Times are changing...
are you changing your carbon footprint? Have you even considered the size of your personal footprint? Many people have heard the terminology and don't quite understand what it means.
Realistically there are many ways that your create an environmental impact.
Over the course of a lifetime or even just over the course of an average year your lifestyle and daily practices can leave a "footprint" seen in terms of carbon and greenhouse gas production.
For example, the way that you drive or commute, the type of foods that you choose to eat, and the amount of electricity and home heating and cooling supplies that you use will all increase or decrease the size of your print.
One of the easiest approaches to begin shrinking your carbon footprint is to supplement traditional energy use with alternatives like solar power instead.
This doesn't mean that you have to immediately install a full solar power plant on the roof or yard of your home, however.
The process of shrinking the carbon footprint can be as simple as choosing to install solar powered lighting inside your home and throughout your yard.
Consider just the lighting on the exterior of your home...
you probably have a light or two at the main entry way, you may have lighting in the garage or parking area, and you could also have lighting along the sidewalk or garden as well.
If you are using electricity to power all of this lighting you are wasting serious amounts of electricity because there are now highly efficient solar fixtures to meet all of these needs.
In fact, traditional "sensor" or "motion detector" lights are more and more often sold strictly as solar powered options because this makes them much more flexible in terms of where they can be installed.
Consider too that many of the solar lighting fixtures (indoors and outdoors) rely on LED bulbs to produce consistent illumination.
By now, everyone is aware of the benefits of an LED bulb over the traditional bulbs.
They last far longer, consume radically smaller amounts of electricity, and instantly shrink the owner's carbon footprint.
It is almost mandatory that consumers begin considering how they can reduce their carbon output.
This is not just a financial issue, but one more closely connected to the environment.
Each year, as more and more greenhouse gases are created, the planet is increasing in temperature and experiencing climate change that is upsetting the entire natural world.
It is interesting to note that simply making small changes around your home and yard could help save the planet...
but it can!