So, we can all agree that less is more [www.sundancechannel.com], right? It is — we’ve got some more high-level examples below — except, when it isn’t. What?

1) Okay, first of all, we’d encourage you to keep this in mind [www.treehugger.com]: “The key to sustainability is simply to use less, and the key to happily using less is to design things better.” Example? The notebook computer did not develop as a green replacement for a desktop, yet there is no question that it has a smaller physical and ecological footprint — it is greener by design, and now customers are demanding greener manufacture.
2) Given this info, we decided that when it comes to cars for TreeHuggers, less is definitely more [www.treehugger.com].
3) When it comes to melon-scratchers, here’s a honey of a doodle: which is better — a hybrid vs. a small, compact, super-efficient conventional car. You might be surprised at which less is more [www.treehugger.com] in the Toyota Prius hybrid vs. Toyota Yaris smackdown.

4) TreeHugger is fond of using the networking power of the internet to help people connect and share their stuff; Switchplanet [www.treehugger.com] is
a good example of this model. It’s fast, easy, cheaper than buying and more sustainable than collecting huge amounts of stuff that only gets used once in a blue moon.
5) For homes, we turn again to our pals at Apartment Therapy, who completed a 250 square-foot apartment renovation in preparation for a baby and blogged the whole thing. Believe us; 250 square feet never looked so good [www.treehugger.com], so livable and so TreeHugger, down to the bamboo kitchen and rope insulation.
6) We opined that participating in Buy Nothing Day — a TreeHugger’s version of “Black Friday,” right after Thanksgiving — doesn’t have to mean living with less [www.treehugger.com].

7) There are occasions when more is better than less. An example: the glut of alternative energy-powered web-hosting [www.treehugger.com] options out there.
Another good example: more hybrid taxis [www.treehugger.com] are on their way to New York City; in fact, the city’s taxis will be 100% hybrid by 2012.

It’s easy for people like us TreeHuggers to sit back and say, “Follow our advice; be greener; it’s better.” We have good reasons for saying so — things like using less energy, reducing greenhouse gas output and lowering our individual and collective ecological footprint — but those are sometimes difficult to contextualize and put into practice in a meaningful, everyday sort of way. Let’s take a look, then, at some context for what we’re talking about, as we look at home energy use, by the numbers.

It’s easy to forget that the appliances and systems in our homes have two price tags: one on display at the store, and one in our energy bill every month. It’s also easy to forget that the second one really adds up over time, and that buying the cheaper product (at the point of sale) may end up costing you more over its lifespan in utility bills (not to mention the increase carbon footprint it has from hogging all that extra energy). The US Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program and accompanying label is an easy, effective way to cut back on this phenomenon; in case you don’t believe us; here are some of the numbers.

$1,900 per year — the amount the average home spends in energy costs.
$110 per year — the amount that using an Energy Star clothes washer can save you.
18-25 gallons — the amount, in water, that most Energy Star clothes washers uses per cycle.
40 gallons — the amount, in water, that an average conventional washer uses per cycle.
$30 per year — the amount you can save by replacing a dishwasher manufactured before 1994 with an Energy Star qualified dishwasher.
$90 — the amount, over its lifetime, that using an Energy Star dishwasher will save you by using less hot water.
Four months — the amount of time you could light an average house with the energy saved by replacing a refrigerator bought in 1990. Check out Energy Star’s Refrigerator Retirement Savings Calculator [www.energystar.gov] to get more numbers.
$25 per year — the amount you can save by replacing a 10 year-old room air conditioner (those that go in the window, usually) with an Energy Star model.
40% — the amount of all electricity used to power home electronics that is consumed while the products are turned off (there’s that pesky phantom power [www.sundancechannel.com] again).
17 power plants[/url] — the equivalent output that this wasted energy equals each year across the US.
[b]Seven — the average number of home electronics — 2 TVs, a VCR, DVD player and 3 telephones — in US homes.
25 billion pounds — the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that would be saved if these items were replaced by Energy Star models.
3 million cars — the equivalent, in greenhouse gas emissions, that the above action would take off the road.
1.7 million acres — the equivalent amount of new trees planted that would result from just one in 10 homes using Energy Star-qualified products.

We could go on and on, but we hope you’re starting to get the idea. Look for the yellow guide above to help you when shopping and doing the math for replacement costs (old ones will have much higher numbers than new ones, and remember: little changes really can make a really big difference, when you start adding a few of them up. And you don’t even have to do it because you care about the planet; you can do it because you’re tired of wasting money. Either way, you’ll be more (and have more) green.

TreeHugger is often asked variations of what we know as the “million dollar question”: “If there was one thing I could do to save the planet today, what would that be?” While our answers tend to skew toward something along the lines of “change your lightbulbs [www.sundancechannel.com]“, when it really comes down to it, nothing shrinks your ecological footprint like shrinking the footprint of your home. As such, since we’ve been talking about big ideas this week, we’ll take a look at what would be a big change for most of us: living in a prefab trailer or other “smaller” home.

While some folks might blanche at the idea of cramming all their stuff into 250 or 300 square feet (or less), we’ve seen a handful of dwellings that can do the same job as a house three or four times it’s size. The Sustain MiniHome [www.sustain.ca] (above, left; we covered it here [www.treehugger.com] and here [www.treehugger.com] at TreeHugger) is one of the most thoughtful, green, complete home designs at 350 square feet. Several climate-specific variants of the miniHome are available to be adapted to the extremes of southern, ocean and even arctic climates and can be further optimized by orientation, glazing and shading options to take full advantage of the “natural assets” (like passive solar radiation) of each site. m-house [www.m-house.org] (above, right; covered here [www.treehugger.com] on TreeHugger) is another great example of living in a sleek, efficient, green house that happens to be a trailer. At just over 1000 square feet, it’s “big” for the movement, but boasts two bedrooms to complement the open floor plan that encompasses the kitchen/dining/living area, and might just be enough space to house a small, green-living family.

As odd as the idea might seem, it’s been gaining steam for awhile, and is making progress thanks to some creative media coverage. Our friends at Apartment Therapy are smack dab in the middle of their annual Smallest Coolest Apartments [www.apartmenttherapy.com] contest; inspired by some of the tiny spaces that folks cram themselves into in New York City, the contest is just what it sounds like. They look for the most thoughtfully designed, efficient and beautiful apartments and homes around the world, and there’s just one catch: 650 square feet or less. The idea has even caught on at the New York Times, who recently took a closer look [travel.nytimes.com] at a really small house: one of the 120 square foot homes manufactured by Modern Cabana [www.moderncabana.com], pictured above (on the right). You don’t even need your own land for some of these; LoftCube [www.loftcube.net], a German company (above, at left, covered here [www.treehugger.com] on TreeHugger), builds prefab “lofts” that are designed to go on the roofs of skyscraping downtown buildings. Sort of gives new meaning to “the sky’s the limit,” but when it comes to big ideas of living small, we can think of no better moniker.