Living toward greener pastures

A look at eartheasy.com

By CHRIS CONROY

ONLINE — Do you know how changing the landscaping around your home can lower your energy bills? Can you think of one simple, totally recyclable gift that can give children hours of entertainment?

Questions such as these that are dealt with online at eartheasy.com, a Canadian-run website that is more than happy to offer suggestions on how to live at least a little greener.

Covering many areas of life, including gardening, gift giving and cooking, eartheasy.com opens up a world of possibilities to interested users. Even the least Internet-savvy will find the navigation easy to deal with and, more importantly, the information exceptionally useful.

For example, under the living section, the site offers tips on how to naturally cool your home. With summer right around the corner and temperatures already climbing into the 80’s, energy costs are bound to climb back up. The strategic placement of trees and plants, the site proposes, can greatly reduce the amount of heat your home accumulates from outside. Shade trees placed to the south and west keep the warming rays of the sun at bay. In the winter, if deciduous trees have been used, the sun can easily shine through the bare branches and help warm the home. This can lead, the site says, to an annual savings of up to $250 in energy costs.

While some other environmentally conscious sites propose ideas that are quite difficult for many people to implement, eartheasy.com’s solutions have a comparatively low-impact on the average lifestyle. Some, such as giving a good, sturdy cardboard box as a Christmas gift for a child, take full advantage of human nature at its most honest. We’ve all played with boxes before, why not promote the idea? When they tire of it, or when it wears out, the site suggests, simply recycle the box.

Offering ideas for every age group, and actively soliciting more ideas from visitors, eartheasy.com suggests that reaching out on a family level can make a large impact. “Eartheasy is about sustainable living,” the “About Us” page states. “It offers information, products, activities and ideas which minimize resource use and help to improve our quality of life.”

Depending on how much of a commitment you’re willing to make, that impact can be greatly minimized. A key point made under the “Play” section of the site, though, points to the real beneficiaries of a more environmentally conscious lifestyle: today’s children. “Environmental awareness begins at home,” the page reads. “Teach [your children] about the natural world through shared play, activities and ideas.”

The next time you’re looking to cut some energy costs or otherwise lessen your impact on the environment, check out the suggestions listed at www.eartheasy.com. You may be surprised at the big difference small changes can make.