Living Green means making conscious choices in your lifestyle that not only reduce, but also enhance your impact on the environment. It also means recognizing that each and every action does indeed count.

Living Green doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult (it can actually save you money and time). More importantly, making these changes can also improve your health and overall quality of life.

Below are 6 simple steps to Living Greener today:

Step 1: Use home water filters instead of buying bottled water. Bottled water is not always more pure anyway. In fact, up to 40% of bottled water comes from a city water system and is essentially tap water.

The environmental benefit? Filtering your own water helps cut down on the roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic expended in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water each year.

Plus, filters remove such contaminants as chlorine, cryptosporidium, giardia, lead and pesticide runoff.

Step 2: Recycle your batteries. Environmentally, this can reduce some of the 165,000 tons of non-rechargeable batteries that accumulate in landfills every year. Unsure where to recycle batteries in your area? Go to Earth911.org.

Other benefits: battery recycling programs keep all the bad stuff in one place, and prevent toxins from leeching into our air and waterways. Of course, you can be even greener by using rechargeable batteries, which are easy to find, relatively inexpensive, and long-lasting.

Step 3: Climb those stairs. How much power can you save? Some elevators use enough energy in a year to power 7 homes!

Additionally, climbing stairs burns up to 10 times more calories than standing in an elevator. Plus, it saves you time. The average person loses about 62 minutes a day waiting in elevators, in lines, and in traffic; you might as well save where you can.

Step 4: Pay online. Help the environment by saving paper (23,280 tons of billing paper are used just by U.S. phone companies each year).

Other benefits: you’ll save an average of $6 in stamps and 4 hours of time each month. Schedule automatic bill payments and you’ll never miss a payment or pay a late fee again!

Step 5: Send tree-free note cards. Alarmingly, the U.N. predicts global wood fiber shortages by 2010.

Tree-free cards are now available, made from kenaf, a plant grown in the southern U.S. These cards not only save trees, but also support local farmers.

Using non-tree or recycled paper aids in conserving virgin pulp, translating into energy conservation, cleaner oxygen, reduced waste and less flooding.

Step 6: Go ahead and love your java, but not the cup. Help save some of the 22.75 pounds of waste per year generated from just one cup of coffee purchased every day in a disposable container.

Plus, bring your own travel mug and help keep an estimated 655,500 pounds of paper out of our landfills. And a bonus: you’ll save money — Starbucks and other companies offer discounts to customers with their own mugs.

By consciously Living Green, you can actively help reduce and even reverse the devastating impact we put on our environment. By making simple yet informed changes, you’ll be part of a greener future.