Green goals for your home

Measurable goals are attainable goals

It’s often easier to make and keep a commitment—like going green—when you set measurable goals. A simple strategy is to determine actions you can reduce and others you can increase around the home. Choose specific ways you can make changes (like a percentage of the bill, number of occurrences or within a timeframe) to affect your household’s habits around these areas:

Reduce

  • Energy and water usage
  • Food waste
  • Purchase/replacement of new electronics
  • Paper use
  • Single-use plastics
  • Frequency of lawn mowing
  • New apparel and household decor purchases
  • Meat consumption
  • Number of trips to run household errands

 

Increase

  • Recycling, upcycling, and repurposing efforts
  • Strategic and eco-friendly landscaping using native plants
  • Composting
  • Purchasing or making environmentally friendly household items or yard products
  • Areas in the yard left natural to provide habitats for insects
  • Experiential, rather than physical, gifts
  • Repair, refinishing and recovering of furniture
  • Consumption of more organic and minimally processed foods
  • Purchasing of items with minimal or recyclable packaging
  • Use of items that can be refilled in their original container

About This Author

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Pete Yang

Pete Yang is a senior vice president for Alpine Bank and the co-chair of Alpine's "Green Team." He's based in Aspen, where he handles commercial and consumer loans, with a particular focus on resort financing. He has a keen interest in protecting Colorado's unmatched mountain environment.

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