Being a Global Change Savvy Consumer     HOME APPLIANCES If you choose this category to investigate, you could explore consumer choices for a home appliance. These are usually big ticket items, but this is all the more reason to spend time researching a purchase like this carefully:  Appliances account for about 20% of your household's energy consumption with refrigerators, clothes washers, and clothes dryers at the top of the consumption list. When you're shopping for appliances, think of two price tags. The first one covers the purchase price—think of it as a down payment. The second price tag is the cost of operating the appliance during its lifetime. You'll be paying on that second price tag every month with your utility bill for the next 10 to 20 years, depending on the appliance. Refrigerators last an average of 13 years; room air conditioners and dishwashers, about 11 years each; clothes washers, about 9 years. Source:  U.S. Dept of Energy "Energy Savers" website If you want to recommend a consumer choice or product based on the question you pose or criteria that you devise here are some suggestions: Energy / power consumption is the key link to global change issues for most home appliances, however washing machines add another  factor of environmental concern --water use.   The Energy Star Program rates both energy and water consumption for clothes washers.   Other consumer magazine or websites (e.g., Consumer Reports) can supply additional information to consumers, such as frequency of repairs, ease of use, performance, noise level, capacity, etc.   DATA & INFORMATION COLLECTION Spend some extended time scanning through the LINKS below to see what kind of data and information are available on the web to help you decide what kind of food rating you want to do:    SOME LINKS for CONNECTING HOME APPLIANCES & GLOBAL CHANGE    BONUS POINT OPPORTUNITY:  After you've done your own homework and background reading at the links below,  do a bit of field work in a "big box" store or a specialty electronics store and ask the sales people some questions about energy efficiency of their products.  Observe how informed they are about the subtleties of differences in power consumption, impact on the environment, etc.   Then document your research in a report, slide or video about what (if anything) you learned by talking with the sales people about power consumption and their products.                          SOME LINKS for CONNECTING HOME APPLIANCES & GLOBAL CHANGE -- There are many other websites addressing these topics -- use these as a starting place! General Information on Appliances How to Buy an Energy-Efficient Home Appliance  (Federal Trade Commission) Major Appliance Shopping Guide (from the U.S. Department of Energy) Efficient Appliances Save Energy -- and Money  (Natural Resources Defense Council) Energy Use of Some Typical Home Appliances  (The Natural Handyman) Refrigerators Energy Star Program - Refrigerators Washers Energy Star Program - Clothes Washers Dryers The Energy Star Program does not label clothes dryers because most of them use similar amounts of energy, which means there is little difference in energy use between models.   An interesting activity would be to compare the energy used in drying clothes outdoors on a clothesline vs. drying them in a dryer.