Being conscious of our environmental impact is good stewardship of the beautiful planet we’ve been given. When you’re writing out your family goals for 2011, try choosing one or two ways your family can be more environmentally friendly. Below are 10 ways I’m choosing to make more of an impact, by making less of an impact.
More cloth, less paper. I have a love affair with paper towels. They became my very bestest friend when I had kids. I use them way. too. much. So I went cold turkey and stopped buying them. I’m on day 4 and I’m not missing them nearly as much as I thought I would. It’s just as easy to grab a cloth towel to wipe my toddler’s face or clean the spilled milk off the floor. It doesn’t add to the laundry, a white towel can be thrown in with many different loads.
Buy local, more frequently. With over a dozen local farmer’s markets and even more local farms, I have no excuse to buy tomatoes from Mexico in the middle of August.
Plant new vegetables. I’ve had a summer garden for the last 3 years but I haven’t experimented much beyond tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers and celery. All easy to grow. This year I plan to try potatoes, mini pumpkins and onions.
Buy less, reuse more. We use the library regularly for books and DVD’s we’re happy to give back. But for items that we’d like to keep, I’ll search for them on one of many sites where I can find a good, used copy such as Half.com, Paperbackswap.com or SwapaDVD.com.
Less plastic. I have at least 10 reusable shopping bags and I consistently forget to bring them with me when I run to the grocery store or mall. I renew this vow with myself every year.
Get back to basics in the kitchen. Why spend $3 on a box of popsicles when I can make them for less than $1? It’s cheaper and I get choose what ingredients my kiddos are ingesting. Cooking dried beans is a lot cheaper than buying canned ones and safer – most cans have bisphenol-A in their lining. And you will no longer buy taco seasoning mix once you make your own. Every time I use it, our guests ask for the recipe!
Install a water filter. Let’s face it, there’s some yucky stuff in our water.
Reduce our junk mail. About half of our mail goes directly from the mail box to the recycle bin. It doesn’t even get opened. It’s a waste of paper, money and time. I plan to cancel catalogs I don’t look at, opt out of credit and insurance offers and sign up for paperless billing every time I can.
Limit and combine errands. My husband has warned me that gas is going to be up towards $4/gallon this summer and with our gas guzzler (not so green but very practical for this point in our lives) I’m planning to be more creative about running errands. Instead of planning menus and grocery shopping one week at a time, I’ll do two weeks. I’ll schedule errands to run once or twice a week instead of daily and walk or ride my bike, if possible. I also plan to evaluate whether or not I can accomplish an errand by making a phone call, mailing in paperwork or filling out a form online – making a trip obsolete.
And my most important green goal of 2011:
Teach my children why we are environmentally friendly. My 4 year old knows to put paper in the recycling bin and banana peels in the compost bin but I haven’t spent a lot of time teaching her ‘why’ we do it. We’ll talk about natural resources, landfills and stewardship at a level she can understand.
“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. “ From the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy.
What are YOUR green goals for 2011?
Tiffany Larson
Tiffany is a wife to one wonderful husband and proud mama of two very busy children. They spend their free time in the outdoors on the snow, water, road or dirt. She is passionate about green living and dragging her family along the journey with her! Tiffany can be found writing at Mommy Goes Green.
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