When shopping for a new car, there are lots of options to consider when finding the most fuel-efficient vehicle. One of those choices is the exterior color of your car. A study by the Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division looked at two identical cars in different colors. One was a lighter silver shade, and the other one was black. When sitting in the hot sun, the lighter car used 13 percent less energy to cool down in comparison to the black vehicle. Overall, a lighter color car -- silver or white -- saves on average about 2 percent in gas and helps extend the life of your battery, too.

We all know that using deicing salt on sidewalks and driveways helps melt winter's mess and make these surfaces safer to walk and drive on, but it comes at a price. Sodium chloride, when it melts the ice, turns into a liquid mixture that ends up in our rivers, creeks, lakes and other waterways. This salt can change aquatic habitats and create dead zones, killing fish and amphibians. While there is no real eco-friendly solution to deicing salt, what you can do is use less of it. Try mixing salt with sand, and spread that 50-50 mixture instead. It will help melt the ice, and the sand will provide traction where you need it.

Today, many retail stores are making an effort to recycle as much waste as possible behind the scenes for two reasons: to help protect the environment and to save money, too. So hard-to-recycle things like paperboard boxes, plastic hangers and film wrap get diverted from dumpsters. Next time you're buying something at a store, leave the packaging at the counter, and ask the checkout person if he or she will recycle it. There is no guarantee that it'll actually happen, but given the growth of commercial recycling at stores, the likelihood is high.