You are? We don't blame you. Green is everywhere these days. And it is easy to get that glazed over look in your eyes and zone out....

So when my friends came in the other day for coffee and they started talking about these new "green loans" I started to go to my happy place, but when I actually read up a little further I thought hey, this is a really great idea.

So I called up Chris and Anja (who are the assessors in our local area) and invited them around for a coffee and a chat at One Wise Owl to ask what exactly these green loans are, who is eligible and what can I do.

Basically it's like this. Green Loans is a new Australian Government initiative to help Australians tackle climate change. The Green Loans Program assists Australian families to install solar, water saving, and energy efficient products. The Green Loans Program provides: detailed, quality Home Sustainability Assessments; and access to Green Loans of up to $10,000, that are interest free for up to a maximum of four years, to make the changes recommended in the assessment.

Chris and Anja talked me through what happens in these assessments. They come to your house with cool little gadgets and for about 90 minutes go over your home and measure where you could be saving $$$ and the environment. They then take this information away and compile it into a report (which is really easy to read and understand) and show you in actual dollar values what you can be saving by making small changes in your home. Easy steps like taking shorter showers, turning off your computer at night or installing a water tank or a skylight. Chris asked me if I would get off the couch and turn off my TV at the actual switch (not just the remote) if there was 50 cents on top of the TV every time I did it. That's a lot of 50 cents.....

To get your own assessment on your home visit the website http://www.environment.gov.au/greenloans/ and find out who your local assessors are. They'll help you find out what you could be saving.