If you could eliminate the use of a paper or plastic bag every single day to carry your lunch, think of how much paper and plastic you would be saving! Using paper or plastic for a few hours just to hold your lunch, and then tossing them hardly seems worth it. By using a lunch bag, you can avoid this usage, while also keeping your food insulated and fresh!

If you are leaving a room at home or school, remember to turn of the lights. It might be a simple and seemingly unremarkable gesture, but if unnecessary lights were always kept off, there would be significant savings in electricity. When in doubt, turn off the lights—they can always be turned back on when needed.

We’ve all heard of recycling, but do you know what “freecycling” means? Freecycling refers to recycling an item you no longer want by giving it to someone else who would use it—for free! Not only is this an incredibly kind gesture that everyone should try to practice, but it also saves the used item from ending up in the garbage dump.

This might be a long term goal, but it’s nevertheless an important one. Planting more trees around your home will not only make everything prettier, but the trees will have energy efficient roles as well. This works because the leaves will shade your home from the sun during the summer, and in the winter, when the leaves have fallen, more sun will enter through your windows and keep the house nice and warm.

While you might take pride in the fact that you’re still able to use your great grandmother’s old toaster, it might be time for an upgrade. Many appliances that are over 10 years old use up a lot more energy than the up-to-date, more energy efficient appliances today. So even though you’ll have to spend money on a new appliance, you’ll actually still save money in the end because of the energy you are saving.

While it’s great to support a good cause if people are holding car wash fundraisers, but if you just need you get your cleaned and you are considering doing it yourself, go to your local commercial car wash instead. You might not realize it, but commercial car washes tend to use much less water than what you would otherwise use. In fact, commercial car washes actually often recycle and reuse the water.

Depending on your showerhead, you may be wasting a lot of water due to excess water flow. Talk to your parents about buying a reduce-flow showerhead. It might be an initial investment, but you’ll quickly find that you’ll be saving a lot of hot water, and your gas bill will thank you for it! Once you get a reduce-flow showerhead, you’ll be conserving gallons by the minute—how’s that for saving water?

If you live in a town where you pretty much need to get around by driving, try to carpool with your friends or family whenever you can. Not only can you save money on gas, but it’s way better for the environment. If you want to carpool to get to school, you can talk to your friends and your teachers.

When the weather gets chilly, it might be convenient to want to turn up the heat in your house, but you should always try to stay warm in other ways first. For example, as simple as it sounds, put on a sweater! By putting on a sweater, you’re saving all the energy it would take to warm the entire house. If it gets too hot, simply open a few windows rather than turning to the AC.

Whether you’re trying to wash some grapes to snack on, or if you’re helping to prepare a salad, there is a neat trick to saving water. Instead of holding the fruits and veggies under the running water to wash them, fill up a big bowl with water and wash them in the bowl. It’s hard to tell how much water goes down the drain when it’s running continuously, but you’ll make a big difference if you use a bowl!