Share Your Swim Space; Clean Air Filters

Share your swim space. Swim at your community pool or fitness center instead of installing a pool of your own. If you already own a pool, consider a solar heating system, which can heat your home water, too, a solar cover or install a timer and set your water circulation at intervals to cut down the energy consumption.

Clean air filters. Check air conditioning filters monthly to either clean or replace them. This will help the unit run more efficiently. Better yet: buy a permanent filter that can be washed and re-used. This will save you money over the long run and keep all those disposable filters out of landfills. If your unit is outdoors, check to make sure the coils are not obstructed by debris, plants or shrubs.

Take an Eco-Tour; Sleep Green

Take an eco-tour. For a conscientious vacation, try an eco-tour. These earth-friendly getaways seek to enhance awareness of our natural world, promote conservation, minimize impact and provide a positive experience for guests and hosts. Some even put you to work improving the local ecosystem. The International Ecotourism Society and Australia's Green Globe are good places to get started.

Seek "green" lodging. Business travelers and vacationers can decamp in "green" comfort, thanks to the growing number of urban hotels, luxury resorts and lodgings that are minding their carbon footprint. For an extensive list of hotels verified by readers, visit EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com.

Carry Your Golf Clubs; Sail Away

Carry your golf clubs. Forget driving to the greens: These days, carts are definitely déclassé. It's hip to walk the course, carrying or pulling your own clubs.

Choose paddle or sail power. For guilt-free boating, consider a kayak, canoe or inflatable raft for a good cardio workout or a sailboat or sailboard for a little help from the wind. Added plus: With the exception of some sailboats, you'll save a bundle of green compared to buying a motorboat.

Water Your Lawn

Water your lawn less frequently and more deeply and at night in most areas, to avoid evaporation.

Reuse your gray water--the waste water from doing dishes, laundry and showering is fine for watering plants.

Use Cups; Avoid Cans

Buy soft drinks in a cup. Whenever possible, buy soda from a fountain in a paper cup instead of in a can or plastic bottle. You'll reduce the amount of aluminum cans and plastic bottles wasted. More paper (48 percent) is recycled and recovered to make new products than aluminum soda cans (43.9 percent) or plastic soda bottles (25 percent). 

Skip canned fruits and veggies. Whenever possible, limit purchases of canned fruit and vegetables and substitute fresh. The process involved in canning fruit uses 10 times more energy than picking fresh fruit. If every U.S. household replaced just one pound of canned or jarred fruit with one pound of fresh fruit during each summer month, the total energy saved could operate the kitchen appliances of more than 21,000 households for an entire year.

Fresh and Seasonal

Consider purchasing fresh fish instead of canned. You will reduce the amount of resources wasted in the canning process and might even save money. For every 10 pounds of canned fish produced, 20 gallons of water and more than half a pound of edible fish are wasted.

Buy local, seasonal products when available. Food grown or produced halfway around the world didn't just appear in the supermarket—it was shipped by plane, boat, truck or rail, and no matter which method of transportation it used, greenhouse gases were emitted along the way. Pick the apple grown in your state instead of the banana grown in another country.

Cool Down

Set the thermostat to 74 degrees in the summer. Programmable thermostats will reset the house to a higher temperature during the hours you are not at home.

Use ceiling fans to cool down rooms in the summer and to circulate warm air in the winter.