Be more green

Let’s see, over the last 16 months I’ve made the following changes:

1) Switched completely to reusable bags when grocery shopping. I tend to forget them when I go other places though. To improve: remember to grab my canvas bag before going into non-grocery stores.

2) Personal hygiene products: most of my personal hygiene products are now less toxic. I need to continue doing research to finish this up. Also, I’ve started using bar soap instead of shower gel.

3) Diet: I’ve cut my meat consumption down to once a week, max. Red meat is at most once a month. I’ve begun exploring the option of family farms around her, for direct meat purchase. Produce is from the farmer’s market.

4) Electricity: I’m paying extra for the electric company’s renewable power program. Also, as our bulbs have burnt out, the roommate and I have been purchasing compact florescent bulbs.

5) Books: Have only purchased textbooks this year. The library has gotten a lot of use. :)

6) Work commute: I take the train in about twice a week. It’s getting to be a habit now. I won’t be renewing my parking permit when my current permit expires in June, so I’ll have no choice but to take public transportation. Oh… the money and headache I’ll save!

Ok, so I already use the libraby, but I’m also mildly addicted to buying books. I buy used books a lot, but I buy an equal amount of new books and I don’t really need to. I own a lot of books that I haven’t read. A LOT.

So, my 2008 SMART Goal is this: Do not BUY any books, excluding school books, in 2008.

Have signed up for AmerenUE’s Pure Power program:

http://www.ameren.com/PurePower/ADC_default.asp

Closest I can come to purchasing/self generating renewable energy for now. I’m going to try it out for two months and see if it completely explodes my budget/listen to consumer feedback, and go from there.

Just posted SMART Goal #1. I have 2 months to transition to reusable shopping bags. I primarily use them when grocery shopping, but ideally I’ll keep one with me when I shop for other dry goods too.

I just finished up one goal… time to come up with a SMART goal now!

Ugh… I’ve got a long way to go according to this:

http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/

I think after I finish some of my 2007 goals, I’m gong to start setting some smaller, SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) goals related to this bigger ‘be more green’ goal I’ve got here.

I have had It’s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living by Cissy Trask recommended to me. I just ordered a copy from Amazon. I’m interested to see what she has to say.

I’m just posting this link here for general reference. Most of this I either do, have a plan to implement, know that I should do, or have read information on before. However, this is a nice compact list, and I like lists.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/issues/greenaction/30ways.html

This was originally titled “have a green home” – but that’ll take a while. “Be more green” is a more reasonable goal for now, because it requires baby steps in transforming my life to a more conscious lifestyle.

For now, I’d like to reduce my waste, buy primarily local food and where I can’t buy local food, then food that is farmed and packaged in responsible ways, and begin using less toxic personal hygiene products and home cleaning products.

I’m sure I’ll come up with more steps later.

Well, while I’ve been doing the easy stuff (recycling, responsible water use, responsible energy use), I realize that it’s been only half hearted. So, I’m starting to do research. I’m going to start looking at my budget and moving to organic, natural, locally grown foods. I’m also going to explore biodegradeable, non-chemical alternatives to my current grooming products.

As I do the research for those, I figure I’ll stumble upon better practices in regards to my waste disposal and better types on conserving energy and water in my home.