When I was gearing up to start Greener Every Day, my husband often said to me, “No one is going to understand what you do.” My first reaction, was that, of course, people would know what green lifestyle and home consulting are! Maybe he doesn’t know what they are, but everyone else will. Eco-consulting, green consulting, sustainability consulting (pick your favorite variation) has exploded as a field in the last couple of years. Not to mention all the green blogs! Or the green initiatives popping up everywhere!
As I thought about it more though, I realized that he has a point. Just because people have heard a term doesn’t mean they understand it. And just because there is growing interest in personal sustainability doesn’t mean that this interest in backed up by knowledge of what green living is all about. Ironically, the meanings of “eco” “sustainable” and “green” have become somewhat muddled precisely because of their widespread popularity and market appeal. With so many businesses touting their green credentials, it can be difficult for consumers to distinguish true green from deceptive marketing (otherwise known as greenwashing).
This has certainly been a challenge for me. One of the hallmarks of my own Greener Every Day journey has been the immense of amount of time and research that I have put into figuring out what makes a product or a practice truly green. Not to mention all the roadblocks I’ve encountered along the way, in the form of misinformation, incomplete information, impractical information, etc.
All of which is to say is that if my mission is to use my knowledge and experience to help others live green, build green and parent green, I had better be clear about what I mean by green.
So what do I mean?
I believe that a green or sustainable or eco-friendly life is above all a good life. It’s a life that, first of all, supports my well-being and the well-being of my family. But it isn’t only about personal well-being. I don’t believe that my life can be good without considering its impact on and intersection with my community and the planet as a whole. For me, a green life is good on three interconnected levels: the personal, the communal and the planetary.
It is good for me and my family because, for example, we spend less on our utility bills, get more exercise, eat less meat… It is good for our community because, for example, we support sustainable agriculture and patronize local businesses. And it’s good for the planet because, for example, we pollute less, conserve resources, etc.
As my examples above imply, I have found that opportunities to go green can be found in several different areas of one’s life including home energy and water use, purchasing habits, transportation patterns, waste disposal practices, and community involvement.
My consulting services are essentially a means to help people take advantage of those opportunities that make the most sense for them given their needs, priorities and lifestyles.
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If you aren’t already using mineral sunscreens, you might want to consider making the switch this summer season. Mineral sunscreens protect from the sun by physically blocking UV rays from reaching your skin (hence the white tint that they leave on your skin). Chemical sunscreens, on the other hand, work by chemically absorbing UV rays once they reach your skin. Research has shown that several of these chemicals research have estrogenic effects, potentially disrupting users’ hormone systems. Chemical sunscreens also frequently contain a host of other potentially harmful ingredients, including parabens, phthalate laden chemical fragrances, and urea preservatives.
The Green Guide’s Sunscreen Buyers Guide offers more information about the problems with chemical sunscreens as well as product recommendations for mineral sunscreen (I personally use Alba Botanica Fragrance-Free Mineral Sunscreen, available at Whole Foods). Maybe the white tint that mineral sunscreens leave on your skin isn’t so bad after all…
Another good resource is the Environmental Working Group’s 2009 Safe Sunscreen Guide (updated 7/13/09).
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Spring is a great time to start thinking about line drying your clothes. Of your appliances, your clothes dryer is second biggest energy hog (behind your refrigerator). On average, drying your clothes costs $85/year, which doesn’t seem like a lot until you think about what that can add up to over the lifetime of your dryer: $1500 or more (numbers courtesy of CA’s Consumer Energy Center). By contrast, line drying your clothes costs your nothing–not to mention that it uses pure solar energy to get the job done.
Think you don’t have time to line dry your clothes, or that the piles of dirty laundry will add up? I have found that I am most successful at line drying when I wash and hang one load of laundry each day. On really hot summer days, you’ll find that some laundry dries in just a couple of hours.
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Greener Every Day was forged in the fire of my own journey to live more sustainably. My journey, which began about two years ago, emerged from my growing awareness of my personal impact on the environment as well as of the health risks that my choices exposed me to.
When I look back I don’t see a single stimulus for my journey. I had long supported environmental protection, but once I had my kids, who are now 4 and 7, I became increasingly concerned about the degradation of our environment. Issues from climate change to factory farming to the toxification of our indoor environment began to keep me up at night.
While I recognized the need for political action to address these problems, I began to feel that my way of life made me, at least on some level, complicit with them. I decided to find a way to live that would be healthier and lower impact. I began to try out a variety of behavioral changes: Could I stop using so many paper towels? Set up a composting system? Get myself to the farmers market every week? Eat less meat? Walk my son to school? Clean my house without using chemical cleaners?
My journey towards green living took shape out of my attempts to answer these questions. Which isn’t to say that I have completely eliminated unsustainable behavior from my life, or that I have any illusions about my ability to do so. Every single day I make choices that are not as green as I may like them to be. Sometimes when my composting pail is full, I put food scraps down the sink. Sometimes when I’m at the grocery store without my reusable bags, I use paper bags. When we’re running late for school, we’ll drive instead of walk. But there are also lots of times I won’t compromise.
Either way, I have found that trying to live more sustainably means swimming against the stream. Without major social-structural changes, it will never be easy being green (no matter what advertisers tell us). But I believe it’s worth it.
Why? The best answer I have found so far comes from No Impact Man. Colin Beavin, aka No Impact Man, attempted to live for an entire year without negatively impacting the environment. In one of his posts from that year, he explained why he refuses to use disposable coffee cups: “If I’ve forgotten my jar and the only coffee available is in a throwaway cup, I forgo the coffee. Does that save the planet? Probably not, but on some level, it may save me.”
Will keeping my heat at 62 during the day save the planet? What about using cloth napkins? Drinking organic, fair trade coffee? Joining my local CSA? None of these green choices, taken alone or added together, will save the planet. But trying to live in a way that is better for my family, my community and the earth may save me. Not to mention that it connects me with others who are also working to reduce their environmental impact, energizes me to work for broader change, and gives me hope for the future–which is ultimately what this is all about.
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