When I started thinking of ways that hubby and I support green living, I was surprised at how many small changes we've implemented.
- Use a water filter instead of buying bottled water
- Bought a reusable water bottle to regulate my daily intake
- Started walking to the store/bank/post office to minimize driving and gas consumption
- Reuse plastic shopping bags to clean out the cat box
- Sometimes ask for paper bags. We store all our recyclables in a paper bag and then throw the entire bag into the recycle bins
- We've started printing on both sides of paper
This website is a great resource to get involved and learn more. Green Living Tips is another great resource. Sign up for their free e-newsletter and they will plant a new tree.
According to the ecological footprint quiz, I need to reduce my carbon footprint. If everyone lived like me, we would need 3.2 planet earths to provide enough resources. I use 14.3 global acres of land and produce 15.7 tons of carbon dioxide. Looks like I still have some work to do!
Goals
- Buy locally if possible
- Visit the farmers market during the summer. They have great homemade salsas!
- Switch to reusable shopping bags
- Reduce our dependency on electricity - hand wash dishes as much as possible, use clothes dryer less
- Eliminate dairy products
- Recycle more
1 comment:
hey, good for you! You have wonderful goals and are making big strides. I read somewhere, though, that dishwashers are not necessarily more energy-consuming than hand-washing in that you can use your DW in a 'greener' way and sometimes handwashing dishes results in unnecessary water waste, etc. while most energy-efficient DWs use a minimum of water that they heat up themselves...something like that. Use the DW only once a day, if possible, and turn it off for the drying cycle (open the door to air-dry). I use Shaklee DW detergent (highly concentrated) that doesn't have all the toxins in it that even some handsoaps do-- it does a better job, too, than some of the other 'earth-friendly' DW detergents (often their big downfall is the fact that while they are the green choice they don't do the job we have come to expect). I like the hygienic aspects of a DW... germs get well and truly killed. Well, that is enough of that, eh? Thanks for letting me rant here. And keep up the good work!
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