Every Green Act Adds Up to Big Impact

The threat of global warming has never been more urgent. That’s why every year for the past 46 years, Earth Day and everything it stands for continues to gain momentum. Earth Day inspires people to share information, challenge ideas, and ignite passion – ultimately motivating us to take action to slow the process of global warming.

On April 11, organizers of the long-standing awareness campaign plan to make “big stuff” happen, including planting 7.8 billion (yes, billion) trees, encouraging people to sign the #ParisAgreement climate petition, and raising awareness for recycling, ending junk mail, composting, and eating locally-grown produce. Earth Day organizers refer to them as “Acts of Green,” and if we all take action and do one or more of them, we can make a big difference together.

Also on the Earth Day agenda for 2016 is promoting the movement away from fossil fuels to a more widespread adoption of renewable resources and fuels. That’s where we come in. By heating your home with wood or pellets, you are not only utilizing a renewable fuel, you are reducing the amount of carbon you will leave on this Earth. That’s a big deal.

Heat in the Green Fuel Sense Consider your carbon footprint. That is, the amount of carbon (CO2) you generate during your lifetime through the use of fossil fuels like natural gas, fuel oil, and propane. Most of us have a considerable carbon footprint already, but there are ways to reduce it going forward. Case in point: heating our homes.

Fuels like cordwood and pellets are renewable, as they are derived from forests that re-germinate themselves continuously or are managed and replanted after harvesting. Heating all or part of your home by burning wood or pellets in a stove can reduce your consumption of fossil fuels considerably, especially in you live in the northern region of the country where the winters are long and cold. It can also be more cost effective, as prices for cordwood and pellets are generally steady and predictable, whereas fossil fuel prices can fluctuate dramatically, many times spiking at very high levels.

Heat in the Zone Heating Sense At Quadra-Fire, they call zone heating “heating where you live.” You can further reduce your energy use by using a wood or pellet stove to heat the rooms where you spend the most time, and turning down your central thermostat a few degrees. Unlike a central furnace, which pushes heated air via winding ductwork throughout the home, a stove immediately disperses heat into the rooms where you spend the most time. So, heat isn’t being lost traveling through ducts, and you’re not heating rooms that aren’t used regularly. It’s a more efficient approach to heat, and it will also reduce your spend on fuel considerably.

[quadrafire.com. (2016, April 19). Eco-friendly and Cost Effective Ways to Help the Earth [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.quadrafire.com/Shopping-Tools/Blog/Eco-Friendly-And-Cost-Effective-Ways-To-Help-The-Earth.aspx]