There are lots of easy and efficient ways to go green – one of the simplest is to use online bill pay.

Not only will it save you the cost of a stamp – which is about to go up – but it cuts down on the amount of paper used to print the bill, check, and envelope, and saves on the fuel used to deliver the bill.

If you are questioning whether paying a couple of bills online will really make a difference, just check out the Green Calculator at PayitGreen.org.

This tool will show you how you will conserve by switching to electronic payments each year.

We pay most of our bills electronically, but we still pay a few the old fashioned way because the companies charge more if we use electronic bill pay.

I entered in the very small amount of bills that we still use snail mail for and was surprised. If I paid those electronically, I could save 51 pounds of greenhouse gases each year!

A recent study by NACHA, the Electronic Payments Association, found that if just 2 percent more American households would switch to electronic bills, statements, and payments, then more than 15 million pounds of paper, 181 thousand trees and almost 200 thousand tons of greenhouse gases would be saved.