reduce my environmental footprint

I’m doing the Green Challenge through SLATE Magazine/Treehugger, and I just bought a terrapass for a year’s worth of CO2 from our car!

My husband’s grandfather died last week, and when I was booking his ticket to fly home (through Expedia) I noticed that they have terrapass available!

It was only $6 and will contribute to sustainable energy research… wow, I feel like a good person! From their website:

We’re flying more than ever. For work. For pleasure. To see our loved ones. Unfortunately, planes use a lot of fuel. About 100 gallons per passenger on a cross-country trip. When you have to fly, use TerraPass to balance out your impact.

We’re starting to recycle our aluminum cans. I’m using cloth towels almost exclusively. Now I want to…

- recycle tin cans, glass, and paper
- set up some kind of compost bin in the back… even if I don’t use it, I can give it away on freecycle and reduce my waste a ton.
- reduce my driving.

I’m trying to think of what I can do for Christmas. I was thinking about reusing brown paper bags and stamping them, but then I’d have to buy stamps. At the very least I can recycle the wrapping paper, right?

We found a bike, used, for $15—we’re fixing it up and I’m getting really excited about this option. We’re hoping to buy a house next year and I’m committed to making it in a location that will make it easy to bike to the grocery store, bank, and work.

Small steps: using towels/washcloths instead of paper towels. We go through a frightful number of paper towels and now that we live somewhere where it’s easy to do the wash, I’m trying to grab a kitchen towel instead of a roll of paper ones. Small but important step.

We’re also looking to switch to all rechargeable batteries. At least we won’t be throwing them away constantly.

Google that and find local farms who, for a basic fee, will provide you with fresh produce, eggs, herbs, and other stuff. YMMV but there are six in my area – I’m definitely going to sign up! This sustains small, local farms, helps them absorb the costs of production, and is in general good stuff.

I’m hoping to get a bike to ride to and from school for the majority of my time. I think that if I get a bike that I’m comfortable on and that will be practical, I will get used to riding it around and will do it more and more often. This will save me/us from driving our sedan 4 miles a day for one or maybe two people, parking in a garage ($$$$), etc. Plus I’d like to loose some weight. Seems like a win-win situation. Still trying to work out how I’ll deal with the Iowa winters.