There is a group of people where I work, who are committed to educating the public and fighting for changes in the way we handle our environment. You know the drill, every office has at least one person who distributes the recycling bins and occasionally picks soda cans out of the trash. Sadly, in my office, I'm not that person. We have an even crazier group of people who fill that niche. Or so I thought.
Today they are handing out pledges in honor of Earth Day, which is tomorrow by the way. The first irony is that they dressed the statues outside the office building (this actually happens quite frequently depending on the season) entirely in non-recyclable plastic junk. In order to keep the "costumes" on they used a lot of clear packing tape - and I mean a lot. I used less when I moved and had to put everything in boxes. Then once you get in the building they are asking that people sign a pledge to make some environmentally friendly changes, in exchange for doughnuts and store bought pre-packaged baked goods. I'm all for bribes, but the packaging alone from the goodies is a problem, not to mention that they will simply throw away any extra food into the trash. All in honor of Earth day.
This pledge they are handing out is the usuall list of stuff. Replace your bulbs with compact florescent bulbs, turn up/down your thermostat, turn off non-essental appliances at night, reuse and recycle, don't pre-rinse dishes, and wash your clothes in cold water. I must admit that I astounded the girl when I said that I already did everything on her list. So, I'm offering a Hardcore Earth Day pledge, based off steps that we've taken here at the house (mostly to save money, but still.) or steps we're too wimpy to take, but should.
Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz, and try to reduce your footprint this year by 5 acres. I have to be honest here, our footprint is 20 acres. It would take 4.4 earths to support humanity if everyone lived like us. There are only 4.5 biologically productive acres available per person, so I'm screwing at least 3 other people by living the way I do.
Get rid of your garbage service. You will be much more careful about the amount of garbage you create if you personally have to deal with it's disposal. Ryan and I really cut back when we had to start taking the stuff to the dump ourselves.
Only shop the outside of the store. With the exception of canned and bagged (like pasta or pretzels) goods all of the stuff on the inside of the store is chock full o' preservatives, packaging, and is usually more expensive anyway.
Only eat meat once a week. For our vegetarian readers this is a no brainer, but reducing your meat consumption will help your grocery bill and the environment at the same time. Plus if you're only eating meat once a week, your more likely to spend your meat budget on something really worth wile.
Reduce your water consumption by 25%.
Reduce your electric consumption by 25%
Start a compost pile, or a vermicompost bin. Better yet, do both.
Eliminate your car trips. Ok, I can take the bus to work, but it sucks up two hours of my day if I do. I could also ride my bike to work, if the roads in weren't so dangerous and I didn't have a problem with sweating through my suits. So, on the weekends I'm going to try to do all my shopping via human power. I make no promises, I'm a real pussy when it comes to this sort of thing.
Eat seasonally and locally. Again, this is a hard one for us. We love to eat, and we are spoiled by having a great selection of megamarts to get our food from. Still, we do buy produce from local farmers, grow veggies, make our own bread, and visit the farmers' market when it's open, but most of our food is purchased in the grocery store and probably grown overseas or in Mexico.
Convince at least one person, or, better yet, a household to reduce their footprint.
So that's my pledge. Would anyone care to add their pledges to it in honor of Earth Day?
- Gretchen
Today they are handing out pledges in honor of Earth Day, which is tomorrow by the way. The first irony is that they dressed the statues outside the office building (this actually happens quite frequently depending on the season) entirely in non-recyclable plastic junk. In order to keep the "costumes" on they used a lot of clear packing tape - and I mean a lot. I used less when I moved and had to put everything in boxes. Then once you get in the building they are asking that people sign a pledge to make some environmentally friendly changes, in exchange for doughnuts and store bought pre-packaged baked goods. I'm all for bribes, but the packaging alone from the goodies is a problem, not to mention that they will simply throw away any extra food into the trash. All in honor of Earth day.
This pledge they are handing out is the usuall list of stuff. Replace your bulbs with compact florescent bulbs, turn up/down your thermostat, turn off non-essental appliances at night, reuse and recycle, don't pre-rinse dishes, and wash your clothes in cold water. I must admit that I astounded the girl when I said that I already did everything on her list. So, I'm offering a Hardcore Earth Day pledge, based off steps that we've taken here at the house (mostly to save money, but still.) or steps we're too wimpy to take, but should.
Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz, and try to reduce your footprint this year by 5 acres. I have to be honest here, our footprint is 20 acres. It would take 4.4 earths to support humanity if everyone lived like us. There are only 4.5 biologically productive acres available per person, so I'm screwing at least 3 other people by living the way I do.
Get rid of your garbage service. You will be much more careful about the amount of garbage you create if you personally have to deal with it's disposal. Ryan and I really cut back when we had to start taking the stuff to the dump ourselves.
Only shop the outside of the store. With the exception of canned and bagged (like pasta or pretzels) goods all of the stuff on the inside of the store is chock full o' preservatives, packaging, and is usually more expensive anyway.
Only eat meat once a week. For our vegetarian readers this is a no brainer, but reducing your meat consumption will help your grocery bill and the environment at the same time. Plus if you're only eating meat once a week, your more likely to spend your meat budget on something really worth wile.
Reduce your water consumption by 25%.
Reduce your electric consumption by 25%
Start a compost pile, or a vermicompost bin. Better yet, do both.
Eliminate your car trips. Ok, I can take the bus to work, but it sucks up two hours of my day if I do. I could also ride my bike to work, if the roads in weren't so dangerous and I didn't have a problem with sweating through my suits. So, on the weekends I'm going to try to do all my shopping via human power. I make no promises, I'm a real pussy when it comes to this sort of thing.
Eat seasonally and locally. Again, this is a hard one for us. We love to eat, and we are spoiled by having a great selection of megamarts to get our food from. Still, we do buy produce from local farmers, grow veggies, make our own bread, and visit the farmers' market when it's open, but most of our food is purchased in the grocery store and probably grown overseas or in Mexico.
Convince at least one person, or, better yet, a household to reduce their footprint.
So that's my pledge. Would anyone care to add their pledges to it in honor of Earth Day?
- Gretchen