Too bad having a big carbon footprint isn't anything to brag about. We live in a 108 year-old 2,200 square-foot drafty Victorian that is relatively expensive to heat, and when we recently reviewed our budget, we realized that our biggest monthly expenditure comes from filling our cars with gas. Some of these things are unavoidable for now: our house in Fairfield is mid-way between Glen's daughter Jo 90 minutes in one direction and my weekly work commute about two hours in the other direction.
We do some of the basics: recycling, buying those energy-saving curly lightbulbs, and avoiding the use of chemicals on our lawn. But I know there's much more we could do. So for 2008 I want to commit myself to doing one new thing each month to become a better steward of the environment. And nothing helps me keep a promise like sharing it with the Internet! I'd ideally like to make more than one new environmentally-aware choice each month, but I know I can stick to 12 changes this year; anything else will be extra credit.
I haven't discussed this with Glen (hi, honey!), but I know he'll be on board as long as I stick to a couple ground rules: any changes we make have to be relatively easy and relatively cheap — this won't be the year we go vegetarian (although we've both been veg-heads in the past), trade our cars in for hybrids, or invest in composting toilets (yes, there is such a thing). We're only planning to live in our house for about another three years, so we don't want to make too many more major investments unless they would pay us back; when we insulated our house soon after moving in, we made up that cost in less than a year through rebates and reduced heating bills.
I know there are plenty of smaller things I can do if I just put a little extra thought into my everyday choices. I've already made my change for January — a super easy one that anyone could do in a few seconds — by signing up for Catalog Choice, a website that lets you opt out of catalogs you don't want to receive. According to their website, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to American consumers each year; I think about half of those must be the Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware catalogs that the poor mailman lugs to our house every week, wasting paper and encouraging me to spend money on things I don't need. No more 250-page catalogs featuring $5,000 bathroom vanities in our mailbox!
If you have ideas for me, I'd love to hear them. Or if you'd like to join me in this little adventure, let me know.
I signed up for WoYoPracMo, a challenge to practice yoga every day in January and record it on my blog. Doing at least 10 minutes a day counts. I got a couple great John Friend (the founder of Anusara yoga) DVDs for Christmas, and doing part of one this morning was a great way to kick-start the month, and the new year.
If you haven't seen it yet, No Impact Man is a fabulous blog about a family who did an experiment to see if they could live with zero net impact over the course of a year in, get this, New York City!
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/
Really well written and makes me think! Both the posts and the resource links run the full range from extreme to small things you can do to make a difference.
One thing I've really gotten into this year is re-usable shopping bags! They are even selling cloth ones at Wal-Mart these days. My favorite is the Chico bag: http://chicobag.com/ (they have them cheap at Everybody's), because it folds up tiny and has a clip for attaching to your keys or purse strap or whatever, and I always have something for those last minute stops on the way home to just pick up a carton of milk or something and I don't have my arsenal of canvas bags with me.
Re-usable water bottles is a big one too, because so much waste comes from making and transporting the bottles around, plus there is research coming out that the plastic leeches out into the water and isn't good for you. I have a stainless steel water bottle now. It's just remembering to use it. heh.
Posted by: Heather | January 02, 2008 at 07:54 PM