We should all work to unplugging not needed chargers and electronics. The average American spends $2,000 each year for electricity. The more we leave not used electronics plugged the more our electricity bill goes up. Not only that but it wastes energy.  If you want to lower your carbon footprint you should invest in power strips or unplug not used electronics. Here's a website to help you become more sustainable. http://www.horizonservicesinc.com/blog- … appliances

I agree Malia, and another great thing about power strips is that you can just flip the power switch on when you are using it and flip it off when you aren't. You would not have to worry about unplugging the individual cords themselves.

Along with leaving your charger plugged in, heating in your home consumes a lot of energy. Making sure you are not heating your home unnecessarily is important and can save save energy as well as reduce your carbon footprint. It is also important to make sure you have good insulation in your home, because wasted heat means wasted energy. Also, if you are interested in some smart ways to make your home more heat efficient, and are willing to make changes around your home, this website has good solutions to many heating efficiency problems. http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/1 … pture.html

I as well agree with Malia. I hate to admit it but before i go to sleep I leave my charger's in at night and they sometimes don't work the day after. When you leave you chargers in too long, it it not good for the environment and for your phones. A way to make your house more organized you can use switches to turn your lights on and off, and also your chargers.

Wow! I did not know that. Like Lauren I forget to unplug my charger at night. I agree with Malia If we unplug our electronics I feel that our carbon footprint will go a bit down. Also what helps is buying energy saving lightbulbs to reduce you electric bill.

i agree with all the comments. Unplugging all chargers wether it is our phone or our computer charger will reduce the amount of our carbon footprint because even though you unplug your device the electricity.

I agree that we should waste less electricity, but I've always wondered is how much does electrical use contribute to our carbon footprint? Is it really that big of a problem with wasting?

I agree with you Malia. Many people do leave their electronics in when they are not used and it does raise your energy use bill through the roof. Unused electronics that are plugged in or on should be turned off to lower your carbon footprint around the house.

There are lots of simple thing that you can do to conserve energy and limit pollution. Go check out http://des.nh.gov/organization/division … /share.htm. Another cool cite I found is http://www.npi.gov.au/reducing-pollution.

I would have to agree with you malia. We use so much electricity just siting our phones plugged in and not unplugging! by doing this simple task we would improve our carbon footprint and save money!

Definitely! People will plug in there phone when it is close to 100% charged when that is very unnecessary. Using outlets only when they are needed can help reduce your carbon footprint by a lot more than people think.

i agree

I totally agree with your statement of unplugging all unnecessary electronics that are not being used. They always pull electricity and are just a waste. Great proposal.

I wouldn't have even thought of this. We leave our chargers plugged in all day without a second though of how much electricity it is taking. It's definitely time to start taking them out of the wall when not in use!

Energy can leave a large carbon footprint and something as simple as unplugging an electronic can save energy and money

LOLZ

I SEE YOU COLE

how many of you enjoy stating super obvious facts that any person with common sense could figure out for themselves?

I agree with you because chargers not only increase bills but they are not good for the planet. I think the problem is when people plug their chargers way too often and forget about them. Simple things like this can impact our life in a big way and we don't even notice it.

At first when the survey asked if I left my charger plugged in I thought that it had  no effect in your carbon footprint but in fact it does. I do leave my computer and my phone charger plugged all day long and by simply unplugging it every morning it is very simple to reduce your carbon footprint by a little bit. I also believe that being conscious about how your actions contribute to your carbon footprint is a great way to begin reducing it.

Guatemala^

I believe this statement is true because many people including myself leave some electronic devices plugged even though I'm not using them. I think we should give time limits to charge our devices so that we can save electricity.

when i unplug my charger it helps the bill a lot

I agree with you and find it interesting that even if we are not using the charger for our phones we are still consuming energy, creating a huge impact on the energy wasted. We should start to have the habit to unplug these things, the little things make a bigger change, like another person said in their comment.

I hadn't thought about unplugging a charger that isn't being used would affect our carbon footprint that much. I often leave my phone charger plugged as it is in a hard place to reach however I will start doing this to reduce my bill and help the environment. I think a good solution would be those multiple plugs which allow you to stop the energy flow with the click of a button, that way you can without unplugging all your chargers, you can reduce your footprint and your bill.

I think this is something more people should be aware. No one realizes that by keeping their charger plugged in they are wasting energy. Also, the ways to reduce this waste are not complicated. People should be informed so they can  do something about this.

Also, keeping any of your electronics on standby instead of turning them off can waste energy and money as well.

This is an interesting point, and one that seems fairly obvious, but many people, including me, fail to actually make a habit of unplugging chargers and other electronics when they are not in use. Just after reading this discussion I went around my house and discovered that there are over twenty electronics that are currently not in use yet plugged in to power sockets in my home. Through the simple, seemingly meaningless act of unplugging chargers and appliances that are not in use, we can reduce our carbon footprint in meaningful ways.