71% of the earth is covered with water, but only 3% is drinkable. Here are some easy ways to reduce the amount of water that you use.

1. Turn off the water when you brush your teeth, shave and wash your hands.

2. Install a low flush toilet or don’t flush each time. My mother is fond of saying “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down. ” A regular toilet uses 3.5 – 5 gallons per flush, so this can quickly save quite a lot of water.

3. Take a shower rather than a bath. Generally a shower will use 1/3 the water of a bath (as long as you don’t take those marathon showers I did as a teenager!)

4. Make sure your toilet isn’t leaking. Put a few drops of food coloring, dark colored fruit juice or instand coffee in your tank. Put in enough so that there is a deep color in the tank. Make sure no one uses the toilet for 30 minutes. Check the toilet bowl. If any color is in the bowl, you have a leak. A silent leaking toilet can waste 30 – 500 gallons of water a day!

5. Mulch your garden. Mulch not only reduces evaporation of moisture from the soil, it will also help cut down on weeds.

Small, easy changes can make a big difference in the amount of water we all use.

You don’t have to own the home you live in to qualify for the free energy audit. Renters are welcome to use the program as well.

This is a win/win situation – you can save money, lower your energy usage and the audit is free!

Earth Hour is this Saturday at 8:30 PM. It doesn’t matter where you are, just from 8:30 – 9:30 your own local time, turn off your lights. The goal is to have 1 billion people participate and switch off their lights. There’s been a lot of talk recently around the word “billion” but this time it’s not about money and the result will be positive!

This year we’ve decided to shut off the main breaker to our house so that we will have zero energy usage. How are you going to participate in Earth Hour?

Sean O’Connor, a 6th grade teacher at the McGlynn (an all around great guy and client of mine!) was just featured on WBZ while teaching his students about wind power.

The wind turbine will supply about 10% of the school’s energy needs, saving the city of Medford approximately $25,000 a year.

So, the next time you’re cleaning out your closets, see if you can find someone to reuse your old stuff before it gets recycled.

It’s good for the environment, will save people money on their commutes and will be good for real estate values in the city. (Look what bringing in the Red Line did for Davis Square.) If you think this sounds like a good idea, you can sign the petition.

Once you’ve given away all of your useful “stuff”, remember to recycle all you can of what’s left before you start tossing things into the trash. Together we can make a difference!