The Financial Benefits of Going Green at Home
Climate change and it effects are everywhere for us to see, we have witnessed with our very eyes the sharp changes in the weather 
patterns within and without our beloved nation of Zimbabwe. The question on everyone’s mind is will the weather ever normalize again or is this, the new normal we need to adjust to. The normal of working up to a very chilly morning, then having a very hot afternoon and finishing off the very same day raining, always having the confusion of what you should wear tomorrow.
But then if we then employ greening tactics is it not expensive?
Is environmental conservation that necessary after all the other pressing issues we have on the table?
Is it not God’s Plan leading to doomsday remember these are the last days?
The above are some of the many questions we hold regarding what faces us with concern to our environment, l may not answer these questions but the question l would like to answer today is: As a household what can we do to preserve our environment and also derive economic benefits from doing so?
People are being encouraged to switch to energy efficient electricity and products, recycle their paper and cardboard and even reduce their carbon footprint in regards to greenhouse gases and pollution. However, with all new things the price of going green can be extremely high which causes many people to take a second look at the idea of going green. Luckily, there are many financial incentives for individuals to make the switch to going green.
These are some of the benefits.
Home Energy Savings
A few simple changes in the use of home energy can reduce homeowner energy costs while requiring less electric generator capacity and resulting pollution. These changes include using low wattage bulbs like energy savers, using boilers to heat water as opposed to heating it via the stove and making sure that all appliances not in use are switched off. This will reduce your energy consumption bill yet at the same time you are conserving energy.
Shopping Savings
When it comes to shopping, several going-green strategies can be employed to save money while helping the environment. For example, one can use recyclable shopping bags or re-use plastic bags and buy material in bulk, reducing transportation and packaging costs, as well as reducing pollution.
Reducing Paper Consumption
By reducing the consumption of paper, a person can reduce the number of trees that must be harvested to create that paper. Imagine according to www.ecology.com nearly four billion trees are cut each year for paper, which represents around 35% of all harvested trees worldwide and that paper consumption has increased by 400% in the last 40 years. This is not a good statistic therefore before you print that funny email at work to show siblings at home think about this. If some of those messages are important please recycle paper. By doing so you will be saving bond paper which h comes back to tree harvesting reduction and you will be also reducing litter.
Growing Food at Home
A growing and popular trend today is to grow some of your own food. Growing your own produce i.e. planting fruit trees and growing
vegetables saves money compared to buying produce from the supermarket. In addition, transportation costs associated with having produce delivered to the local store is eliminated. Thereby cutting grocery costs as well as helping in cleaning the air by increasing more organisms that eliminates carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
These are some of the economic benefits one may derive by going green at a personal level.
Written by:
James Chatyoka the financial director for lgreen Africa.