What do you do to live a “green” (environmentally-friendly) lifestyle? Is being “green” important to you?
Just so you know, I dislike the term “green,” but, so many people are using it now. Might as well get with the times.
Here are a few of the things Steven and I do:
- Take public transportation
- Share one car (first for economic reasons, though)
- Use re-usable shopping bags
- Use grocery store bags for Data’s litter – but collect the litter in the bag throughout the week, and store it in a container, rather than use one bag a day.
- Recycle more than we throw away!
- Re-use our food storage containers
- We re-use our own rubbermaid water bottles each day (thanks for the reminder, Amy!)
- Keep the heat low in our house (does that count? – again, being cheap) in the winter, and don’t run the AC all summer long
- Grow our own produce
- Don’t buy much, go out much, eat out much
- We never litter
- We don’t eat meat (first for ethical reasons)
- I don’t take many showers (Ha – that is a joke. I hate to take showers, and sometimes take baths, so that doesn’t count.)
Not these, but aren’t they cute?!
A peek at all of the food storage containers in our fridge
I know there is a lot we could do to improve. But I have to admit, being “green” isn’t always the first thing on my mind.
There are some great things on this list! I try to live as green as possible, which can be hard when my roommate isn’t very green. She leaves light on all day, keeps the heat and A/C cranked up, uses paper towels like they’re free…
I’m much more energy- and cost-conscious so it’s a balancing act.
Wow- you do a lot!
I’m definitely one to take public transit when it works out for me, use reusable shopping bags and water bottles, recycle, try not to use unnecessary heat/air conditioning, etc…
I’m a work in progress!
Thanks! Living in Chicago makes being “green” a little bit easier, right?
Thanks for reminding me about the water bottles? We re-use a rubbermaid one each day! I am going to add that to the list 😉
I do a lot of those “green” things, but admittedly, a lot of my motivation is saving money or simple efficiency. I hate having a ton of plastic grocery bags to carry, so I use huge reusable ones, for example.
I guess the motivation doesn’t count, as long as you do it!
That is why I mentioned some of our motivating factors – we definitely DID NOT want to get rid of Steven’s car! But hey, it works out well and it is somewhat better for the environment. There are A LOT of things I know we could improve on.
I’m not the greeniest, but I do recycle, take reusable bags to the grocery (when I don’t forget them!), use platic bags for kitty litter and for lunches, buy energy efficient bulbs, and give old clothes to charity.
We do almost everything on your list, too. It’s great to see all the small things add up!
We do mos of the things on your list and are trying to make more manful tis int he car so we will hit a number of places instead of just one . We also tend to walk to the grocery store and take pubic trans when we can.
Yep, I’d call myself green. Maybe not in all areas of my life, but I do my best.
Reusable grocery bags, recycling, walking instead of driving (when it’s feasible), public transportation when we go downtown, driving my scooter instead of my car (less gas and emissions), not letting my car idle at a long light (the car helps in this by stalling at most red lights). A much more. Excited to add more to this with my Nissan LEAF next year.
I figure being green is like everything else, and all you can do is your best.
I recycle a lot. I have a tiny little garbage can and dont even fill it every week. I make next to no garbage, its almost freakish. And I buy biodegradable doggie bags.
I would say we live green. I’m vegetarian and we do the reusable shopping bags and food containers and all that, but the biggest “green” things I’ve discovered that we do are 1) don’t own a dog, and 2) don’t have kids. I heard that having a dog is the equivalent to having an SUV in terms of pollution. I think that’s crazy! Not that I judge anyone with kids or dogs, but being that we don’t have either, I figure we’re doing our part 😉 We take long showers and use way too many paper towels, so it all evens out 😉
I hadn’t heard the things about kids/dogs, but it makes sense 😉
We use reusable grocery bags and recycle far more than we throw away. It’s not much and I always feel like we should be doing more.
I always think I am a slacker when it comes to being green. I try though, I really do. I do send all my kids lunches in reusable containers, recycle, don’t litter, turn off lights when I can, turn the heat down (but that is because I am also cheap…but I can’t do it too much or the kids wear mittens in the house and make me feel awful). The kids bring water bottles with them to school and we don’t eat much meat because it makes me sad. I have 2 vegetarians and 2 that eat meat about once a week or so. We are slowly convincing them. My 10 year old daughter wants to be vegan and was talking about you last night saying how she admires you. I would still say I don’t do as well as I would like to but sometimes it is just the best I can do. I guess as long as I am at least aware of it I am doing better than some people, right?
Off topic, but was it you I was talking about the book Eating Animals with? It was so sad I cried through so much of it. 2 of my kids read it with me and cried as well.
Aww, that is so sweet that she said that. You made my day, Tori! Is she working on being vegan?
And don’t discount what you are doing! You are making a difference! And yes, you are thinking about it, and MANY are not!
I do not remember us talking about Eating Animals. But parts of it made me feel awfully sad. And there are many books I simply can not read because they’re so visual – my imagination is too vivid!
I think we’re pretty green: recycle a ton, compost kitchen scraps, reusable food storage containers/water bottles/kids lunch containers, grow some veggies but wish it were more, reusable shopping bags, turn off lights, keep heat low. Sadly we’re not in a neighborhood where we can walk/bike to things but I do try to make multiple stops when I am out in the car.
I do try to be green, but I feel like it isn’t enough. I’m a work in progress!
The only real green things we do are recycle and use reusable shopping bags. Although, 90% of the time we forget our shopping bags in the car. Sigh.
You’re already doing really well! I’d eventually like to be more “green” than I am now but I’m waiting to move out of my parents house. It’ll be easier that way..
I don’t recycle as much as I would like to but I try to use reusable bags as much as possible. We also have a compost and like you, we almost never have the heat on since we just use the fireplace… or bundle up. I hate being cold though!
Hmmm I try to be as environmentally friendly as I can be. Especially working with Starbucks that’s what we always strive to do. And being green is important to me.
OMG – I didn’t know about the dog thing. I kind of want to cry now.
Not really. And I don’t have kids – that is a HUGE one, especially here in the US because we use such a greater percent of the world’s resources.
I don’t have a garden and I’m not a vegetarian, but I do buy lots of local foods and/or know where my food is coming from. I think that one of the items which you mentioned but many people don’t think about is preparing your own food. I take my lunch to work most days of the week and will go to Starbucks once a week too.
Probably our biggest “NON-ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY” lifestyle choice has to do with travel. We travel A LOT. While many of these are car trips, not all of them are, and air travel is a really huge issue in terms of ‘being green’.