Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
VIRGINIA BEACH -- In the weeks and months leading up to the Shamrock Marathon Sportsfest, more than 18,000 participants worry about everything -- from their training to the race day weather to their running shoes.
For the race organizers, they've been thinking about how they can reduce the carbon footprints, that is the environmental impact, from all those shoes.
That's why race directors Jerry and Amy Frostick are making the Shamrock Marathon the first "Virginia Green" event. That means organizers are going the extra mile to guard the environment.
"If everybody can see that an event this large -- that we can do it -- then hopefully all the other events that are down here all summer can jump on it too," says Jerry Frostick.
In the race packet will be a reusable bag instead of a plastic one like they gave last year. That should reduce waste.
The Frosticks got more advice and support from Tidewater Fiber.
With 35,000 water bottles at the finish line alone, it needs to be easy to recycle at the race.
"We recognize that some of the people will take them home and have the opportunity to recycle them at their houses. But here at the event we'll have some recycle containers to recapture the majority of the bottles," explains Mike Benedetto, TFC Recycling vice president.
In addition, the Shamrock store at the expo has gone to recycleable paper bags and a food bank will collect any leftover food from the celebration at the finish line.
The Frosticks also have a way for runners to reduce waste and help others.
"We have a company called Soles for Souls which is going to be at the expo. They are collecting gently used shoes and they're going to donate them to countries that are less fortunate," Amy Frostick says.
The Frosticks says they’re committed to being green at the Shamrock.
“Every little bit helps and we're hoping to do a little more every year, that we can be totally "green" in the near future."
The Shamrock Marathon weekend begins March 14.
