I just finished reading Vanessa Farquharson's book Sleeping Naked is Green, and I must say, I'm impressed. Here is a woman that sought to change her environmental footprint, one small step at a time, and succeeded. One change a day, for 366 days. At the end of her year, she allowed herself to revert back to her "old" ways. Surprisingly (or not), she managed to keep about 74% of her changes.
I thought about the changes she made, and began to analyze my own "greenness". She has made changes that we haven't and didn't make some that we have.
As I mentally tried to apply her changes to my family, it made me wonder, how PRACTICAL and REALISTIC are her changes for my family?
We are a family of 5 with three children under the age of 8. DH works a 40 minute drive away. I am a stay-at-home mom with an on-call job at the public library.
Can we really eat more local and organic food without breaking the bank? Is it really reasonable to get rid of satellite TV, not use the car on weekends, or not use staples?
A friend recently told me that she thought we were the most environmentally-friendly family she had met. But are we really? Is there anything else we can do to reduce our carbon footprint while acknowledging the realities of suburban life in 2010?
I have decided to take a leaf from Vanessa's book, and will make one change a day for the next 366 days. I want to see if we can improve our environment and our future. I will use Vanessa's book as our starting point, and hopefully come up with other changes. Her website is http://www.greenasathistle.com/ - all of her changes are posted there.
I invite you along for the fun. The adventure is just beginning......
Speaking of staples...
ReplyDeleteI actually bought the neatest eco-stapler last week, so we are now a staple reduced family. Pretty cool actually, it punches and folds up to 4 pages (hence the staple reduced not staple free) to hold them together. It reminded me of the olden days (not that I'm that old) when my folks had a "paper crimper" that was a non staple stapler. I used to love playing with it as a kid.
Good on you ecomama. I look forward to seeing what you try and maybe applying to my family of 5 too.
Thanks, Kathy! I saw a "non" stapler at Chapters around Christmas. Similar principle I think to yours except that it doesn't use a staple at all. It is a paper crimper or some such thing. Maybe when I run out of the zillion staples I have here, I might invest in one. :)
ReplyDeleteJen
This is excellent! The Edwards family is looking forward to the next 366 days, and can't wait to read more.
ReplyDeleteHi there, I became a friend of Vanessa's through her blog and wrote about it a few times on TreeHugger and have added you to my reader and will follow this. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteLloyd - Thank you for your support. It's nice to know that people are still interested in ways to "green" their lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteJen
Hi Jen. Found you from Vanessa's site. (you'll prob have a lot of new followers soon!) Often times I've wondered how many of the eco-bloggers sustain their efforts if they have families or even just significant others. I'm going to follow!
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
Thanks for your support, Erikka. I'm hopefull that I will be able to sustain the efforts beyond the next year.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI just read Vanessa's book & was very impressed. As a stay-at-home mom of 2 kids under 9, I didn't think her changes were that realistic for a family. Please prove me wrong!
I'd love to try! :) So far, so good....
ReplyDeleteHi! How can I get in touch with you?
ReplyDeleteHi Kristen - you can always leave a comment for me on this blog, or email me at: 5calhouns@bell.net
ReplyDelete