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GET INVOLVED IN SCHOOL DECISION MAKING. Join your school's PTA and start pressing for change - from easy, inexpensive improvements, like switching to nontoxic cleaning supplies, to major changes, like building energy-efficient new schools from sustainable, healthy materials. Schools certified by the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, known as LEED, cost an average of $3 more per square foot to build, though these facilities typically see payback within a few years due to reduced energy, water, and health-related costs. A 125,000-square-foot school, for example, can expect to see savings of about $100,000 annually. "Building green is a money saver; that's how you get the bonds passed and taxpayer approval," says Rachel Gutter, the council's school sector manager, based in Washington, D.C. "But healthy kids and reduced costs? It's a no-brainer." The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's Renewable Energy Trust, which helps fund clean-energy projects and green-building design, planning, and construction, has $15 million in grant money set aside for schools; the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School, for example, was recently awarded $340,000 for rooftop solar panels. (Schools are also eligible for grant money from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.) To connect with a green-schools advocate in your area, also consider contacting the Massachusetts Farm-to-School Project , which helps connect school food programs with local growers; the practice reduces the carbon costs and packaging associated with shipping.

SIGN A PETITION. Going door-to-door is so 1970s. Today, signatures are collected and "demonstrators" gather online. "In the old days, if you marched out on the streets, it would get 30 seconds of coverage on the evening news," says An Inconvenient Truth producer Laurie David. So she launched StopGlobalWarming.org, where citizens can join John McCain and Arnold Schwarzenegger in what David calls a "virtual march" that's on public display all day, every day. Over at the League of Conservation Voters (lcv.org), you can urge presidential candidates to take a stand on global warming and ask Congress to act on clean energy.

MINGLE. Going out for martinis may not seem like a community-oriented task, but local branches of the international social network Green Drinks (greendrinks.org) can help you connect to neighbors with similar interests, whether your mission is fighting LNG terminals or finding a vegan date. The Boston group (founded with help from environmentalist and 2006 Miss Rhode Island Allison Rogers) has been around since 2005. Other groups have been established in Cambridge-Somerville, Great Barrington, Lowell, Northampton, and Pittsfield, as well as Newport and Providence, Rhode Island.

PRAY FOR CHANGE. Many religious traditions consider environmental stewardship to be a moral imperative. Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light (mipandl.org) helps congregations with energy audits, utility rebate programs, the purchase of renewable energy credits, and other green measures. MIPAL co-founder Tom Nutt-Powell, a member of All Saints Parish Episcopal in Brookline, helped his church save $17,000 by upgrading to a high-efficiency boiler. "Once you see this as an act of faith, you want to do it everywhere," says Nutt-Powell.

Vote for eco-friendly policies and candidates. Contribute money to a "green" nonprofit. Don't know how much to give? A good guideline is to pick an organization whose mission you like and then donate the cost of the last pair of shoes you bought. Vote with your wallet by buying goods and services from companies that support a healthy planet and use organic ingredients and eco-friendly packaging.

AT WORK

WATCH THE THERMOSTAT. According to the US Department of Energy, heating and cooling are the number one source of energy use in office buildings. Ideally, individuals could control the climate of their personal work spaces, but if that's not an option, suggest that your employer keep temperatures set to an energy-efficient 70 degrees in winter, 75 degrees in summer. Programming thermostats to automatically reset temperatures at appropriate times - after the workday ends, for example - can also help increase efficiency. At Artists for Humanity, a Boston nonprofit that employs teens in the arts, such devices help keep heating costs down. The group built a new green facility two years ago that uses about 70 percent less energy than a comparable conventional building would. Still, conscientious behavior also plays a role. "We keep it comfortable," says outreach and marketing associate Shane O'Garro, "but we pay attention to indoor temperatures all the time."

START (OR JOIN) A GREEN TASK FORCE. Sustainability groups can help implement change throughout an entire organization. Starting with simple things - like buying recycling bins and posting signs that remind co-workers to use them - can lead to influencing corporate decisions on issues such as purchases, renovations, power, and employee programs like telecommuting. That's what happened at Boston architecture firm Payette Associates, where a grass-roots in-house group formed about eight years ago. Eventually, the corporate culture changed to encourage recycling, resource efficiency, and even composting of coffee grounds. "It's occurring at a fundamental level," says Arlen Li, associate principal and a catalyst of the change. "People have really latched onto it."

CONDUCT A WASTE AUDIT. Individuals, departments, or entire companies can identify wasted resources by taking stock of everything that goes into the trash and recycling over a certain period of time, usually a week or a month. Knowing what materials are thrown away provides insight into ways a company can cut back or reuse, which can help keep both ecological and waste-removal costs down. The environmental information website Earth 911 has a "Business Resources" section (earth911.org) that explains the process well.

USE LESS PAPER. The virgin pulp and paper industry is the largest industrial polluter of water worldwide and one of the top emitters of global-warming pollution, according to the National Resources Defense Council. The typical US office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of copier paper each year, according to the council - and less than half of it gets recycled. So think twice about what you print out, make double-sided copies, send internal memos via e-mail, use scrap paper to take notes or print drafts, send faxes digitally, and so on. Recycling the paper you do use means saving forests and water, reducing toxic pollution, and keeping waste out of landfills.