Tip 4: Earth Day Electricity Specials!

While we've been offering some general tips to help you be more eco-friendly for Earth Day, individuals aren't the only ones getting involved in the green action. There are several companies participating as well, and they are offering some great deals and specials in order to help the environment, and keep some extra money in your wallet.

Each of these Texas electricity providers is offering a unique green special in honor of Earth Day. There are definitely some great options for anyone looking for electricity service.

Earth Day Special Promotions

• Bounce Energy is offering the Bounce Energy Blue Sky 100% renewable energy plan. Not only will the rate be at the lowest for the month of April, but you will also receive a $50 Home Depot gift card to help "green up" your home.

• First Choice Power has a new special that allows you to order a 100% renewable energy plan from April 15-30. They have a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation Rain Forest Rescue program and will make a donation to protect 2,500 square feet of Rain Forest on behalf of each new customer.

• Direct Energy is offering the Pure Wind Plan. Take advantage of this green plan by the end of April and receive a $50 Visa gift card.

Solar Power Generated from Space

We’re all accustomed to the different types of renewable energy – wind, solar, hydro, geothermal. Leave it to the Californians to be the first in the U.S. to announce an out-of-this-world source of energy. California’s Pacific Gas & Electric has teamed up with Solaren Corp to harvest solar power from space starting in 2016. Solar panels fixated in orbit will capture the sun’s energy, transmit it via microwave beams to Earth where power grids would then send the converted energy to millions of homes.

This venture looks promising and the possibilities seem endless. However, I’m stuck on what would happen if an airplane, or heck a bird, flew between the beams. Poof! Bye-bye? Or what would happen if the solar panels in space were knocked even a wee bit off course? But I digress. This opportunity has captured the attention of NASA and the U.S. Defense Department and will undoubtedly generate much interest and extensive research from physicists and scientists worldwide.

For more info on how space-based solar power would function, visit the SciTech section of Fox News. For those more visually-oriented, check out this animation at Space.com.

Tip 5: Eco-Friendly Coffee and Tea Habits

For many of us, our days don’t start without a jolt of coffee or tea to shake off our morning drowsiness. Then we need another round mid-afternoon to counter the food coma effects. With the high consumption rate of these two essential beverages, a few adjustments in rituals could help the Earth. Since we’re going green with everything else, why not with our coffee and tea addictions?

• Pour the Sugar and Cream First - You can cut out the use of disposable coffee stirrers by pouring in the sugar and cream before the coffee. The heat from a fresh pot of coffee or tea will dissolve the sugar and the swirl of the pouring will mix the cream around.
• Grab a Mug - If you consume two servings of coffee or tea each workday, then that leads to 10 cups per week, 40 cups per month, and 520 cups per year that stack up in landfills across the nation. Usually, these disposable cups aren’t biodegradable either. Simple solution: use a mug for your caffeine fixes. 
• Turn Trash into Compost - Don’t discard your used coffee grinds and tea leaves. Instead, save them for your compost heap which in turn can be used to enrich your plants and balance the soil’s nitrogen balance. You can also throw in the coffee filters and tea bags as they break down quickly during composting. 
• Buy Organic - When perusing aisles overflowing with coffee and tea options, target the ones that are certified as organic. When you buy organic, you support Eco-friendly methods of cultivation and harvesting and protect workers from noxious chemicals.  

For more green tips, visit TreeHugger.

Tip 6: A Paperless Lifestyle

With Earth Day right around the corner, it's a perfect time to try out a paperless lifestyle. Not only will you stop the senseless slaughtering of defenseless trees but you'll save money too.

Try some of the tips below to reduce paper usage in your daily life. The environment will thank you.

• Paper Bills - Opt to get as many of your household bills like credit cards, electricity, phone, Internet, etc., e-mailed to you. This will also minimize the time and energy you spend sitting in front of the shredder.
• Printing - Whether you're at home or work, stop and think twice before you hit the print button. You'll save yourself and the company you work for some money.
• Paper Cups - Don't add to landfill waste by using paper cups at home or at work. Instead use your own mug or drinking glass that you can wash and reuse.
• Paper Towels - Instead of using paper towels, be more Eco-friendly and use dish towel that can be washed and used again.
• Catalog Shopping - Cancel those catalogs that you get in the mail and do more shopping online. I can hear the trees thanking you already.
• Shopping Bags - Invest in reusable grocery bags instead of coming home with an arm full of paper bags. Just think of all the space you'll have because you won't be folding and storing bags.

For more green tips stop by The Green Guide.

Whole Foods Challenges You to Make a Green Change

As part of their effort to educate Americans on how saving money can also save the planet, Whole Foods Market has teamed up with Bosch Home Appliances, a 2009 Energy Star Partner of the Year, for a 30-day call-to-action campaign to reinforce the idea that environmental responsibility can go hand in hand with economic recovery.

“Make a Green Change” is part of the U.S. Department of Energy's national Energy Star “Make a Cool Change” effort. During the month of April, Whole Foods stores will be Earth Month Action Centers. People who visit the stores will be encouraged to take home a free Make a Green Change: 30 Ways in 30 Days calendar, which was created to encourage one lifestyle change per day during Earth Month that can save money and better protect the environment for the whole year and beyond.

The calendar invites customers to visit Whole Foods’ Web site for more eco tips. It also features an Energy Star savings calculator to show how much their fridge costs to run compared with an Energy Star model. You can also enter to win a variety of earth-friendly prizes, including a brand new Bosch Evolution ENERGY STAR^® qualified refrigerator stocked with goodies from Whole Foods.You can also test your green knowledge to find out just how eco-savvy you really are, and learn some new tips for improving your own conservation habits.

Tip 8: Green Eating

Eco eating anyone? In the name of eating healthy and being a bit more environmentally conscious, I've dug up some interesting tips on how to grub down a little greener. Best part is, you can certainly save a few dollars by adjusting your grocery shopping habits.

Here are some green eating tips to get you started:

• Shop weekly and plan you meals ahead of time. This helps eliminate food waste that comes with shopping in bulk, and will also help you plan and cook weekly meals with fresher ingredients versus boxed foods.
• Eat organic: You're helping eliminate chemical pesticides, reducing the impact on local land and water and eliminating overly processed foods from your diet. Win, win and more win.
• Reduce your consumption of boxed foods. Excess packaging is never good for the environment, considering landfills are already teeming with plastics and other waste, and not all packaging materials you find at the store are recyclable.
• Shop at the local farmers market, where you're cutting down on packaging, the negative climate impact of transporting said goods and also supporting local farming.
• Reducing meat consumption lowers the impact on the local ecosystem, namely the water and grain it requires to produce meat for the market. If you are a meat eater, try to focus on organic meats that aren't loaded with antibiotics and hormones, all of which are harmful to both the body and the land the animals are raised on.
• Cook just enough to consume, reuse and eat leftovers.
• Focus on the core, essential ingredients such as green veggies, eggs, grains, etc. to mix and match and create healthy, fresh meals.
• Eliminate wasteful cooking habits—use only as much water as needed and focus on dishes that can cook simultaneously with fewer ingredients to help reduce energy consumption.

There are a plenty of additional green and healthy eating tips out there. Our energy conservation section is loaded with green tips. For addition green eating nuggets, I would suggest also checking out Tree Hugger, Whole Foods and one of my personal faves, Noshtopia.

Tip 9: Reducing Wasteful Water Habits

In the spirit of the approaching Earth Day, and in addition to being a bit greener in general, I've dug some great tips on reducing wasteful water practices. Obviously the environment will thank you kindly, but your banking account could seem a bit more robust as well. Who knew being green could save you some green?

• Check all piping in your home for leaks (toilet, faucets, water heater).
• Reduce warm and hot-water washing by using cold cycles instead. I've previously mentioned reducing the cost of laundry in Saving Energy and Cutting Costs at Home.
• Focus on reducing the core wasteful practices—flushing the toilet repeatedly or throwing trash into said toilet, leaving the faucet running while brushing teeth or washing face, longer showers, etc.
• For the men out there, go traditional with your shaving routine. I heat water in a cup before shaving so that I'm not running the faucet throughout the process of making myself mantacular.
• Wash full loads of dishes and clothes to reduce the number of weekly washes.
• Mulch around trees, bushes and flower beds to help absorb run-off and slow evaporation. See natural lawn care tips for more information on watering in an eco-friendly manner.

For more green tips and advice at home, work and more, see our section on energy conservation.

Tip 10: Jump on that Green Bandwagon

For those of us who have not gotten on the green bandwagon and are wanting to cut expenses in light of the economic downturn, now’s the perfect time. Here are some ways to kick start an environmentally friendly lifestyle while saving money.

• Decrease paper towel use. Yes, I know this sounds difficult to the liberal paper towel users out there, including myself. The trick is to keep a clean rag in easy-to-reach places at all times and remove those paper towels from sight. The best part is you don’t have to buy new rags, just make some by cutting old t-shirts into squares.
• Print only when necessary. We’re all guilty of pushing the print button repeatedly without much thought. Take 10 seconds to evaluate if what you’re about to print absolutely needs to be on paper. You’ll save money and trees for every page that’s spared.
• Reuse plastic bags. There are many second uses for plastic bags. My favorite is to reuse them as trash bags, which my parents are infamous for amongst friends and relatives. I don’t remember them ever dolling out money for trash bags!
• Carpool to work. Chances are that you have at least one co-worker who lives in your area. By taking turns driving to work, you’ll lower your carbon footprint and cut your monthly gas expense by half.

For more information on the green ways of life, visit Green Energy Choice Green Guide and Treehugger.

Tick, Tock...Earth Day is A-Coming!

Who wants to have a huge carbon footprint on Earth Day? Certainly not us, and you shouldn’t either. Starting tomorrow, we will begin counting down the days to Earth Day with tips on how you can greenify your life. Each day we'll give you an Earth friendly tip, anything from going paperless to save trees to ways to conserve on energy. And if we have a electricity or other provider that can help you get that tip done, we’ll let you know about that too!

By April 22 (Earth Day for the uninitiated), you'll have 10 things you can do to be more green and do your part to save your planet.

Oh, and if you have tips yourself, submit them to blog@whitefence.com. If they are good enough, we’ll post them too.

The Era of iTunes Three-Tiered Pricing Begins

More options and consumer-ready packaging for songs, video and more are on the docket for Apple iTunes users. The new three-tier pricing launched this week will feature a 69¢, 99¢ and $1.29 option, with the lowest price reserved for songs and albums that are released 18 months or sooner.

Part of the issue is the steady decline of CD sales at the sword tip of increasing digital sales... 14 percent lower in 2008 to be exact.  The new options may allow some wiggle room on album prices via iTunes, though the numbers and speculations are premature at this point.