Posted in Uncategorized | Friday, April 30th, 2010
I know it sounds crazy for me to being saying this on a rather “green” blog, but…
I don’t know what my carbon footprint is or what my greenhouse gas emissions are. I don’t count each and every kilowatt on my electric bill, I didn’t install solar panels on my roof, and I haven’t taken any steps to save the polar bears.
Not that there’s anything wrong with any of those things.
But there just aren’t any polar bears in Brooklyn where I live.
Where I live, the only green that most people are interested in is the kind that you pay bills with. So my perspective on being green is a little bit different. At my house we recycle and we reuse as much as possible. We sell things on ebay and give to goodwill before throwing things out. We no longer use paper towels, we print on both sides of copy paper before we shred them to use as packing material. I plan to start composting next . I make our laundry soap, our dishwashing detergent, our air freshener, our body creams and anything else I can think up and we don’t use bleach or harsh chemicals. We have power strips and dimmers in each room so that we turn electronics off when we’re not using them and we keep the thermostat at around 68 degrees. We use reusable grocery bags and we own energy star appliances. For the second year in a row, I’m growing a container vegetable garden.
BUT
My point is, you can make yourself crazy trying to measure your eco-carbon-greenhouse-global-emissions-footprint. Or you can do your best to be healthier, save money and help your neighbor. I also believe that if we all made changes to our own homes, we might just be able to save that polar bear’s home at the same time.
So keep things simple. Do your best. But DO SOMETHING.
For some simple ideas about how to save money (and not hurt the planet either) check the archives of this blog. (Check the sidebar).
About Savvy Brown
I believe being healthy doesn't have to be complicated, being green can be easy and being broke isn't an option!
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My son submitted some art work for a contest that displays the things that he does to help save the planet, and I was very proud to see how much just doing a little is so ingrained in his mind. For instance, he (really “we”) turns off the power strip that his computer and desk lamp is plugged into. He doesn’t leave the water running while he brushes his teeth. He recycles at school and at home.
Also, unless it is an unplanned trip, we either reuse the shopping bags we have, or use tote bags (I always laugh when people look at me like I’m crazy for bringing my own bag). All light bulbs in the apartment are the energy efficient ones, and one other thing that I actually learned, courtesy of a Good Morning America piece is to save money on that energy bill by not leaving your rechargeable electronics plugged in all day (wireless “land line” phones, cell phones, even laptop computers). We simply try to use the energy we actually need (kinda like the ‘eat to live’ not ‘live to eat’ way of thinking).
I’m making as much of our beauty products as possible. I use containers that I already have in my home. And if a mix doesn’t work for me I share it with someone else – maybe it will work for them. If its cheaper and it works then I’m sticking with that. We do recycle at home and out. I have a shredder and its contents go into a huge, plastic bag that we reuse for this purpose and when the bag is full we dump the contents into the larger recycle bin. Also, I’m working on eliminating some of the meat products in our diet.