Walk or bike when there is the oppurtunity to rather than driving
Going to school
Takes less trips and vacations
On vacations, rather than taking a plane, take a train or bus
Avoid traffic and try not to drive in times of heavy traffic
Use public transit instead of driving in a car
Housing
Use more energy efficient light bulbs
CFL and LED
Turning electronics off completly instead of leaving them on
standby where they would waste electricity
Computers, Setup-boxes, televisions
Choose more energy efficient cleaning options
Instead of using a clothes dryer, use drying racks to save energy
Making sure the washing machine is filled for every wash
Washing in cold water opposed to hot water
Take shorter showers and less baths
Reducing waste
Recycling and reusing more material
Start using a compost bin
Food Choices
Purchase more local and organics food
Buy food in season
When buying, choose food with less packaging
Cutting down on eating meat in our meals
Reduce food waste
Make sure to eat all foods before they spoil
Buy foods we will actually eat
Eat less processed food
Eat less fast food or food from restaurants
Buy less bottled water
Greening My Community: For my community I think that we need to take
advantage of compact building design
I think that compact building design would benefit a community because it would
allow for more space to be used for more green areas or allow for more land uses.
In Richmond Hill currently space isn't that much of a problem but it could become a
huge problem in the future like having to cut down more forests or get rid of parks
to build on. We could avoid those problems if we were to use compact building
design by doing things like building upwards, building town houses and wasting
less space between buildings and roads.
As an example Richmond Hill does not have as many high rise buildings and has
more single detached homes that take up a lot of space but if we were to build up
wards like in downtown Toronto a lot of space would be saved. In the community
though, many single detached homes are being built and you could see that the
residential and commercial areas and spreading and expanding in Richmond hill
and the surrounding communities because they are running out of space. Once we
start running out of space, we might start cutting down forests, building on
farmland or building on green spaces which would affect the sustainability of our
community negatively