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• Use a sun shade in your car. Your car will still warm up, but the shade will help keep the temperature from climbing too high.
• A cool cloth or cooling pack around your neck works wonders when temperatures rise.
• Where possible, keep the blinds down or the curtains drawn when you are using air conditioning during hot weather.
• If you do have a basement, it's almost certainly cooler than the rest of your house, take advantage!
• Install a programmable thermostat. You can set your air conditioner to only your home only when it is necessary (such as just in time for when you get home from work). For Ontario Residents, the Peaksaver Program may net you a free programmable thermostat and $25 credit with your power provider to boot.
• During warmer weather, run ceiling fans in a counter-clockwise direction (creating a downward breeze) to maximize the cooling effect.
• If you are taking an extra shower or two a day when it gets really hot, keep it short!
• If you're going to be outside in the sun, a parasol or visor makes a big difference for staying cool.

• Stay close to home. The single greatest environmental impact in travel is flying. Why not visit a city near you, or, better yet, become tourists in your own city?
• If you're renting a car, rent something small and fuel efficient (maybe even a hybrid!) rather a hulking behemoth. The Earth will thank you -- and so will your wallet.
• If you're staying in a hotel, participate in their water/laundry reduction programs: hang up your bath towels so they aren't replaced with fresh ones, and let the maid service know you don't require new sheets every night. The more people that do this, the more water and energy we save!
• Visit cities with excellent public transit.
• Use small toiletry containers that you refill from your home supply. So much more earth-friendly than buying and discarding travel-sized shampoo with each trip you take.
• Bring a refillable water bottle and a refillable coffee mug with you. Just think of all the paper and styrofoam you'll save!
• Prepare your home for reduced energy use while you're away: turn down the thermostat, unplug unused appliances, cancel your newspaper service, and make sure there aren't any leaky faucets dripping.

• Rather than give cut flowers, buy a small tree or flowering plant that can be planted at a later date. That way, your gifts lasts longer, and the Earth benefits, too.
• If your Valentine expects the gift of jewelry, shop estate sales and vintage jewelry shops, rather than buying a newly-created silver or gold bauble.
• Whenever possible, send e-cards rather than throw-away paper cards. Or, better yet, buy a plantable card embedded with seeds, which your Valentine can bury and watch bloom.
• Buy organic chocolate made from cocoa beans farmed in earth-friendly ways rather than mass-produced chocolate whose beans were cultivated with unfriendly farming practices.
• Rather then head out for dinner, why not have dinner at home? And while you're at it, use local fruits, vegetables, and other products. The closer to home your food is grown, the lower its environmental impact is. Try to eat things that haven't been shipped across the country by tractor trailer!

• running the water while brushing your teeth or shaving
• buying copious amounts of bottled water instead of refilling with tap water or filtered water
• idling your car for minutes at a time
• leaving your computer and monitor on when they are not in use
• doing half loads of laundry when you could wait and do full loads
• unnecessarily printing out emails or reports when you're doing electronic presentations
• using and throwing out plastic utensils instead of washing metal utensils
• accepting plastic bags each time at the supermarket instead of simply reusing bags
• using paper or styrofoam coffee cups instead of a mug

If you are in the market for a new car, this may be of interest to you.  Citizens Bank is offering a low car loan interest rate of 6.25% or 7.25% (depending on the specific vehicle) for cars that have superior environmental performance.  This offer is not limited specifically to hybrid vehicles, as it also applies to a number of car models that emit below average amounts of carbon dioxide.  The list of eligible vehicles and further details can be found here.

• Use newspaper comics or recycled paper to wrap your presents. Better yet, buy reusable decorative bags.
• No need to feel tacky about re-using wrapping paper. If you save the wrapping from a large gift, just cut away torn edges and excess and use it again for something small.
• Shop online from retailers who use carbon offsets or other eco-friendly shipping.
• Use LED or solar-powered decorative lights.
• Make a donation as a gift, or buy gifts with as little packaging as possible
• Don't prepare mounds of food if you know it won't be finished. You'll prevent waste, save money, and possibly your waist line.
• Change your furnace filter.
• If you find your wardrobe dangerously overcrowded after all the gift giving and receiving is said and done, spread the warmth and donate your used but serviceable clothing to a local charity that can give it a good home. The same goes for toys or other useful items in working order.
• Dispose of Christmas trees in an eco-conscious manner.
• Don't leave your decorative lights up and on until February.

Store rating
IKEA.ca

If you drive a hybrid or fuel efficient vehicle (cars that use less than 6.5L of gas per 100km) to any Ikea location in Canada, you will find that Ikea has reserved two preferred parking spots near the front entrance of stores for your use.  These specialty parking spaces will be marked with the sign seen on the left.

1. Pass on the plastic bags for trick-or-treating and use a pillowcase or other reusable bag. Not only is this a more sustainable solution, but a pillowcase or canvas bag is more durable and less prone to tearing than a plastic bag.
2. Make full use of your pumpkins! Seeds can be roasted and turned into a tasty snack or fed to the birds. Pumpkins can be turned into pie or soup or a well-used jack-o-lantern carcass can be composted.
3. Terror-iffic decor can be easily made from stuff lying around the house. You can use bedsheets to make ghosts to hang from trees (shove a pillow inside and tie it off) or hack up some cardboard boxes to populate your front yard with gravestones. Complete the look by adding piles of leaves to make the graves appear freshly dug. You can also stuff some old clothes with newspaper and make a scarecrow to stake in your front yard, hang from a tree, or sit next to your front door. For more low impact decorating ideas, a look at this page on Green Living Online. There's a good list of ideas over at care2.com as well.
4. Don't put away the old clothes yet. Get creative and use old clothing or materials from a thrift shop instead of buying pricey vinyl costumes made from petroleum products that will probably be worn once or twice at most.
5. Skip the expensive and chemical laden Halloween makeup where possible. Some household basics like cornstarch, syrup, shortening, cold cream,and food coloring and even ketchup can make convincing blood, bruises, wounds and other afflictions. For more ideas, visit dltk-holidays.com's page about homemade makeup for Halloween.
6. Throw coloured shades over your light bulbs (or complact fluorescent lights!) for some moody lighting instead of buying coloured bulbs.
7. Don't forget the little things like using rechargeable batteries instead of alkaline batteries in flashlights.
8. There will be a whole lot of candy wrappers on the ground for a while. While we're sure you're not a culprit, go the extra mile and make sure your family and friends aren't littering.

Do you have a green tip you’d like to share?  Or maybe you’re looking for a green alternative to a product you use everyday?  You can discuss these sorts of topics in our new Green Discussion forum in the RedFlagDeals.com forums.

Check out this forum thread where users are sharing their own green tips.

In a future posts on this page we’ll share the best green threads from the forum!

• Keep up with furnace maintenance. A clean air filter translates into cleaner air around the home, lower operating cost, and higher efficiency. Many people clean their furnace air filters themselves, but you can always have a suitable technician check and service your furnace.
• Look at your thermostat. Lowering the temperature a few degrees at night or while you're at work during the day translates into saving money and conserving electricity. This can be made all the easier with a programmable thermostat.
• Make sure windows or other drafty areas have appropriate weather stripping or sealants so that you don't waste money and resources heating the outdoors.
• Use the sun! Open appropriate (ie. south facing) drapes and blinds during sunny days to let sunlight heat your home or office for free. Close them at night.