By Oliver George, a writer for the IBuyhouses.com – the fastest way to sell your house

With the rapid development in the different parts of the world, climate change is becoming inevitable. But if we can just make some few changes at home, then we can help prevent or reduce the pace of the change. The adjustments you will do at home can lead into big reductions of greenhouse gas emissions as well as more savings. Below are simple actions that can take around the house and yard to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:

1. Change House Lights

Replacing the incandescent bulbs in your most frequently used light fixtures with bulbs that have the ENERGY STAR or with Compact Fluorescent Lamps. This can help give you savings in your house’s energy or electric consumption. This can also translate to lesser resources used in the generation of electricity. If every household in the U.S. took this one simple action we would prevent greenhouse gases equivalent.

2. Home Appliances with ENERGY STAR

When buying new products, such as appliances for your home, get the features and performance you want and make sure that it is energy efficient to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Look for ENERGY STAR qualified products in more than 50 product categories, including lighting, home electronics, heating and cooling equipment and appliances.

3. Home’s Efficient Heat and Cool System

There are simple steps that you can do to make the heating and cooling more efficient like cleaning air filters regularly and having your heating and cooling equipment tuned annually by a licensed contractor. This can save energy and increase comfort at home, and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. When it's time to replace your old equipment, choose a high efficiency model, and make sure it is properly sized and installed.

4. Seal and insulate your home

Sealing air leaks and adding more insulation to your home is a great do-it-yourself project. The biggest leaks are usually found in the attic and basement. If you are planning to replace windows, choose ENERGY STAR qualified windows for better performance. Forced air ducts that run through unconditioned spaces are often big energy wasters. Seal and insulate any ducts in attics and crawlspaces to improve the efficiency of your home. Not sure where to begin? A home energy auditor can also help you find air leaks, areas with poor insulation, and evaluate the over-all energy efficiency of your home. By taking these steps, you can eliminate drafts, keep your home more comfortable year round, save energy that would otherwise be wasted, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

5. Use green power

Green power is environmentally friendly electricity that is generated from renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun. There are two ways to use green power: you can buy green power or you can modify your house to generate your own green power. Buying green power is easy, it offers a number of environmental and economic benefits over conventional electricity, including lower greenhouse gas emissions, and it helps increase clean energy supply. If you are interested, there are a number of steps you can take to create a greener home, including installing solar panels and researching incentives for renewable energy in your state.

6. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

If there is a recycling program in your community, recycle your newspapers, beverage containers, paper and other goods. Use products in containers that can be recycled and items that can be repaired or reused. In addition, support recycling markets by buying products made from recycled materials. Reducing, reusing, and recycling in your home helps conserve energy and reduces pollution and greenhouse gases from resource extraction, manufacturing, and disposal.

7. Be green in your yard

Use a push mower, which, unlike a gas or electric mower, consumes no fossil fuels and emits no greenhouse gases. If you do use a power mower, make sure it is a mulching mower to reduce grass clippings. Composting your food and yard waste reduces the amount of garbage that you send to landfills and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

8. Use water efficiently

Saving water around the home is simple. Community water systems require a lot of energy to purify and distribute water to households, and saving water, especially hot water, can lower greenhouse gas emissions. There are also simple actions you can take to save water: Be smart when irrigating your lawn or landscape; only water when needed and do it during the coolest part of the day, early morning is best. Turn the water off while shaving or brushing teeth. Do not use your toilet as a waste basket - water is wasted with each flush. And did you know a leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons of water per day? Repair all toilet and faucet leaks right away.

9. Be a Model Home and Spread the Word

Tell family and friends that energy efficiency is good for their homes and good for the environment because it lowers greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.