Monthly Archives: July 2007

Are You Falling for Green Consumerism?

It’s a wonderful time to decide to be more environmentally friendly in your buying decisions. There are many products available and the prices are getting better. But where people often fall short of their green goals is in really thinking about the environment.

Do you really need to make that purchase right now?

Buying green is a great way to feel good about what you’re buying. You’re buying products that were made in a manner that is less harmful to the environment. Maybe they’re even supporting other environmental causes. And you get new stuff!

The trouble is that many people still buy a ton of stuff they don’t need, while thinking about the green aspects of their purchase. If you’re buying bamboo sheets to replace your old ones, did you stop to think about whether or not your old sheets really needed replacing? Many people replace items that haven’t worn out yet just so that they can buy the more environmentally friendly item.

If you think about that, it makes little sense. You can do a bit better if you don’t just throw out the old item, but donate it to charity or give it to someone else who needs it, but excessive consumption is still a problem. Continue reading →

Going Semi-Vegetarian for Lunch

Yes, I know. Doesn’t sound like much of a commitment. But there’s a logic to my idea of going semi-vegetarian for lunch.

I call it semi-vegetarian because I still plan on eating leftovers from dinner when there’s just a single portion left. It just makes sense to me to eat it rather than let it rot, as I know my husband almost never touches leftovers.

I also know that I’m not going all the way vegetarian. Not ready for that personally, and I’d have a lot of trouble getting my family to go along with it. Most especially my husband. I’m not ready to cook separate meals.

But making something vegetarian for my lunch when I don’t have leftovers makes a lot of sense to me. No need for meat at every meal, after all. Yes, breakfast is generally vegetarian, more or less by default, but lunch is a bit more challenging.

I’ve been spending some time finding recipes and bookmarking them to try. That’s my version of a cookbook, although I do print out ones I find I like well enough to make regularly. This ensures that I won’t lose them if the recipe is later taken down. Continue reading →

Green Books for Kids

It’s a wonderful thing to encourage your children to think about the environment. Children absorb information easily and take it to heart. Reading to them is a great way to encourage them and teach them about the environment.

The challenge can be finding books that will entertain them without seeming like a lecture. Children love to learn, but they get bored if things are above their level or not fun.

The Lorax is one story with an environmental message that has long been popular. My daughter went through a phase of asking for that one almost nightly. Gumfounded is a more recent book, and a bit more direct to children’s experience.

My children are young yet, so I don’t have any experience with children’s and young adult novels with an environmental theme. But if you can keep your child interested in reading as well as in helping the environment, you’ve helped them to understand what can be a complex topic.

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Working at Home is Good for the Environment

I love being a work at home mom. There are so many advantages. It’s not just being there for my kids, which is nice, but working at home also means sometimes I have to tell them to just let me work. It’s not all fun and games.

But I also see it as a benefit to the environment. For example, my husband has a car, which he drives to work, and we share when he is home. I don’t have a separate car. Wouldn’t mind having one, but most of the time I can get away with using his after work.

On rare occasions we have to make other arrangements, such as when the kids have doctor appointments, but this arrangement has worked well for us since early January. It’s now comfortable enough that we will probably do it indefinitely.

Of course, I use more electricity at home because I’m here, but at least some of that would be used in an office. My computer use, for example, would probably require about the same amount of energy. I don’t use a lot of lights during the day most days. I very rarely use heating or air conditioning.

The lighting vs. air conditioning can be a bit of a battle in summer. Open the blinds to light up a room, and the house heats up and air conditioning is more likely to be needed. Use old cardboard moving boxes to keep still more heat out, and lights are more likely to be needed. But I would sooner use lights with energy efficient bulbs than the air conditioner.

All in all, I feel very fortunate in my situation. Working at home takes a lot of dedication and it is not always easy. But it is most definitely for me.

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