Money and the environment, there used to be a time when these two forces were opposed; in 2011 they go hand in hand. Some of the best ways to save money is through environmental savings, eight of which we have listed below, so let’s take a look…

Switching to a green energy tariff

Most, if not all the major energy suppliers will have green tariff option available which all help environmental sustainability in different ways. How they help depends on the company, for instance, on a green tariff your energy might come exclusively from renewable sources, such as solar or wind power. Another way the contribution could be worked is some of your energy bill goes towards research into renewable energy.

As you can guess, it’s not just saving the environment, but green tariffs will also save you money. A green tariff will cost the same as a duel fuel tariff at worst, plus different companies will be competing trying to offer the best green tariff, so it would be the perfect cover to change energy supplier at the same time.

Drive more carefully

While not many people do it, or realise it, certain driving techniques can help conserve petrol or diesel. Drive within the speed limit for starters, accelerating and breaking hard requires more energy than a steady and slow increase. You will also find that using electronics in the car siphon off fuel, such as air conditioning, finally, if you need a roof rack, make sure it is a removable one, as the drag it creates wastes consumption. Small changes like these will see your fuel needs decrease and keep your wallet in healthy shape.

Energy saving at work and home

This one should be a no brainer, getting into habits around the house of switching off lights, turn appliances off and not just on standby as well as using the central heating only when you have to.

Make use of your library

Don’t go blowing cash on books, DVD’s and music CD’s in stores when you can hire them from a fraction of the price at your local library. Not only will be saving potentially hundreds of pounds a year, but you will be reducing the amount of packing, such as plastic, cardboard and paper you use also.

Alter your computer settings

Energy efficiency is never a priority for PC’s, so the default setting will be need to be tweaked to make this the priority. To compliment this, also start maximising the use of the sleep and hibernate options of your PC if you won’t be needing the PC for a while, even turn off your computer if you won’t be using it for an hour or more to make the most in energy saving.

Grow your own

You don’t have to sacrifice much garden space to produce your own fruit and vegetables, neither do you have to splash the cash on fancy equipment or seed packets. Ask for cuttings or seeds off a friend or neighbour and save money on the weekly shopping bill. The added environmental bonus of course is the packaging saved from store bought produce and the thousands of miles it had to travel to get to your supermarket, so called ‘food miles’.

Save paper usage

Yet again, this is more of a reminder than a tip, use both side of a sheet, scrap paper should be used for notes and lists rather than discarded. Printers like PC’s will need optimising for energy efficiency from there default settings and lastly, recycle your old papers and magazines by getting down to your local paper bank.

Use rechargeable batteries

Batteries can be quite expensive, so buying them over and over can cost a pretty penny, so the long term savings rechargeable batteries can give make them a worthwhile investment. The purchase price is going to be higher than for normal batteries, but that is easily offset by the large savings to be made by using them. Used batteries are one of the worst pollutions on the environment, so the less they are the used is always a good thing.

Well, that’s all we have time for I’m afraid! Many of the money and environment saving tips we listed above are just a few of the hundreds of ways that are available online; we strongly suggest having a rummage through internet to find the rest if you liked what you saw in this article.

James writes for Just Remortgages one of the UK’s top sites for the latest remortgage rates and best remortgage deals.