ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Save Money While Cutting Greenhouse Gases

House

Residences account for over 20 percent of all U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions. Most of that is for heating, cooling, hot water, and lighting. These days, cutting emissions and saving money go hand in hand. Consider these options:

Mobility

Everyone can take steps to reduce harmful transportation-related warming, which accounts for 27 percent of all U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions. Over half of transportation emissions come from personal vehicles  (cars and light-duty trucks) and the rest primarily from medium and heavy trucks (23 percent), with planes (9 percent), ships (2 percent), and railroads (2 percent) also contributing. In general, we as individuals need to cut back on travel to what is essential, buy local rather than long distance (that means less Amazon until it fulfills its promise and goes electric), and take the least polluting form of transportation available. Here are some tips:

A geothermal heat pump, this one from Trane. It installs outside the home, attached to the buried heat exchanger. Others live in the basement.