We have certainly seen our share of interesting changes in the past few years in regards to our environment and economy.  With both issues so prevalent in our society, turning to a more green style of living can really aid in both areas.  Making an effort to live in a more eco-friendly manner not only has its perks for our planet, but your pocketbook too!

By making a few simple changes in our lives - like living greener, you can feel good knowing that you are making a difference in maintaining residence earth.  Recognizing the importance of protecting our primary residence - earth, we at R+D659 have maintained a green initiative with many of the things we’ve done in constructing our building. Important decisions went into the creation of a property that decreases pollution, conserves energy and makes a positive contribution to the urban environment. The building was designed so that daylight can reach 75% of the indoor space, which results in less electricity use during the day. We have also carefully selected the location for the building as to make it very walkable to nearby dining, shopping and nightlife as well as public transportation. Another up-to-the-minute eco-friendly feature is our ‘green roof,’ which replaces traditional heat-absorbing roofing materials with plants, shrubs and small trees that results in a decrease of heat load on the building. To read more about our efforts to maintain green initiatives check out an article on R+D659 from Today’s New Homes/Pioneer Press by clicking the link.

With 2010 right around the corner, and in the spirit of our own Green initiatives, we thought it’d be helpful to also post some tips on how to live a little greener for the year(s) to come:

- Start going green nice and easy by simply turning off lights and appliances you are not actively using at the time. It may sound silly, but leaving lights, televisions and stereos on when you step out or when don’t have them in use can make the bills skyrocket and increase your carbon footprint. In burning fossil fuels such as coal to supply electricity to homes, power plants discharge clouds of soot and pollutants into the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide and mercury. Any amount of reduction to this process is helpful and over time will certainly make a difference on the Earth and in your ComEd bill as well.

- The same thing can be done with your heat in the winter. When leaving for the work day or for other extended periods of time, be sure to turn down or program the thermostat to reduce itself for the period you will be out. It doesn’t take long to re-heat the place back up when you get back in and you will be helping to reduce energy emissions as well as saving on your gas bill too!

- Switch the kind of light bulbs you’ve been using for most of your life. Incandescent bulbs are extremely inefficient, using only 10% of their consumed electricity to emit light. The other 90% is wasted as excess heat. Halogen lamps also waste a great deal of energy and can generate heat so powerfully that they have the potential to cause burns or fires.

- Quit chugging bottled water. Not only does bottled water contribute to excessive waste, but it costs us so much more than water from our faucet at home and is really no cleaner or safer. About 22 billion (whoa!) empty bottles of water are tossed in the trash each year. This makes for an exorbitant amount of extra waste and should not be taken lightly when alternatives are readily available.  Buying a water purifier for home usage and utilizing a reusable container like the KleanKanteen or SIGG to drink from on the go are excellent choices.  Both of these thermos’ are made from all recycled materials and are biodegradable long after you’ve gotten your use out of it.

- Eat and shop locally.  Our West Loop’s local Farmer’s Market offers fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs and other food items all of which are all produced within a day’s drive of Chicago.  Shopping locally or at the Farmer’s Market reduces carbon footprints by conserving on fuel emissions from long drives on both the producer’s and consumer’s ends.

- Recycle any chance you get!  Recycling conserves natural resources and energy, saves money, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and prevents habitat destruction.  Click over to the homepage of the Chicago Recycling Coalition, an excellent resource to find out more about recycling in our city.

The key is giving the green lifestyle an honest shot. Once you reap the rewards of contributing to a cleaner Earth and find that you’re saving money and doing good in the process, these new habits will become second nature in your daily affairs. So join R+D659 in our quest to make our planet a little bit better, one step at a time.  For further resources on eco-friendly living visit these excellent websites: National Geographic’s Green Guide, Treehugger, and the Worldwatch Institute.