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Becoming a ‘greener’ nation has evolved from an idea to a trend to an almost inescapable aspect of daily living in America — and much of it starts right at home. Whether to fatten your wallet or save the environment, there are a number of initiatives you can implement almost immediately and some without any initial investment, allowing you to feel the savings right away.

On Aug. 4, the Village of Orland Park introduced a community-wide green initiative called Smart Living Orland Park, encouraging residents to be green, while also providing them the resources and tools to do so.At the low-cost end of things, swapping traditional bulbs for CFLs reduces costs on two levels. One, CFLs use 75 percent less energy than typical bulbs and two, they can last up to ten times as long. Replacing a 60-watt incandescent bulb with a 13-watt ENERGY STAR-qualified equivalent CFL could save you, on average, $30 over the life of the bulb, according to Smart Living Orland Park. Other tips include adding insulation to your attic and installing weather stripping on windows and doors.

Although replacing appliances and lighting with more efficient models can be done for a low cost, much can be done for no-cost at all, and accomplished in a matter of minutes. Most people know that turning off lights and lowering the thermostat at night saves money, but so does turning off appliances (reducing the heat they give off) and moving appliances away from the thermostat, so their heat does not effect it’s temperature reading. Other no-cost ideas from the village include cleaning your refrigerator coils and closing the door and vents to rooms that don’t require heat or air conditioning.  Improving your homes efficiency not only reduces your negative impact on the environment. Because they provide cost-cutting measures without compromising the look of the home, or requiring a large initial investment, green initiatives in the home are a quick and easy method of home improvement.