There is pressure coming from every side to lower your emissions and start living greenly. And with good reason; even if global warming is a natural process, and isn’t a problem, we’ll still run out of oil and coal eventually. So everyone needs to start evaluating their usage, with the aim to lower it.

Most normal people can’t afford huge solar farms or wind turbines, so where do you start? Don’t worry, it’s actually quite easy.

The first thing to do is minimize your waste. Don’t buy or cook too much, only to throw it away. Be careful with your possessions, and fix things when they break, instead of throwing them away. It’s just little things. But there will be some waste, right? A lot of the waste you produce doesn’t even need to be thrown away; it can be recycled. This means that it’s taken, processed and then made into new items for reuse.

Next, you can start looking at lowering your power usage. Make sure that electronics aren’t left on while not in use, and use energy saving equivalents for things like light bulbs where you can. If you’re forgetful, you can pick up automatic kill switches with timers; that will turn things off for you. Or if you want to get super-techy, you can even automate your home and be able to turn things off from anywhere in the world!

To make your home as efficient as possible, you should make sure that it is fully insulated. This stops the house from losing heat in winter and keeps it cool in summer. If you’re house isn’t well insulated, you will be wasting precious power by overworking your central heating/air conditioning.

If you can afford to take a bigger step, you can even start to replace your regular power, with your own responsibly and renewably sourced power. The easiest way to do this is with a solar generator or solar panels. You can read the BlueSolarCity ultimate guide to help you get on the right track with solar energy!

If you happen to have a river on your property, or a lot of land high above sea level, you can also look into hydro and air generated power. These are usually far more costly operations, though, and are better for businesses like farms.

Once you end up generating your own power, you’ll need a way to use it! One of the best ways to do this is with an electric car. You can lower your driving costs, and also start saving the planet, without lowering your standard of living. And with technology like this on the rise, there’s loads for you to choose from.

You can also sell your power if you make enough of it. So do a little bit of research, as a little bit of investment now, could pay for itself in the long run!

Of course, there are way more options than this, so it’s important that you do research yourself. If you decide to go solar, you can get advice from your government, and in some places, you can get grants to help cover the cost.