Earth Day is right around the corner (less than a week) and several retailers are offering discounts, or donating a portion of their sales to green charities.

Yesterday, I wrote about several cool free or cheap ways that you can celebrate Earth Day. Today, I’m going to tell you about some of the ways you can help be eco-friendly with your purchases.

If you are in the market for a new EnergyStar appliance, Earth Day just might be the day to buy one. I’ve written about the Cash for Appliances Rebates before. These are organized by states and several are starting their programs on April 22. Check out when your state’s program begins. You will need to act fast. Some of the programs that have already begun ran out of money within hours.

Send your friends a a cute, but not cutesy, e-cards. Try VerveCards. They will donate 10 percent of every purchase this month to American Forests, which plants trees where they are most needed. Check out their Earth Day e-cards – they are my favorites!

Wear a cool T-shirt for Earth Day. Check out the Go Green styles at KCTees. They are made of organic cotton, and 15 percent of the sales of these tees will go to Global Green USA. This organization is working to shift global priorities to a sustainable future.

Buy a GreenBagTag at CVS. The tag costs 99 cents, and can save you money each time you shop at the pharmacy. Five cents of each tag sold through March 31, 2011, goes to the World Wildlife Fund.

Update your underwear drawer. For every three pair of Hanes undies sold, the Arbor Day Foundation will plant a tree. Don’t throw away the old undies! Save them to use as rags around your house. They make great dustrags.

Go to the movies. Disney’s Oceans movie opens on Earth Day. DisneyNature will make a donation to save the coral reefs for every ticket sold.

Any other good deals that I’ve missed?

Over the winter holidays, we bought an EnergyStar washer and dryer. Clothes that come out of the washing machine are supposed to be clean, but they haven’t been.

Life with a baby is dirty. I go through several shirts a day, even though I try to have a burp cloth with me at all times. Our son is a spitter.

That spit has been the source of my washing machine issues — it does not come out! I’ve taken to scrubbing the spit splotches before throwing them in the wash, which is waste of my time.

I mentioned this to my mother, and then mentioned that we have the washing machine set on tap cold, except for the occasional bleach washing. She gave me a look, (I get this look a lot) and said that of course my clothes weren’t going to get clean if I wash them in cold water.

The Carbon Conscious Consumer recommends that you wash four out of five loads in cold water. This should really cut down on energy use and be kinder to your clothes. But it can’t be beneficial to wash most clothes 2-3 times to get spit-up out.

I’m guessing that spit up must be one of the more difficult things to get off clothes? And we can’t use the Tide that’s formulated for cold water until our boys are little older.

The only good news here is that I have a warm button, so I don’t have to get the water scalding hot for most cycles. And all of the rinse cycles with this machine are in cold water.

Hopefully switching to warm won’t cause too much damage, but will actually clean our clothes.

Have you experienced this? Any advice?

Sometimes being green can be easy. If you unplug your chargers when they aren’t in use, you not only save energy, but you also save money.

According the Environmental Protection Agency, electronics, adaptors and appliances cost Americans almost $10 billion a year and account for almost 11 percent of all U.S. energy use. These “energy vampires” suck power even when not in use or they are turned off.

Ten billion dollars sounds kind of abstract, doesn’t it? According to EnergyStar, U.S. households spend $100 a year to power devices in a standby power mode.

EnergyStar estimates that the are more than 1.5 billion power adapters in use across the country — about five per person. That makes sense. In our home, we have two cell phones, a digital camera, digital camcorder, two laptops, a cordless screwdriver, a baby monitor, etc. We easily cover the five adapters per person.

While $10 billion is a lot of money, it’s money that can be very easily saved. Just unplug your chargers whenever they aren’t in use.

It’s a great habit to get into, don’t you think?

Welcome to 2009! We hope you had a great holiday and can’t wait to help you fulfill your New Year’s resolution to integrate more acts of green into your lives. 

Below is a pledge for you to sign which we are certain will help you up your green ante over the course of the year. While the list may be daunting at first, consider incorporating just a few new eco-friendly tasks each month. Over the course of the year, you will have made great strides towards reducing your carbon footprint and deepening your shade of green.

At home, I pledge to…

• turn off lights and appliances when not in use
• unplug chargers  and appliances that are not in use
• use computer sleep mode and turn off monitors when not in use
• open the dishwasher and air dry dishes instead of using the hot air dry cycle, run only full loads
• dry laundry on a clothesline
• wash clothes on cold cycle, wash only full loads
• turn down my hot water heater to 120F
• shorten showers by a few minutes to conserve hot water
• lower my thermostat by at least 1F during the winter season
• install a digital, programmable thermostat. Set it and forget it
• adjust thermostat when I leave the house (10F down in winter, 10F up in summer) (if you install the programmable thermostat and set it, you can check this one off too!)
• keep up with basic furnace maintenance- have it professionally tuned and cleaned, replace air filters regularly
• cook more efficiently- cover pots, use a pressure cooker when appropriate, keep burners clean, cook several dishes at a time in the oven, use microwave to heat food, for small meals – use a toaster convection oven instead of heating up your larger oven
• keep drapes or blinds closed at night in winter and during the day in the summer to reduce heating and cooling needs
• clean refrigerator coil every 4-6 months
• replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs
• when bulbs blow out, dispose of them properly or recycle if possible
• install light dimmers
• install faucet aerators in sinks to reduce hot water use
• install low-flow shower heads to conserve hot water
• install low-flow toilets to reduce water use
• insulate 4 ft of hot water pipes closest to hot water heater
• insulate all hot water pipes
• caulk and weatherstrip all my doors and windows
• have a professional seal my heating ducts to reduce loss of heated air
• replace old inefficient dishwasher (over 10 years old) with an Energy Star model
• replace old inefficient refrigerator (over 10 years old) with an Energy Star model
• replace old inefficient clothes washing machine (over 10 years old) with an Energy Star model
• improve my home’s insulation
• replace old furnace with efficient Energy Star model
• install a solar hot water heater
• eat one less beef meal per week
• eat organic food as much as your budget allows
• eat as local as possible; maybe eating “100 miler meals” – food that hasn’t traveled more than 100 miles
• compost food and yard wastes
• recycle paper, bottles, cans and other reusable materials
• buy recycled products whenever possible
• buy products that use as little packaging as possible
• take clothing and small appliances to charity thrift stores or other donation centers
• join a volunteer organization, or an environmental organization
• participate in government so I have a voice in sustainability issues and decisions
• register to vote so I can create help change in environmental policy decisions
• tell a friend

For my transportation, I pledge to:

• take public transportation to work or school instead of driving at least 1 day a week
• carpool to work or school at least 1 day a week
• replace at least 5 miles of driving with biking or walking per week
• inflate car tires properly, use recommended motor oil and keep car well tuned
• buy a fuel efficient vehicle (30 mpg)

For my workplace, I pledge to:

• make double sided copies
• only print when I really need the hard copy
• use the blank side of old documents for scrap paper
• buy recycled copy/printer paper.
• turn off my computer at night

The Green Ribbon Pledge will compute your energy savings for energy saving specific points. Thanks to the Stonybrook Green Pledge.

What are suggestions you can add to creating a greener 2009?  Please tell us below in the comments!

Chanukah began last night and for those with a mind towards green living, this is THE holiday of the year to make your celebration as low impact as possible. Why? Well, the basis for Chanukah is, in part, the miracle of a single days worth of oil lasting eight days. Clearly the lesson is conservation, right? It may be a stretch but more and more Jews nationwide are buying into these ideas.

First, start with purchasing beeswax or soy candles instead of conventional paraffin candles made from petroleum. Not only are paraffin candles made from nonrenewable sources, many claim that they produce more soot and smoke than their more eco-friendly brethren made from plant derived oils and natural beeswax. There are even kits you can use to make your own. 

Use an electric menorah? Consider trading your conventional bulbs for CFL tapers. Also, put your menorah on a timer so that it is not on all night and turns on at dusk to save even more energy. 

We all have read about greening your gift list, but here are a few ideas specific to Chanukah. Consider giving donations to charities or nonprofits you support in honor of your recipient. For a truly unique gift, choose a gift which can help the less fortunate become self sustainable and gain training. Bake yummy treats for gifts and wrap them in either recycled containers or glass ones. Recipients get some home baking and a reusable container they can pack their own goodies in later. 

Wrapping presents? Wrap them in recycled paper including the Sunday comics or pick up copies of a newspaper printed in another language (I’m a huge fan of the papers free at Chinese markets, but many Jewish book stores offer Israeli newspapers). It’s the novelty which makes it fun, after all.

If you are a member of a synagogue (or even a church for that matter!) consider using Chanukah as an opportunity to start greening your facility and rededicate it as an EnergyStar building. Take the first steps by changing out those conventional bulbs with CFLs and institute a recycling program.

Lastly, you can’t have a true Chanukah without some latkes. Make yours healthier and more sustainable by making them with local organic potatoes and onions and cage-free, organic, eggs. If you can find them, use organic matzo meal too. Need a recipe? 

3 organic baking potatoes
3 organic, cage-free eggs (local is best!)
1 medium to large organic onion
1 cup (at least) matzo meal
Salt and pepper to taste 

Peel and chop potatoes and onions, add in blender with eggs. Puree. Pour into a bowl, add salt, pepper and matzo meal. Mix. Consistency should be mushy. Let it sit so matzo meal can absorb the liquid a bit. Heat oil in a pan, fry (1/4 cup batter per latke) until brown, flipping halfway through. Place on plate with paper towel to absorb extra oil. Enjoy with applesauce, sour cream, jelly or other topping.

Happy Chanukah!

Image by Flickr user Mfajardo used under a Creative Commons License.