11.Walk and Ride Bikes

■If you're only going to a store around the corner or a local library, you should walk instead of drive. A short trip like a shop a kilometer away can take a quarter liter of gas. If you walk, the 20 minute trip can be great exercise, and can save 500 grams of carbon dioxide. If you do this 4 times, each year we can lower carbon dioxide by 100 kilograms.

12.Use Public Transportation

■A single person in a car compared to public transportation is 8 times

　more carbon dioxide per kilometer

■Carpooling is also a good way to save energy and reduce waste gas.

13.Buy High Efficiency Vehicles

■When you buy a new car, choose cars with higher fuel efficiency. ■Buying a car with a 100 km per 6 liter burning efficiency can reduce

　half of your car's carbon dioxide emission.

■Avoid devices that use a lot of oil, like high performance engines,

　turbine charged V8 engines, 4 cylinder V8 engines, four-wheel drive

　gear, clerestories, rooftop baggage racks, and air conditioning systems.

14.Climb Stairs More

■Climb stairs, instead of taking the elevator. Besides being good for your health, it's good for the environment too! Elevators are necessities in modern buildings, and many people like taking them, to save time and energy. However, for high electricity using elevators, to lessen the use of them would mean saving on electricity and conserving energy.

15.Buy things with Green Label

■As a consumer, we can influence manufacturers with our shopping

　habits. Avoid over packaged items and unnecessary items, and search

　for products which harm the environment the least. By buying long

　lasting, reusable, recyclable items, we can accomplish this.

■Buy energy efficient office items. Buy equipment made from recycled

　materials. When you order office items, confirm that it's made from

　recycled materials.  

16. Turn Off Your Computer, and Print Double-sided

■When you're not using your personal computer, turn off the power. 　

　Don't let your computer run all day.

■Keep your idle printer in power saving mode. Using the double-side

　printing function can save energy and half the paper usage!

■For the same power types, notebook computers only use 90% of the

　energy, lower than personal computers.

17.Use Webcams Instead of Traveling

■Use telecommunications, instead of business trips.

■Choose hotels close to the meeting location to avoid need for taxis.

18.Use Two Stage Flushing Toilets

■Toilets take up 40% of the regular family's water usage. If you use a

　two stage flushing toilet, or put bricks or water bottles in the tank of a

　regular toilet to reduce the water output, you can save about 15~40%

　of the water flushed, which will add up to 11,000~22,000 liters a year.

　Another method is to collect laundry water, dish water, and cleaning 　

　water to flush toilets.

■Use unbleached recycled toilet paper. Toilet paper may have color,

　scent, print, or fluorescence, but synthesized chemicals, dyes, and

　fragrance may harm human skin. Fluorescent compounds have a bond strongly with proteins, and are

　difficult to remove. After contact with human skin, the combination with cuticle on the skin produces

　irritation, causing allergies and itches, increasing the likelihood of allergic skin.

19. Avoid Harmful Solutions

■Chemically synthesized detergents and insecticides are toxic items used commonly in households. Powerful chemical detergents sold in stores usually emphasize on the ability to quickly disintegrate oil and dust, making cleaning fast and efficient, but this type of items usually contain strong base or acids, surface active agents, strong corrosive agents, or irritant toxic compounds. For the human body, this causes eye, nose, throat, or upper respiratory discomfort, or burns and corrosion to skin. For the ecosystem, residual chemical compounds pass through waste water and into the sewer system, pollution the water and soil, and even poisoning animals and plants. If detoxifying compounds are put in the toilet, it kills anaerobic bacteria in the septic tank, which is bad for decomposition. Chemical compounds are difficult to decompose, and after long term accumulation, in combination with the food chain, may cause even larger harm to humans or the environment.   

20.Reuse discarded containers

■Discarded plastic can be made into other useful products, for example, bottles and glass

　bottles can be made into vases, or pen stands.

■Waste cans can be remolded into other metal products, and can be a main source of

　metal.

Extracted from

"Global Warming, What Should We Do? Read the Prescription in the Kyoto Protocol".

Project manager: Shin Chen Yie Illustrations by: Shu Hwai Yang Published by the Kaoshiung City Government EPA and the Third Nature Publishing Co.

Resource:

Yue -jijo, Huang. Green Action Handbook. Taipei Country. Environmental Bureau.

Energy Label Global Info Page http://www.energylabel.org.tw/

Greenhouse Gas Miser Handbook http://my.so-net.net.tw/gaia_hwang/air/ghbook/

MOEAEC Taiwan http://www.moeaec.gov.tw

Energy and Resource Lab, Industrial Technology Research Institute,  http://www.erl.itri.org.tw

Energy Park, Taiwan http://www.energypark.org.tw