go to www.renewablechoice.com to make this purchase. Check out the Green Power Network at www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/ for local green power information.

Invest in Green. When investing commit to making sure the companies in your fund portfolio are socially and ecologically responsible. For ideas on green investments go to www.socialinvest.org or www.sustainablebusiness.com.

Be a Conscious Food Consumer. Make a conscientious change to grow your own food and buy as much local and/or organic food as you can, eat less meat, purchase fresh instead of frozen food, and avoid eating endangered ocean species. Don’t forget to compost, too. Set ambitious thresholds of improvements for yourself.

Question Your Purchases. Commit to green resource management by asking yourself these questions before making purchases: Do I really need this? Can I fill this need by reusing something else or can I buy a product that is reusable? What is the product made of (organic material/ recycled content)? How much energy went into the production and how far did it travel? Which product has the least packaging? What happens to the product at the end of its useful life (recyclable/ compostable/ landfill)? Is the company who produced the product environmentally and socially conscious?

Get Involved. Write your elected representatives and power companies and ask them to add renewable energy sources to your community energy supply portfolio and convince three friends, family members or co-workers to make one of the above changes in their lives or bring these ideas to your school or business and convince them to make changes in energy efficiency and consumption.