45 Local Ways to Make a Difference -- And Save Your Money

1. Toast your new green lifestyle with locally made Square One.
2. Get natural, free-range meat at Drewes Bros. in Noe Valley.
3. Don’t buy; rent from your neighbors on Zilok.com.
4. Get a Seafood Watch Pocket Guide at montereybayaquarium.org; use it to select ocean-friendly seafood.
5. Swap movies, books and music on TitleTrader.com.
6. Wash your clothes in cold water with Method’s Squeaky Green Laundry Detergent.
7. Or get them “eco-drycleaned” at Pacific Heights Cleaners.
8. Attend a swap soiree hosted by Clothing Swap SF.
9. Get compost bins and free recyled paint from Sunset Scavenger.
10. Join City Carshare or Zipcar.
11. Recycle your electronics at GreenCitizen.com.
12. Chow down a grass-fed hot dog at Let’s Be Frank.
13. Haul away large furniture and more with iReUse Hauling.
14. Buy/trade/sell something on Ecoflip.org.
15. Choose fair-trade, SF-made Tcho chocolate at Real Food Company.
16. Take six MAC cosmetics back to a MAC store for recycling and get a free lipstick.
17. Call GreenGab at 415-626-4733 and ask for a “clean cab.”
18. Trade in your cell phone plan for Working Assets’ Credo—and get $200 toward your new phone.
19. Subscribe to Sunday NY Times via Times Reader and save paper.
20. Learn how to green your kitchen with Cooking Green by Kate Heyhoe, in bookstores April 22.
21. Put your visitors up at LEED-certified Orchard Garden Hotel for as little as $162 a night.
22. Have Friends of the Urban Forest plant a tree on your sidewalk for $130 (includes tree, stakes, ties, volunteers to help plant it, and two follow-up visits in the first 18 months).
23. Take a tour of Arterra, SF’s first LEED-certified condo development.
24. Instead of buying coffee in a to-go cup every morning, brew fair-trade Thanksgiving Coffee Co. beans (available at Rainbow Market) at home.
25. Buy fluorescent bulbs, a water-saving shower head and window insulation kits at Cole Hardware. (You can also recycle batteries, bulbs, ink cartridges and latex paint there.)
26. Bring your old CDs to Whole Foods to be recycled.
27. Give your old cell phone to a domestic violence victim via HopeLine at VerizonWireless.com.
28. Get your next new outfit at Ladita, Bernal Heights’ green boutique.
29. Recycle your running shoes at Sports Basement (and catch a free fitness class).
30. Send your digital camera to our military troops abroad at OperationHomeFront.net.
31. Sign up for Bike and Roll’s bikeshare programs (share touring bikes as well as large shopping tricycles) for as little as $7.50 a month.
32. Eliminate take-out lunch packaging and bring your lunch to work in a cool container/bag from One Small Step.
33. Take your old Capilene base layers back to Patagonia to be repurposed into new garments.
34. Pick up a six-pack of Boont Amber Ale, brewed in Sonoma at solar-powered Anderson Valley Brewing Company.
35. Pre-order an affordable solar panel you can hang on your windows or gutter at Veranda Solar.
36. Grow an Organic Herb Garden Trio on your windowsill.
37. Get a cool Earthlust water bottle and refill it.
38. Sign up for PG&E’s ClimateSmart program to offset carbon emissions.
39. Sip organic, biodynamic wines at Terroir Wine Merchant in SoMa.
40. Skip the plastic produce bags at the grocery store and use 520-NM’s washable produce/bulk bags.
41. Take Muni Metro instead of driving or cabbing it.
42. Vacation close to home and donate your miles to Red Cross staff/volunteers or transplant patients.
43. Energize with sustainable, natural fruit-, tea- and coffee-based drinks from SF-based Adina, available at Harvest Urban Market.
44. Clean green with the new Eureka EnviroVac.
45. Find a green restaurant, service or shop at Greenopia.com.