There are a number of finite resources out there that we crucially need to conserve. If you conserve natural resources, you will likely save money. Here are 5 tips on how to conserve natural resources, which should help you save additional cash. 

Conserve Natural Resources: Three Pillars to Save Earth and Money

I wanted to write a piece about conserving our natural resources while saving money. I’m a firm believer that we all need to do a better job of consuming less and conserving more. You can save money using cashback apps, but more importantly you can save more from consuming less.

The saving money part is just an extension of it all. This is why I believe in impact investing like with Swell Investing.

You can read my Swell Investing review for more information.

Conserving natural resources is another reason why I did a review of Wunder Capital. Wunder has helped spur investment in solar for communities and commercial businesses. You can read the Wunder Capital review to learn more about the platform.

Saving extra money than what you budgeted is a great way to exceed your personal financial planning goals.

There are so many ways to conserve natural resources. I wanted to highlight the most important and lowest hanging fruit ones for you to start doing your part in preserving our earth.

I don’t care about your political stance. Our earth has been through some significant wear and tear over the years and it has only gotten exponentially worse with recent technological advancements.

We all need to do our part in preserving this beautiful place we all call… Home. It doesn’t matter if you are at home or traveling sustainably. We all need to do a better job.

Why Conserving Our Natural Resources is Important

Natural resources are materials that exist in our environment without ever being made by man, and they make our lives comfortable. Human beings have the sole responsibility of looking after them. We need to find ways to conserve natural resources as well as to make the environment favorable and sustainable for living things.

Natural resources occur naturally without the interference or any input from man, and they are like a gift from nature. These resources are available on the surface of the earth, in the atmosphere, and on the earth’s crust.

Natural resources include air, sunlight, water, land, minerals, and forests. Some resources are depleting, and therefore they need to be used with care to avoid exhaustion.

Human beings need to conserve natural resources by taking care of the natural environment and reasonably using nature’s gifts well to ensure there is balance in nature and to avoid depletion of natural resources.

How Conserving Natural Resources Saves Money

Using natural resources in an efficient manner can also help us save money on energy by using alternative sources of energy in our day to day lives.

We need to continually think about our future and the impact it will have on others. By conserving natural resources such as oil, water, etc. you will naturally end up saving money. Switch to other forms of activity that don’t require consumption.

Think about conserving natural resources and saving money on energy like an investment. A CFO will always do an ROI analysis on new equipment or investing in a process that will save time. The same goes for conserving energy.

If you invest some money upfront, what will your return on investment look like from the savings? Some methods you can reduce consumption to preserve natural resources or you can switch to alternative technologies that rely on zero consumption of natural resources.

There is the other way to save money from conserving natural resources. That is simply just reducing your consumption of a particular resource. For us to save the earth, we simply need to all do our part to consume less and give back more. If you practice minimalist living, you will naturally consume less.

There are three pillars to a successful way to preserve the earth and save money.

1. Save on energy and power
2. Reduce unnecessary food consumption and save on food
3. Save on water

You can actually invest in conserving natural resources too if that’s your thing. Imagine saving money on energy and also making money off it… These are several ways to invest for impact.

Pillar One: Save on Energy

My favorite ways to conserve natural resources include a number of different forms of saving natural resources including energy, consumption, power and more.

Conserving our natural resources is crucial for our future family members and other animals that we gladly share this planet with.

This is the hardest one to have complete control over because it often requires an upfront investment or you simply don’t have the optionality to consume a particular energy resource.

5 Proven Ways to Save on Energy

Let’s get into my favorite ways to save on energy to conserve natural resources. Here are several ways to save on energy and save money:

1. Use solar energy

Solar energy is an alternative and cheap source of renewable energy that you can use in your home. It will not only bring down your electricity bills, but it will also reduce the amount of pollution caused by electricity plants in our environment and in even in human health.

It is a good source of energy that we can use and help conserve natural resource.

You can use solar energy in a couple of ways:

• 1) conduct an analysis of the cost/benefit of installing solar panels on your home. There are plenty of firms and calculators out there that you can use to evaluate if you will achieve a savings rate of return or not.
• 2) Participate in community solar if available in your area. In Minnesota, Xcel Energy offers a community solar program that allows for you to elect into a solar garden and you receive a discount off your bill. The solar facility isn’t even close to your house, but

You can actually buy solar panels in more places than you think. Costs for solar panels have decreased significantly over the last few years, which makes it much more economical to have them installed at your home.

Try to find a way to get involved in solar power in some way. You can conserve natural resources by relying on the sun for energy.

The sun is anticipated to keep going for the next few hundred million years, so we should be okay there. I don’t think the same can be said for water, oil and other natural resources.

2. Consume energy efficiently

This is one of the most straightforward ways to save on energy. You simply just need to position yourself to use products efficiently and timely. Do you need the lights on all day every day? Probably not.

If we can strive for energy efficiency that means we reduce the amount of energy use in our homes and our daily lives, then we can conserve natural resources and save on energy costs.

Here are a few ways on how to conserve energy by becoming energy efficient in our homes:

• We can insulate our houses to reduce heat loss,
• Switch off electronics when not in use. You can actually do this through Smart Outlets. I loved mine for when I am out of town or want to ensure I have my lights off at the right times,
• Replace regular bulbs with energy efficient ones (I love these Sylvania energy-efficient lightbulbs), and
• Open windows instead of turning on the AC among others energy-saving ways.

Sometimes your local utility company will have an energy efficiency squad that will come out and prepare your house to be more energy efficient.

I did with Xcel Energy (Home Energy Squad) for $100 and they pointed out my key contributors for energy consumption and replaced all of our light bulbs with energy efficient ones. I love how forward thinking Xcel Energy has been with energy and power.

3. Use less fuel or consider an electric vehicle

Changing your driving and fuel consumption habits can have a significant impact on your spending and also help conserve the environment. The carbon emissions from the cars cause a considerable level of pollution in the atmosphere. Thus using your vehicle less time will result in less air pollution and even better, it will save you thousands of dollars.

Some of the alternative ways to commute are using public transport, car-pooling or even walking the short distances.

Other ways to reduce pollution is switching off your engine while idling for long, using regular fuel instead of premium, and using the cars AC only when need be among others. You need to evaluate convenience versus hassle with this method without a doubt.

4. Cultivate hydro-power and biogas energy

Hydropower is generated from water whereby water is used to turn turbines which in turn produce hydro-electricity. Using this kind of power can help reduce the use of natural gas in our homes and hence helps conserve natural resources.

It can also help save on energy costs and the use of other sources of energy like nuclear energy which may have a negative impact on the ozone layer.

Biogas is another cost-effective way of generating power for cooking. It is produced from wastes products and thus helps reduce air pollution and usage of other energy sources from natural resources like coal.

Using hydropower and biogas energy is therefore among the best ways to conserve natural resources.

You can’t simply just elect to only consume hydro-power. However, you can do what you can to produce energy if you live on a river or lake. This is actually doable.

I applaud people that live completely off the grid. Consider doing a homestead land analysis to evaluate the feasibility of living off the grid.

For biogas, if you live on a farm, you can use anaerobic digestors for power. This essentially takes biomass from cows to produce energy. This is very common in Europe. Cows actually produce significant greenhouse gases through methane production. This is a great way to consume that methane and process it into power.

5. Reduce the usage of hot water

Since hot water is used to power most homes and keep them warm, it forms a considerable expense in the energy bill and hence reducing its usage can significantly save on energy costs. I can certainly get to water later on. For this, I’m am solely covering how to save on hot water. In order to heat water, you typically consume a large amount of natural gas.

Some of the ways to reduce hot water usage are:

• Take shorter showers. It’s that simple,
• Use cold water to wash clothes (this can save you hundreds of dollars in a year),
• Insulate the first few feet of the water pipes connected to the water heater,
• Lower the temperature on your water heater to 120°F or less; for every 10ºF reduction in temperature, you can save from 3%–5% on your water heating costs,
• Replace your appliances with energy-efficient appliances (make sure all of your appliances have the Energy Star certification), and
• Fix leaking faucets among others; a faucet that is running with hot water that leaks extra water than what you need adds up significantly over time.

Things like bottled water can add up in cost too. Stick to filtered water and storage containers for your water.

Consider Other Energy Efficient Appliances

Make your home run efficiently and smoothly. Start saving money on energy costs instantly. Who doesn’t love saving on energy?

Pillar Two: Save on Food

You can save on food through a number of different ways to save earth. In order to save food, you have the most control over this objective. As opposed to saving on energy, you can simply reduce or control the way that you consume your food.

I’m greatly concerned about how we will rely on the consumption of food going forward. We are running out of land and population growth continues at an alarming rate. I’ve been pretty bullish on the prospects for vertical farming.

Nearly all food waste ends up in landfills where it decomposes and releases methane. Methane is a form of climate pollution that is up to 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Did you know food is the single largest contributor to U.S. landfills today? All this while one in eight Americans don’t have a steady supply of food to their tables.

3 Proven Ways to Save on Food

Here is a list of three of my favorite ways to save on food. I already covered on how to calculate and optimize household costs. However, here are some ways to conserve the earth.

1. Store your food effectively

Storing your food is critical to conserving food. Meats and fish need to get into the refrigerator as fast as possible. The colder the spot they are in, the longer they keep. This is particularly true of shellfish, minced meat, raw fish, etc. Use a thermometer to figure out where the coldest spot is in your refrigerator.

Households throw away more fruits and vegetables than any other food. Handle your fruits and vegetables carefully as they can simply spoil just from placing them the wrong way. I always opt to buy less produce rather than too much. I’m okay making a stop to get the freshest produce each day.

2. Become a meal plan pro

If you want to become a meal planning professional, you need to set out a few recipes that fit to the remaining foods left in your kitchen. Think of your food like a puzzle that you need to figure out the essential foods to fit for your meals for the week.

It is a proven strategy that if you plan out your meals you are likely to conserve more and eat your meals without having leftovers.

3. Turn food scraps into cleaning material

Yes, this is possible.  It’s called Garbage enzyme (get to know it). Garbage enzyme is a multipurpose liquid cleaner made from food scraps that have fermented in sugar and water for three months. This enzyme liquid cleaner can keep insects away, purify the air and is a natural alternative to detergent.

Food Related Saving Products

Saving food is one of my favorite things to do to save money easily. I only buy food that I know that I will use. Consider these food saving related products to save money and save earth.

Pillar Three: Save on Water

Saving water is crucial. Like food, water is a finite resource of ours. While there have been new technologies that have helped filter water for reuse and other applications, we all need to do a better job of reducing water consumption.

We simply can’t live without water. Here are several ways to save water and thus, save earth. The benefits of water conservation include:

• Helpful for the environment
• 97% of all water on the earth is not suitable for drinking and of the 3% fresh water on earth… only 1% is available for drinking
• If you conserve water, you minimize the effects on water shortages
• By conserving water and reducing consumption, you save and maintain your water infrastructure from strain

5 Proven Ways to Save Water

There are plenty of ways to save water I love this one because you can simply start saving water without much additional work or inconvenience to your time. Here are some proven tips to save water.

1. Take a short shower
2. Install a water butt
3. Fill up a jug with tap water for your fridge and use this for drinking water; only fill up your cup with what you intend to drink
4. Install water-efficiency related products around your house
5. TURN OFF THE TAP WHEN YOU BRUSH YOUR TEETH… AND SHAVE

Water Efficiency Related Products

Do you part in conserving water by installing these water efficiency related products in your house. By conserving water consumption, you save money instantly. What is not to love about that?

Conclusion on Conserving Natural Resources

The above three pillars to save the earth and save money are core to what we need to do as individuals to ensure our planet is healthy going forward. We’ve already done enough damage to it.

These three pillars are fantastic because they help you save money, but also ensure that you are doing your part to make the world a better place to live. Need help finding the exact products? Use one best energy saving products for your home.

What if you could live a lifestyle completely isolated from consumption? Well, you can. Start investing in technologies that allow for your to live completely sustainable as a standalone entity. The distributed, decentralized economy is here. Imagine a lifestyle in retirement that had zero reliance on natural resources.

We can get there. We will get there.

Conserving natural resources can help us protect the environment while saving on energy, food and water costs. Our natural resources are finite. We continue to use advanced technologies to find more of these depleted resources, which is damaging our planet.

We need to think not just for the future, but also for the ethics of how we treat our habitat. Don’t be a consumer and opt for leaving a clean, renewable and sustainable lifestyle. This can really help your personal financial plan.

What natural resources would you like to conserve? Are you conserving natural resources now? Please let me know in the comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

Related Personal Finance Resources:

• These 26+ apps will pay you real money for using or signing up for them
• The best cashback apps to use for routing spending
• Do you really need to buy a home warranty plan?

Millionaire Mob is an early retirement blog focused on passive income, personal finance, dividend growth investing and travel hacking. With both a million rewards points and a million dollar net worth you can live a happier lifestyle.

Subscribe to the Millionaire Mob early retirement blog newsletter to find the best dividend growth stocks and more. Achieve the financially free lifestyle you’ve always wanted.

Join our community of over 3,000 mobsters seeking financial freedom. What are you waiting for?

Escalate Your Life.