In our Green Yoga Studios project, we encourage studio owners to adopt an element as they think about their business practices.  When you adopt a planetary gift you will develop a relationship with the air, trees, water, or whatever your choosen adoptee is.  Here are some examples of things you will learn about your adoptee and how smart habits will help care for the planet.  Examples below include water, trees, and energy from fossil fuels.

WATER
Why water usage matters
- 3% of earth’s water is freshwater
- Water usage consumes energy.  For example, in California, water treatment consumes 19% of electricity, 30% of natural gas, and 88 billion gallons of diesel fuel.

Smart Water Habits: 
Fix leaks:
- 13.7% of water usage is wasted by leaks
- A running toilet can waste 2 gallons per minute
- A drip can waste 3 gallon of water/ day (average of 50 cents per month)

Reduce flow:
- Install Low-flow Aerators for a savings of 10-13% in daily usage
- Convert standard toilet to low-glow for a savings of up to 5 gallons per flush.  The standard toilet can use up to 7 gallons per flush. 

Keep toxins out of the waste water:
- Use nontoxic cleaning products

TREES
One tree can absorb up to one ton of CO2 in its lifetime.  One airline flight of 5,000 miles emits about the same amount.

Smart Tree Habits:
Create a tree-friendly environment:
- Reduce usage.  About 1/3 of waste is paper. 
- Promote online  and with e-news
- Print on both sides of the paper
- Create scratch pads from used paper
- Reduce junk mail
- Use  bleach-free paper made with highest post-consumer waste content or use hemp of alternative-source-paper.
- Recycle paper.  Amount of energy used to recycle is much less than working with virgin materials, or a range of 28 to 70 percent less.

ENERGY
Buildings contribute to energy loss, estimated to be up to twice of that of car emissions.  Up to 40% of energy loss in average studio is in heating and cooling.
We don’t see the pollution when we use electricity.  Traditional sources for electricity are coal, nuclear plants, natural gas, and petroleum


Smart  Energy Habits: 
Reduce lighting usage. 
Lighting burns an average of 25% of annual electricity usage.
-Turn off the lights
-Switch the bulbs:  energy savings bulbs use 50-80 % less energy of normal
bulbs and last up to ten times longer, and over its lifetime keeps ½ ton of
CO2 from atmosphere.  (not all are compatible with dimmers or timers or
useful for spotlighting; look for lowest mercury content;  LEDs (light
emitting diodes) bulbs are mercury free)

Stop electricity leaks: 
6-16% of annual electricity usage is wasted in standby energy use (those little red and green lights, ticking of clocks, humming of electronics while equipment and appliances go unused).
- Use a smart power strip or unplug electronic equipment not in use.  Group appliance on eco-saver surge protector strips.  Computer printers draw an average of 11.5 watts when idle. A computer and monitor can use 28 watts in sleep mode.

Conserve heating usage:
Heating is up to 30% of electricity bill in colder winter climates
- Turn the heat down or off at night
- Heat only the room(s) your using
- Caulk and weatherstrip windows and doorframes
- Set the thermostat at 68 degrees or lower (78 degrees or higher for air conditioning).  For every degree, there is an average of  5% less usage

Buy green energy, install energy star equipment

Switch to solar or wind power