Our new ‘Buy the Case’ program at Stockn’Go is an easy way to go green. If you have a large family or room mates, stocking up can be a very easy way to help the earth. If you’re thinking of stocking up on health or beauty products, there are some great reasons to do so. The best one, of course, is that buying in bulk is green. Let me explain further.

When you buy in bulk you produce less waste because less packaging is used by the manufacturer. Less packaging equals less waste in our landfills because you’re not throwing away unneeded packaging materials. Plus, because you buy more products at the same time, you then will cut out some trips to the store in the future. This not only saves fuel, it saves time and money, as well. You also save on shipping costs when you buy online, because most places (including us!) give free shipping for larger purchases. At Stockngo.com, you always get free shipping on orders over $25.

So, why wouldn’t you buy in bulk? Buy the case is easy, economical, and green. Who doesn’t love that?

And with our Price Beat Guarantee, you’re assured you’ll get the best price, always. You’ll save money even if you’ve already spent it. If you’ve recently shopped with us and find the identical “PriceBeat Eligible” product for a lower price on another website, we’ll pay you back the price difference, plus an extra 5% of that difference.

Buy in bulk and go green the easy way. You’ll save money, and you’ll be helping the environment. The more small things you do to go green, the better off we’ll all be. It doesn’t always require big sacrifices to make a difference. Using Buy the Case is just one small way that can make a big difference.

Do you stock up or use Buy the Case? What other small things do you do to go green? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a comment here on the blog.

When you think of Halloween, eco-friendly is probably not the first thing that pops into your head. As holidays go, Halloween might seem that it’s a hard one to ‘green’, but with these few, easy tips it’s easier than you might think.

Use a cloth bag or recycled plastic bag to hold candy when your kids are trick or treating. Alternatively, use the same hard plastic bucket year after year. You’ll save money, and you’ll be cutting down on the amount of waste that goes into landfills.

Go trick or treating in your own neighborhood, if possible. Walking around your own neighborhood will use no fuel, and you’ll reduce your carbon footprint. Your kids won’t mind – they might even find it fun to walk.

Do a costume swap. How many Halloween costumes do you have in your closet? Use the same Halloween costume accessories year after year, in different costumes.

Have a green costume party. You can send out e-vites, saving paper and creating less waste. Make the Halloween party focus on fun, rather than stuff. Kids love crafts, so you could make a scarecrow together out of old clothes, or you can make Halloween hats or masks out of recycled paper. Make sure to recycle any paper or other waste you have left over from the party. Even paper that is food soiled can sometimes be put in with yard clippings to be picked up. Check with your local government to see if this is the case.

Flesh out your Halloween decorations with natural things such as pumpkins and gourds, cutting down on your use of paper. You can make ghosts out of old sheets, or use beeswax candles in your jack-o-lanterns.

What are you doing this Halloween? Do you have any green ideas for the holiday? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a comment here on the blog.

The days are getting cooler and shorter. You’ve got brightly colored leaves everywhere, and soon they’re going to be littering your lawn. Autumn has its own special green concerns, and here are some tips to help keep your fall green.

Don’t burn your leaves – When leaves are burned, the smoke contains particulates that can lodge in your lungs and the lungs of other people. The pollution that’s emitted by burning leaves can add to the green house effect, making our atmosphere warmer. Instead, bag your leaves and have them hauled away or use them as mulch or in your compost pile. Either one of these is much better than burning, and gives back to the environment instead of taking away.

Watch your energy use – As the days get shorter, you’re going to use more energy. You’ll turn on the lights earlier, and you’ll leave them on longer every day. Lighting your home is about 25% of your yearly energy consumption. Make sure you have compact fluorescent bulbs – they cost more, but they last longer and use less energy. Wipe down your bulbs to make sure they’re not dusty. Clean bulbs emit more light than dirty bulbs, so you won’t have to use as many to light your home. Also, did you know that if your walls are clean or freshly repainted they reflect more light, cutting down on your light usage?

Cut down on the energy used to heat your house by insulating – You can lose up to 40% of your heat if your home isn’t insulated properly. Cover your air-conditioning unit,and you’ll keep cold air from entering your home through the space around it. Get draft blockers that go under the doors. Make sure your windows seal tightly – use weatherstripping – and are caulked correctly. There are lots of little things you can do to keep your energy from being wasted, keeping down not only your utility bills but your energy use as a whole.

Plant your trees now - Because there’s usually more rainfall and cooler temperatures during the fall, it’s a good time to plant trees. They have a better chance of surviving now, so plant them now and make sure to choose species that are native to your area. Try for drought resistant strains that require less water.

We take green living seriously at Stockngo. Do you have any green fall tips for me? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a message here on the blog.

So, you’re going off to college. Exciting, isn’t it? Most colleges give out a list of ‘must-haves’ for incoming freshmen, but here are some green and money saving tips for that list, as well.

Get a bicycle. You might need a car for longer trips, but for getting around campus there’s nothing more convenient and energy saving than a bike. You won’t have to pay for a parking pass or hunt for parking. You’ll save money on fuel – and what college student doesn’t need to do that? You’ll get fit and bypass that ‘freshman twenty’ so many incoming students have problems with. There’s not really a downside to riding a bicycle around campus.

Need appliances? Buy used and/or look for the energy star rating on them. If you can have both – you’ve just saved energy and re-used. Double win for a green life.

Get a travel mug or reusable water bottle – and use them. You’ll keep tons of plastic out of our landfills and you’ll save money. Buy a water filtering pitcher or a filter that fits on your faucet instead of buying bottled water.

Turn off the lights, and put fluorescent light bulbs on your ‘must-have’ list. You’ll save energy automatically with the bulbs, and if you get in the habit of turning off the lights when you’re not in the room, you’ll save even more.

Plug all your electronics into a power strip, and unplug the power strip at night or when you’re not charging or using them.

Get a reusable bag to carry books or for shopping. Stop the plastic bag habit now, and you’ll be part of saving our environment. If you do get an occasional plastic bag, reuse it.

Buy your books used, or better yet, rent them. You’ll save lots of money, and you’re doing your part to reduce waste by re-using textbooks.

Buy health and beauty products in bulk. You’ll get a better price – always good for college students – and you’ll save energy. How? Shipped once = less fuel.

You can go to college and lead a green life. You’ll save money doing so, and you’ll be helping save the earth. Do you have any green tips for me? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a message here on the blog.

I talk a lot about greening your life, but so far, I’ve left beauty routines out of it. I thought it was too hard … but I was wrong. I recently decided to find some ways to make my beauty routine as green as the rest of my life is. Surprisingly, there were some easy ways to do it.

Try more eco friendly products. L’oreal makes an Ever Pure brand of hair products that are sulfate –free yet still protect, condition and nourish your hair. They’re also 100% vegan – not tested on animals, with no animal byproducts. You can get great beauty products that don’t harm the environment.

Look for natural ingredients. More and more brands are using naturally-derived ingredients to give you the same great beauty results without harming our world. Aloe, tea tree oil, lavender and mint are just a few used in beauty products. Check labels – even if the label says organic – to see what is being used to make your beauty care products.

Cut your shower time. If you cut just three minutes off your shower time, you save about 50 gallons of water. Yes, you read that right. 50 gallons.

Double up your products. Use a moisturizing body wash and then shave your legs with it, too – don’t use a body wash and then a shave gel. You’ll save on the amount of products you use, saving money and causing less harm to the environment.

Don’t run the tap. If you turn the water off while brushing your teeth, you’ll save about 3 gallons of water each time. If you add that up over the course of a year, it’s a significant amount of water.

Buy beauty products in bulk. Buying once means your products are shipped only once. A bonus to this is your beauty products cost less.

What are you doing to green your beauty routine? Have any tips? Leave them for me on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a message here on the blog.

If you need a reason to go green, deforestation is a good one. Deforestation is one of the major causes of climate change because it releases huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. This contributes to the greenhouse effect. Trees absorb the atmosphere-damaging amounts of carbon dioxide and use it to grow, but when they burn, carbon dioxide is released again.

Deforestation is doubly damaging to the environment, because greenhouse gases are released when wood is used as fuel. At the same time, the number of trees is being reduced by cutting them down to use as paper or other products. To put it simply – fewer trees mean more climate change.

So, what can we do to stop this deforestation? Here are some ideas for you.

Plant Some Trees

Stop a little climate change by planting your own trees. As a side benefit, you can keep your house cooler if you plant them on the west side of your home. That’s important in the heat of the summer.
Make it meaningful for the whole family and plant a tree every year for each member.

Try Meatless Monday

One less meat-based meal a week won’t hurt you, and it helps with deforestation. Let me explain -For each piece of meat that came from animals raised on rainforest land, about 55 square feet of forest was destroyed.

Recycle Your Newspapers

44 million newspapers are thrown away each year in the US. Recycling just your Sunday paper would save more than half a million trees every week.

Do Your Errands All at Once and/or Buy in Bulk

Make a list and do your errands all in one trip. Alternatively, buy things like health and beauty products in bulk. Not only will you be saving fuel, you’ll be saving time, as well.

Give Stuff Away

Donate your old stuff to a charitable organization or post it on a web site made specifically for giving away things, such as Freecycle.org.

Share What You’ve Learned About Recycling and Saving Energy

Pass your green tips on to everyone you know. If you help even one person take a step toward being greener, it’s worth it.

Want a visual reason to go green? Watch this video and see what we’re losing:

We take green living seriously at StocknGo. Do you? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a comment here on the blog.

Most of the country is in the midst of a heat wave. If you’re not – count your blessings. You’re lucky. The rest of us, however, want to cool off. We want to keep our houses cool, and we want to keep ourselves cool. How can you do that, and still lead a green life?

Face it – unless you’re as stoic as a Spartan, you’re going to have to run your air conditioning at least a little. It’s hard to face triple digit heat and keep that puppy turned off. You’ll be miserable. Remember, it’s not a crime to use energy. We all have to – let’s just do it the smart, green way.

Make sure your AC unit has been serviced recently. It can’t run efficiently if it’s not, and that wastes money. Spend the money on keeping it running the right way, and conserve energy use. Use energy efficient units when you can. They’re marked with an Energy Star.

Run ceiling fans and portable fans. They’ll cool off your home, and you’ll use your AC less.

Keep your lighting dim. Every light bulb you turn on emits heat. If you’re not using compact fluorescent bulbs, 90% of the energy is used to throw off heat. That might not be so bad in the winter, but it’s a killer in the hot summertime.

Make sure your windows and doors are blocking the air from outside. Remember in the winter when you blocked that cold air? Block the heat the same way. Use curtains and door draft blockers to keep the heat out and your house cooler.

Don’t cook in the heat of the day. Try to use the microwave or cook outdoor on a grill. If you must cook inside, wait until sundown. I sometimes cook several meals up ahead of time at night and just reheat them during the day in my microwave. Alternatively, use slow cookers. They’re ultra easy, and they don’t put out heat that can raise the temperature of your house.

What do you do to beat the heat? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a message here on the blog.

Do you have your own business, or are you an office manager? If so, we have some green tips for you. You can save energy and money with these tips, making you the office hero.

Switch to LCD flat screen monitors. LCD flat screen monitors use less than a third of the energy that a CRT monitor uses. Turn off monitors when not in use.

Use power strips. Green power strips, when turned off, don’t suck power from the outlet. You won’t be using any energy at all when these are turned off.

Reduce the amount of paper you use, and recycle everything.

Consider a programmable thermostat. You can set it to the turn the temperature up or down at certain times of the day – in the winter, down when you leave. In the summer, up when you leave. It does it all for you, and you won’t have to remember to o a thing. Energy saving with no effort is always a good thing.

Typically, your lighting is about 40% of your electric bill. Compact fluorescent lights are 75% more efficient than incandescent lights, which use 90% of their energy to emit heat and only 10% for lighting.

Ban the Styrofoam. Keep reusable glassware, silverware, and coffee cups in your break room. It doesn’t take that long to wash them out, and you’ll keep lots of waste out of landfills.

Using green cleaning products keeps the air clean in your office – no toxic chemicals for employees to breathe in. It also keeps our water table from being polluted with products washed down the drain.

Even if you don’t have a business or work in an office, these are great green tips. Visit StocknGo and buy your health and beauty products in bulk. You’ll be ‘greener’, and you’ll save money. Isn’t that what we all want? Do you have more tips you’d like to share? Hit me up on twitter, Facebook, or leave a comment here on the blog.

Watch this video for some more great green office tips:

When you have a home office, it has advantages. One of those advantages is that it’s way easier to green your work space. You don’t have to ask permission or nag anyone to go green. You just do it.

Another advantage is, of course, the money and energy you conserve commuting. It doesn’t take much energy to walk from the bedroom to your home office. (Unless you haven’t had enough coffee yet. )

The things you need to green in a home office are different than the things you’d think about working elsewhere. It’s pretty simple. A few simple habits can equal great energy conservation.

Light bulbs – replace all your light bulbs with compact fluorescents. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that by replacing just one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, Americans would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year.

Thermostat settings – set it low in the winter and high in the summer. Wear a sweater in the winter time if you get cold. Using a fan in the summer in combination with your ac uses far less energy than your air conditioning running all the time.

Turn off your lights – when you’re not using them, turn them off. I have a big window in my home office and I open the curtains during the daytime. That gives me plenty of lighting, so I work without using the lights at all.

Unplug your electronics at night. It doesn’t take that long to power up a computer in the morning, and you’ll save tons of energy by doing so. Your electronic devices draw power even when they’re switched off or not in use, just by being plugged in. You’ve probably got all the plugs in an electronic strip anyway. Just turn it off when you’re done for the day.

Recycle your paper. Or go paperless as much as possible. Just make sure that the paper you use is in that recycle bin on pick-up day.

Put a plant in your office. You’ll improve the air in your home office because plants absorb carbon dioxide and exude oxygen. Whether you think of it that way or not, this is going green. You’re improving air quality.

Do you have any tips or tricks for greening your home office? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a message here on the blog.

Here’s a video on greening your home office I thought you might enjoy:

When you buy birthday gifts, are you being green? There’s a way to let the special people in your life know that you care about them without giving up your green philosophy.

Make your own birthday cards. These can be absolutely beautiful. Take card stock and paint a small watercolor, if you’re creative. Know how to do calligraphy? This looks excellent on a card. Write a poem, use prose to tell them how you feel about them, cut out pictures from old magazines and make a collage…the possibilities are endless. Making your own card is creative, fun, and much more personal than a card bought from the store.

Get your birthday boy or girl an environmentally friendly gift. You can buy an acre of rain forest, buy beauty products in bulk, or purchase vintage toys or jewelry at yard sales and thrift shops. There are lots of ways to go green with a birthday gift. If you’ve got more great ideas, let us know on twitter, Facebook, or leave a message here on the blog.

Wrap your gift creatively. You can use the comics from the newspaper, a beautiful vintage scarf, or even place it in a reusable basket. Or stamp paper, make drawings, or collage your own wrapping paper. Gifts wrapped in this kind of paper look beautiful.

If you don’t think a birthday present is complete without flowers, buy a plant instead of cut flowers. It won’t end up in a landfill, and it’s much better for the environment. And what could be a better gift than a plant that lasts for years? Every time they look at it, they’ll think of you.

Green birthday gifts mean that you give the one you love something they love. You’ve put a lot of thought into this present. It’s not just something culled off a shelf at the last minute. That makes it more significant, both for the giver and the receiver. Go green for birthdays.