Tools, tips and strategies that'll save you a few bucks--and help save the world at the same time. PART 1. INTRODUCTION

In an effort to make the sorry plight of the environment more vivid to guys like you and me, save-the-earth organizations often try to create sobering mental pictures for us. One of my favorites is this one: "Every 20 minutes, Americans dump enough cars into junkyards to form a stack as high as the Empire State Building." Which leads me to ask a round of completely useless but compelling questions, like, Would it really be possible to stack cars as high as the Empire State Building? How would you get them to stay up? If you pounded on the one at the bottom, would a sympathetic vibration quiver through the whole lot of them and make the one on top sway?

Actually, the trouble with these "just imagine" visions is that they send the wrong message: Clearly everyone else is trashing their cars, so why shouldn't we?
This is part of what makes the subject of environmentalism so discouraging. Are you for the environment? Of course. But what impact could your own paltry efforts to improve things possibly have?

The simple answer is, a lot. Individual action creates a ripple effect that motivates others to think and act as we do. Studies by Robert Cialdini, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Arizona State University, suggest that if you, say, stoop to pick up a piece of litter, your action makes it far more likely that others around you will not litter. Furthermore, economics being what they are, it takes only a small minority to send a message to those who can and will make changes: "If 5 or 10 percent of us change our buying habits out of concern for the environment, we can get big companies to stand up and salute," says Joel Makower, author of The Green Consumer.

There's also a very selfish reason to think green. Basic conservation methods applied on a household scale can save you money. A good amount of money. It takes roughly $1,700 in energy costs to power a small house and a modest-sized car for a year. Simple conservation methods could save you more than half of that, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. The bigger the house and family, the greater the potential savings, they say.

To come up with the most useful energy- and money-saving strategies, Men's Health contacted dozens of environmental groups and advocates across the country. We asked for ideas we could put to use without taking on big-time commitments like starting a lobbying campaign or forming a citizens' group. Here's what we came up with.