Green Living: Where to Start?

No Impact Man asks over at his blog what you would advise a friend who wants to start living green.

I say:

Quit drinking bottled water. Filter your tap water if you're worried about it, and get a stainless steel bottle to carry around. Serve tap water in glass jugs or carafes at your parties. Cut out sodas, juices, coffee drinks and other specialty drinks (bubble tea, lassees) except for very special occasions, or if you make them at home.

Bring cloth bags to the store. Avoid using plastic bags for each produce item - reuse from home, or bring cloth to wrap fiddly, small things.

Buy local food more often. Eat meat less often. Avoid imported foods whenever possible. Avoid fast food, processed food, and individual packaging wherever possible. If you don't know how to cook, learn.

Substitute transit or walking for at least one car trip per week.

Slow down when driving. Each five miles per hour above 55 mph reduces your miles-per-gallon. You will save money as well as gas and carbon emissions.

Other car tips: get that extra junk out of your car - weight reduces MPG. Check your tire air pressure, get your regular tune-ups, and change your oil and filters as indicated.

Do a home energy audit (your power company may do this free). Reduce your power use wherever possible. If all you do is walk around turning off lights and power strips every night, then fine.

Hang your laundry to dry at least once a week.

By the way, most of these items will save you money and/or improve your health while saving the planet.

Feel free to add your comments. What would you advise your friend who wants to start living more sustainably?

Comments

[Michelle]

These are all great starter tips. It's great to see how the blogs I read on a regular basis overlap and connect.

For those wanting to take the next step beyond personal conservation (reduce, reuse, recycle), advocacy is the way to go. Join 1Sky or 350.org or another environmental advocacy group and start talking to your political representatives.

[Alison Chaiken]

Listen to

http://podcasts.nytimes.com/podcasts/2008/07/18/18worldview.mp3

for some simple and apparently successful advice about going green.

[taina]

I like your crunched list and I agree that they are all musts, and I do try to take them up in my everyday life. I do think it's crucial to buy local but if I had to stop buying imported foods, yes, that means no California strawberries in February (I can live with that) but it also means, for me here in northwestern Ontario, no: olives, figs, almonds, walnuts, raisins, apricots, pomegranites, oranges, peaches, nectarines, rice (except wild rice)... the list is long. Not sure if I can give up the staples of our family's diet.

[wu ming]

plant a garden, even if just a couple herbs in the window box.