During Earth Month in April, and all throughout the year, Jackson EMC promotes conserving energy along with other ways to protect the environment. By forming new habits, you’ll not only save money on your power bill but preserve the earth for your children and grandchildren.

Here are a few of our favorite ways to save energy, along with proactive things you can do to celebrate Earth Month – every month and every day.

Use Green Power: See the story on pages 4-5 to learn how you can purchase electricity created from renewable resources.

Reduce energy consumption: Using less energy reduces your impact on the environment. Use tools we offer at www.jacksonemc.com to reduce your home’s energy use, including energy saving tips, the Right Choice™ with ENERGY STAR® Homes program and our Home Energy Fitness Guide.

Use water efficiently. Fix leaking faucets and toilets and consider using plants and landscaping that require less watering.

Reduce gasoline use: Consider fuelefficient models when buying your next automobile, carpool to work, telecommute, save weekly errands for one trip, keep tires properly inflated and perform routine car maintenance.

Recycle: Making aluminum products from recycled aluminum uses 95 percent less energy than making aluminum from virgin ore, and making paper and boxes from recycled cardboard, newspaper and office paper requires less energy than starting with wood chips. Support recycling by buying products made from recycled materials. And don’t forget to recycle your unbroken compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) at Lowe’s and Home Depot.

Paperless Billing: The roughly 200,300 paper bills that Jackson EMC mails each year use 67,300 pounds of paper, the equivalent of 4.8 acres of trees, and produces more than 3,800 household garbage bags of paper waste, according to the Pay it Green Alliance Footprint Calculator. If we can add just 3,000 paperless accounts to the nearly 6,000 accounts already on paperless billing, we’ll reduce that footprint by 3,028 pounds of paper, or 9,423 square feet of trees and 172 household garbage bags of paper waste. To sign up for paperless billing, visit www.jacksonemc.com.