Apartment Hunters Reducing Their Carbon Footprint by Recycling and Conserving at Home

RISMEDIA, April 21, 2010—Apartment seekers care about the environment and are turning toward “greener” lifestyles at their apartment communities. To celebrate Earth Day on April 22, 2010, Apartments.com surveyed more than 1,400 of its website visitors across the country to reveal whether or not the environment impacts how and where they choose to live. According to the survey results, 88% of respondents said the environment is an important issue, which is evident in the way they live and even search for and select an apartment.

Apartment dwellers are practicing what they preach when it comes to aligning their passion for the environment with the way they conduct their daily lives. The majority of Apartments.com visitors said they are doing their part to reduce their carbon footprints and ranked the top five ways they are going “green” in their apartments:

-Turning off lights, computers and appliances when not in use (83.9%)
-Running the dishwasher only with a full load (72.2%)
-Recycling paper, plastic, glass, etc. (71.6%)
-Using energy-efficient light bulbs (70.2%)
-Purchasing “green” products (53.3%)

While protecting the environment may inspire apartment hunters to live sustainably, it does not dictate where they choose to live. In fact, 24% of survey respondents said they would rent an apartment that did not offer “green” amenities or programs and 58% are on the fence.

That said, the majority of respondents want to live in an apartment community that caters to their environmentally-friendly lifestyle. In fact, 89% of respondents said they would prefer to live at a “green” apartment community and more than 25% would pay more in rent to save money on energy costs.

Whether or not apartment hunters are willing to pay more to live at a “green” apartment, they are still searching for environmentally-friendly amenities and features during their apartment search, including energy-efficient windows and appliances, non-toxic paint, recycling programs and automated processes for paying rent, renewing a lease and placing maintenance requests.

The following tips from Apartments.com can help environmentally-friendly renters looking for additional ways to live a little “greener” in their apartment.

Close vents when not in use. Whether it’s summer or winter, closing up vents in rooms that you don’t spend a lot of time in is a smart way to cut back on electric costs. Why heat or cool a room that no one is in? Keep the door to the room that you’re not heating or cooling closed. Closing up vents in rooms that you don’t spend a lot of time in is a smart way to cut back on electric costs.

Use power strips to avoid phantom load. A phantom load is the energy sapped by appliances when they are plugged in but not turned on–accounting for 40% of the energy bill in the average home. Plug your appliances into power strips to turn off your TV, DVD, stereo and cell phone charger in one fell swoop. If 10,000 people plug their cable boxes into power strips that are turned off when they are not watching TV, we’ll save about $300,000 per year.

Purify the air. No, we’re not talking about plugging in those noisy and energy-sucking air purifiers. Instead get the right plants to do the dirty work naturally. One plant for every 10 square yards ought to do the trick. If 10,000 people unplugged their 24-hour electric air purifiers in favor of air-filtering plants, you could power a 29-story office building for a month.

Hang it out to dry. Drying your freshly washed clothes on high heat not only uses a lot of energy, but it also drives the temperature in your apartment up, triggering the AC to work even harder during the summer. Shift your laundry routine to hanging your clothes out to dry on a clothing line or drying rack. Air drying your laundry conserves energy and saves money while eliminating static cling. Don’t have a yard or a drying rack? Hang your garments from the shower rod.

For more information, visit www.apartments.com.