According to National Geographic, 26% of the pure water in the average home is flushed down the toilet.  This percentage may be even greater if your toilet is old or leaky.

If your toilet is from 1992 or earlier, you probably have an inefficient model that uses at least 3.5 gallons per flush. Models that are WaterSense labeled use less than 1.28 gpf. Compared to a 3.5 gpf toilet, a WaterSense labeled toilet could save a family of four more than $90 annually on their water bill, and $2,000 over the lifetime of the toilet.

If replacing your toilet is not an option, you can displace excess water in your toilet tank to save water with every flush. You can make your toilet behave like a low-flow toilet by placing a brick, or (water-filled) half-gallon plastic milk jug, at the base of your toilet tank. The volume of the brick (or jug) will reduce the volume of water that is needed to fill the tank. The Toilet Tummy^TM, which is available for about $4, is a toilet tank displacement bag that functions on the same principle.

Monday morning: the office is freezing, again. Hot-Natured Hannah strikes again—turning the thermostat down to 65°F while everybody else catches pneumonia. After lunch, your desk area is burning up. Always-Cold Cory took the liberty of turning the heat up to 78°F while you were out.

You’d complain, but comfort is relative—who are you to say what temperature the office should be normally?

Fortunately for you, engineers with ASHRAE (the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers) have said it. Based on tests of human comfort in different temperatures and humidity levels, they prescribe the “Human Comfort Zone” as a range of indoor temperature and relative humidity where human beings are typically comfortable.

The official word on comfort: wearing “normal” amounts of clothing, people are most comfortable around 69°F in the winter and around 74°F in the summer, at about 70% relative humidity. That means you, Sweater Stan—if you don’t need one outside, you shouldn’t inside either.

If Hannah, Stan and Cory remain skeptical, appeal to your business’s financial comfort zone: keeping temperatures in a moderate range, between 69°F and 74°F, adds up in savings over extreme cold or hot. Your boss will feel more comfortable, in any case—which probably means you will too!

Quick Facts:

1. Set your thermostat to 69°F, and then dress appropriately.

2. Still not your preferred temperature?  Try some hot (or iced) tea!

The scale of our energy challenge can be overwhelming. In his TED2010 talk “Innovating to Zero,” Bill Gates discusses current energy and climate issues, insisting that temp

eratureswill continue to rise until our carbon emissions get close to zero.  In his speech, Gates claims we need energy miracles to discover technology  with zero carbon emissions in order to avoid the destructive and deadly consequences of climate change. Our concern is global and our timeline is tight.

Our energy challenge can seem so daunting that it can be difficult to know where to start. What can you do? Do one thing. One thing at a time.  Carpool to work three days a week. Configure your monitor to power-save mode. Shorten your shower time by one minute. Whatever it is you choose, pick one thing and stick with it until it becomes common practice.

The Do One Thing (DOT) campaign has empowered millions of people to choose one action to help create a sustainable future for the environment. To date, over 32 million people have pledged to Do One Thing for the planet. Click here to join them!

Your one action alone may seem futile against the magnitude of our energy challenge. But together, if we connect the DOTs, we can achieve significant energy savings.