Green Notebook gets a partner

Hello, Delaware friends and neigh­bors! I’m so happy to be shar­ing this space with Tues­day, and am excited to get to know many of you through these columns as we share and care for our lit­tle cor­ner of the planet.

As a mom of two very active and curi­ous boys, I’ve spent a lot of time over the past eight years at our excel­lent Colum­bus Zoo. My kids and I love vis­it­ing and learn­ing about the ani­mals, and walk­ing (or run­ning) along the scenic paths is great exer­cise for all of us!

Dur­ing our many tours, I’ve noticed that the zoo not only has won­der­ful infor­ma­tion on con­ser­va­tion, but also posts some out­stand­ing quotes (you’ll find in the com­ing weeks and months that I’m a very “quotey” per­son; I col­lect them like phi­lat­e­lists col­lect stamps).

One that always stands out to me reads, “Nobody made a greater mis­take than he who did noth­ing because he could do only a lit­tle.” This comes to us cour­tesy of Edmund Burke, an Irish author, states­man, and philoso­pher who is remem­bered for sup­port­ing the Amer­i­can colonies in their dis­pute with King George. That dis­pute even­tu­ally led to the Amer­i­can Revolution.

I’m sure that Edmund Burke didn’t expect to end that dis­pute on his own, or to start a rev­o­lu­tion that would lead to the birth of our nation. But small steps can lead to great things.

Too many peo­ple choose not to change because they think they can’t do every­thing. It’s easy to feel help­less in an age of cli­mate change and ram­pant con­sumerism. My request of you is sim­ply to do what you can. Every action, no mat­ter how small it may seem to you, makes a dif­fer­ence. So this year, I hope you’ll choose to do just one extra, earth-friendly thing and feel great about it.

Green res­o­lu­tions for 2013

Each year, as I shop for a new cal­en­dar, I start think­ing about New Year’s res­o­lu­tions. And each year, I make a list with the best of inten­tions. My years spent in a cor­po­rate set­ting demand that I craft goals that are mea­sur­able and a bit of a stretch, but the mom in me demands that they pos­i­tively impact my fam­ily. In a good year, I’ll actu­ally cross a cou­ple off my list — and feel an overly inflated sense of pride that I actu­ally did so.

Because don’t most of us fail mis­er­ably with our res­o­lu­tions? We mean well, but it’s oh-so-hard to stay on track.

This year, I’m here to help you, too, enjoy that puffed-up sense of pride that accom­pa­nies a suc­cess­fully ful­filled res­o­lu­tion. How? With a few res­o­lu­tions that are easy (yes, you really can do these!), mean­ing­ful (good for you, good for the planet), and inex­pen­sive (actu­ally, most of these ideas will help you save money). So pick one or two of these ideas, and add them to your list of res­o­lu­tions for 2013:

1. Run your clothes washer and dish­washer only when they are full. You can save up to 1,000 gal­lons of water a month, and 100 pounds of car­bon diox­ide per year. While you’re at it, con­sider buy­ing a dry­ing rack instead of always using your dryer; it will lengthen the lifes­pan of your cloth­ing, and save you a bun­dle in elec­tric­ity costs.

2. Drink water from the tap instead of buy­ing single-use bot­tled water, which requires much more energy to pro­duce, store and trans­port. It also helps keep bot­tles out of the land­fill. As a bonus, pur­chase a BPA-free water bot­tle to take to the gym, office, and in the car and refill it as needed.

3. Don’t throw it away, give it away! If it’s in good con­di­tion, give house­hold items to Good Will or the Free Store. Even items that need a lit­tle refur­bish­ing may find a new home via Freecy­cle. Swap mag­a­zines with friends; cut up stained cloth­ing and use it for house­hold rags or art projects with the kids.

4. Avoid energy drain. Unplug your cell phone charger from the wall when it’s fully charged. Turn off energy strips and surge pro­tec­tors when not in use (espe­cially overnight). Even when elec­tron­ics aren’t charg­ing, their charg­ers still pull electricity.

5. Buy only what you’ll use. Stud­ies esti­mate that each Amer­i­can house­hold throws away 122 pounds of food every month (that’s over 96 bil­lion pounds of edi­ble food annu­ally!). Buy­ing less and toss­ing less is good for the Earth and your wallet.

6. Be water con­scious. Teach your fam­ily to turn off the water while they’re brush­ing their teeth. And if you shorten your shower by a minute or two, you’ll save up to 150 gal­lons of water per month.

7. Get a reusable shop­ping bag, and use it. Did you know that the petro­leum used to make just 14 plas­tic bags could drive a car one mile? Stash a cou­ple bags in your car so you always have them, or buy a super-compact ver­sion to keep in your pock­et­book or backpack.

8. Recy­cle. With curb-side pick-up, it’s just as easy as tak­ing out the trash. Stash a small bin and a paper gro­cery bag under your kitchen sink; toss bot­tles and cans in the bin, news­pa­pers, mag­a­zines, and card­board in the bag, and empty them into your full-size bins through the week as needed. Don’t for­get to recy­cle those toi­let paper and paper towel rolls, too!

As Arthur Ashe said, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” That’s great advice for all of us. Happy 2013!

Jayna McDaniel-Browning, a writer, artist, and mother of two, leads the “Go Green!” group for MOMS Club of Delaware. She enjoys shar­ing her pas­sion for green liv­ing, good books and vegan food.

Posted by Tuesday Trippier on Jan 22 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.