5. Wrap your water heater and turn down the temperature.
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Burst balloons: 16 per week
Insulating your water heater with a simple DIY kit, available at most hardware stores for $20, will save you 300 pounds of CO2 annually. As water heaters can ac- count for up to 13 percent of your utility bill, set the tem- perature to 120° F. Turning it down from 140° F will save 479 pounds of CO2 annually. If you’re really up for a renovation, switch from a con- ventional water heater to an on-demand heater.

6. Run the dishwasher only when full.
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Burst balloons: 17 per week
Wait until you fill your dishwasher before turning it on and always set it to the energy saver mode.

7. Turn off your TV, DVD player, computer and cable box.
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Burst balloons: 5 per week
Even while idling in “standby” mode, your home enter- tainment center and computer consume energy. Plug them into a power strip and turn it off after you shut down your electronics.

8. Clean your refrigerator.
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Burst balloons: 15 per week
Take a look at the top of your fridge—cluttered much? Clear it off. Those piled-up plastic containers and cereal boxes can prevent your fridge from venting heat effec- tively. Then go for the more demanding project: Remove the grill at the base of the fridge (or turn the fridge around) to clean the coils.

9. Compost Your Food Scraps.
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Burst balloons: 5 per week
Food waste stored in airless landfills is eaten by bacteria that release massive amounts of methane, a gas 21 times more heat-trapping than CO2. Composting ten pounds of food a week will keep five balloons out of the air.

10. Take the bus or ride your bike.
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Burst balloons: 3 per week (bus), 12 per week (bike)
The average 12-mile commute to work produces roughly 12 pounds of CO2 (depending on your mileage, you pro- duce one pound of CO2 for every mile driven). Even diesel buses are greener than cars when you factor in the number of passengers on board. Give the bus a shot once a week for a year. Or give your legs and heart a workout by commuting on a bike and save even more.

To sum it all up, after a year of these efforts, you’ll have kept over 7,000 balloons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. That’s about 3.5 tons of CO2 off the average

What is a Carbon Footprint? Your “carbon footprint” is the amount of greenhouse gases you produce over a year measured in tons of CO2. Because we rely on so many goods and services to support our power-hungry lifestyles, our footprint includes emisions from industry, agriculture, transportation, forestry, power generation and buildings. The weight builds up pretty quickly: The aver- age American’s footprint is 26.5 tons, not far from Australia’s 28 tons per person, but in less-developed India the number dwindles to one ton.