Some ideas to consider

These “enviro tips” arrived via a Nature Conservancy newsletter.

Straight Flush
Some toilets in our houses date back to the 1950s… there’s hardly a cruder vision of waste: Three to five gallons of water disappear with every flush. (Low-flow and dual-flush toilets can use less than two gallons.)
So make your first eco-resolution installing a new, greener toilet. Check out Terry Love’s consumer report
http://www.terrylove.com/crtoilet.htm rating the best brands of low-flow. Or consider saving water the old-fashioned way: fill a small milk jug with water and rocks and place it in your toilet tank. It saves the amount of water it displaces with every flush.

Power to the People
“Turn off the light when you leave the room!” our parents gently reminded us… But how much does flipping that switch really matter to the environment? Now you can know to the penny. The Kill-a-Watt Electricity Monitor
http://www.greenandmore.com/kill-a-watt-electricity-monitors.html?itemId=390&navContext=ln_energy_saving tells you the energy consumed by any appliance or electrical device in kilowatt-hours — including how much it’s using when it’s plugged in but not powered on.
http://the-gadgeteer.com/review/kill_a_watt_ez_electricity_usage_monitor

But what about the whole house? Devices such as The Energy Detective display household electrical usage and project your monthly bill — all without using batteries.
http://www.theenergydetective.com/what/overview.html Research has found that real-time energy feedback leads consumers to reduce their electricity consumption by an average of 6.5 percent. Knowledge is power…and less power used.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Energy_Detective

Travel choices
Travel by car causes your carbon footprint to skyrocket. But there are times when you just have to drive there…wherever there is.
So consider using a taxi service that uses hybrid vehicles. There are lots more options now than ever before: Cities such as New York, San Francisco, Houston, Denver, Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., have all added hybrids to their taxi fleets. And other cities in the United States and Europe — from Charlotte to Barcelona — are greening their taxis and other municipal vehicles through the Green Fleets initiative. http://www.greenfleets.org/

See the Light
Sure, candles are romantic and fun. But they’re often as bad for the environment as they are good for your mood — made from paraffin wax derived from crude oil, and releasing carbon into the atmosphere as they burn.
Two alternatives are the Sun Jar and Smart Candles:
• http://www.neaco.com/catalog/item/3990343/4965348.htm
The Sun Jar works well for outdoor parties — it’s a frosted, waterproof Mason jar with a solar cell, rechargeable battery and three LED lamps inside. You leave it outside in bright sunshine to recharge, and when the sun goes down it automatically lights up for five hours with the brightness of a typical candle.
• http://www.smartcandle.com/
Smart Candles — rechargable, LED candle replicas — come in shapes from tealights to tapers. And they’re not only for home use: Hilton Hotels have started using them for dinner events.

Out of Paper
Just because you e-mail instead of sending letters doesn’t mean you’re more eco-conscious — if your recipients are printing your e-mails. So simply put this phrase at the bottom of your automatic signature: “Please help save the environment: Consider not printing this e-mail.” More and more companies are offering this option on their intranets. (And if you added a link to nature.org, we wouldn’t mind.)

Workin’ at the Car Wash
Good news for people who dread washing the car on a Saturday afternoon: Going to the car wash is actually better for the environment than hand-washing. U.S. regulations require commercial car washes to drain their wastewater properly — which means into the sewer system, where it can get treated before being discharged. Washing in your driveway or on the street means all that soapy, toxin-filled water goes into storm drains and straight out to rivers, creeks and other waterways.
Other perks: Commercial car washes often recycle and reuse rinse water, helping them to save up to 100 gallons per wash. And many use nozzles and pumps that minimize water usage.

This Bag Available
Sick of your old tote? Try a hot, one-of-a-kind purse or messenger bag made of an old billboard. Vy & Elle, Relan and District Cotton make amazingly stylish bags out of the unrecyclable vinyl that makes a billboard. You can get everything from wine totes to laptop cases…even a bowling-ball bag.
http://www.vyandelle.com/
http://www.relanbag.com/mainframe.html
http://www.districtcotton.com/custom_bags.html