Julia Louis-Dreyfus walks the walk.

The actress and her husband, Brad Hall, along with sons Charlie, 10, and Henry, 15, live in a Santa Barbara, Calif., home made of sustainable materials, with rooftop solar panels. Hall drives a biodiesel car; Louis-Dreyfus' is a hybrid.

What kick-started her environmental awareness? "It was three different things," says Louis-Dreyfus, 47. "Having children is an obvious life changer and certainly puts you on the track of thinking beyond yourself.

"We live in L.A., where the natural world is very apparent and I drive by the ocean every day, and there were beach closures and I found that alarming.

"And third, I heard Bobby Kennedy (environmental lawyer and son of the late Robert Kennedy) speak, and he's inspirational and a passionate environmentalist.

"Those three things in my life stirred me to various levels of activism. But it wasn't a light switch. It was a dimmer switch."

Now, the Emmy-winning star of CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine" shares her tips for living a more eco-conscious life.

"We can all do it. It's little, tiny changes," she says. "We're not perfect. There's tons more we should be doing. Global warming seems very daunting. I'm completely overwhelmed by it. But there are small changes one can make, and if everyone would do it, it would have enormous impact."

Louis-Dreyfus' tips for greener living:

"Take out all your light bulbs; replace them with compact fluorescent. Now they make them pretty. And they seem to last forever. You should never buy a regular bulb again.

"Adjust your thermostat by a couple of degrees. Any paper product you buy should be recycled — toilet paper, paper towels, stationery, computer paper.

"Unplug your chargers, hair dryers, and shut down your computer instead of putting it on standby. All these things draw energy.

"Avoid using plastic bags at the supermarket. If you have the choice, choose paper over plastic.

"Ultimately, if you can, see if you can remember to bring a bag with you. I am bad at this. To get better at this, I'm keeping bags in my car all the time. Or use bags that roll up into tiny bags and you open them and they get enormous. You can have one or two in your purse." (Web sites that sell compact reusable bags include flipandtumble.com; its multicolored bags roll up into a peach-sized ball, but can handle a 25-pound load.)