We’ve all been told that it’s important to “be green,” but most people don’t realize how easy this truly is. It’s also difficult for high schoolers because a lot of the suggestions can be expensive, and most of us cannot afford to install solar panels into our houses, or electric cars. So here’s 12 easy ways for you, as a high schooler to help the earth.

1. Don’t speed when driving your car. When you accelerate quickly, speed, or stop abruptly, it causes your vehicle to use more gasoline. So really, not only should you not speed because it helps the environment, but it also saves you money as well.
2. Carpool with friends or take the bus. When you share transportation with others, then you aren’t emitting as much waste into our atmosphere.
3. Turn off the lights when you leave a room to save electricity. You can also purchase automatic light switches so that this isn’t an issue.
4. Turn down the thermostat. Put on an extra layer and help those polar bears out.
5. Try to eat no beef or livestock products, and if you do, buy locally. Livestock, specifically cows, emit methane, which is one of the largest contributing greenhouse gases. 1 pound of methane is equivalent to 21 pounds of carbon dioxide.
6. Finish that plate of food. Food that you toss not only is a waste, but as it sits in the landfill and rots, it also produces greenhouse gases.
7. Take shorter showers, try not to wash your car, basically just use the least amount of water that you can. While we aren’t in the middle of a big drought like California, it is still crucial that we conserve. Only 0.37% of the water on earth is actually accessible to the human population, so make sure that you don’t take advantage of it.
8. Don’t buy products that contain Palm Oil. Palm Oil plants are usually found in the Indonesian Rainforest which is the only place on earth where tigers, elephants, rhinos, and orangutans live together, and these plants are created illegally by burning down habitat.
9. Turn off your electronics completely when you aren’t using them. While you’re at school all day, you aren’t going to be using your desktop computer or TV at home, so shut it down completely to save energy.
10. Eat grass-fed beef. Grass fed beef produces less methane than others because these cows are eating grass instead of corn, which is harder on their digestive systems and hurts our atmosphere more if you know what I mean.
11. Use reusable lunch bags. Yes, they are more expensive than paper or plastic ones, but they make it’s also nice to not have to worry about running out, and they don’t contribute to landfills.
12. Recycle old Homework assignments and papers. You can take this a step further by encouraging all of your teachers to place recycle bins in their classrooms, so that other students have the options of disposing of papers correctly.