By Sunidhi Gupta 
Nowadays there is a lot of coverage by the media to raise awareness about our duty to maintain and safeguard the planet, as well as ourselves while we are here. Green homes is something that many are told to invest in, but where do you start?
The easiest and most obvious thing to do if you are trying to ‘do your part’ to look after the Earth is to start recycling your household waste. This means using the designated bins for food stuffs, recyclables like plastic and paper. You may be interested to know that there are also garden bins that mean you can get rid of your weekend’s work without having to burn the leaves and branches, causing harmful smoke to be released into the air.
Rather than burning and destroying plant life in your garden, you could look into promoting its presence around your home. For instance, sedum roof planting is becoming more and more popular amongst environmentalists and nature enthusiasts – this is when you have plants on your roof. They are environmentally friendly and can act as a water retaining drainage layer. Many places offer the seeds or fully grown plants ready to purchase for this purpose.
Another way of going green is to christmas tree hire. This is already popular in many offices but you can look into getting it at home as well. Christmas tree hire means that there is no hassle, so you are free to spend your time shopping, wrapping gifts and being with family, rather than having to clear up any fallen needles or having to saw the trunk so that it fits in the living room!
It can also mean that you don’t need to decorate the tree. For some this is a real chore and, if you are not likely to be home much over christmas, then having a fake tree is a much more practical and cost effective plan.