Green Leaf Report

We all need optimism to survive; we all need to feel like we matter, that we can make a difference, don’t we?  I’ve changed my life over the years to try to lessen my impact, to live a more environmentally aware lifestyle; the changes can be so small, but I feel better with each one. My top changes are mostly lifestyle related, some of which I’ve written about on this site in the past:

1. Wind energy - My house has been on 100% wind energy since 2004.  I believe this just means I give my money to the wind energy company, while I still buy whatever electrons come my way over the grid (however the electrons are generated), but hopefully I’m one less reason to build more coal plants.
2. Public transport/Drive less - I group my errands, and don’t drive if it can be avoided.  Sometimes I feel like a suburban hermit, weighing the value of each trip away from the house- it can be hard to get many places around here without driving.  I have a year-long pass for our public transportation system, provided to me by my company; I just renewed for my second year.
3. Natural cleaners- Petroleum-based chemical cleaners have been removed from my house; I try to make my own where possible, following Green Clean recipes.
4. Compact fluorescent light bulbs -No more incandescent light bulbs, we only buy the mercury sort of compact fluorescents now available.  I’ll move to LED’s when those are available, as the fluorescents start to burn out.
5. Laundry part 1 - I make my own laundry detergent from phosphate-free washing soda and borax.  This is probably my weirdest move, but is meant, with the best intentions, to reduce water pollution.
6. Laundry part 2 - My laundry gets air-dried unless my husband gets to it first. He has a problem with stiff shirts, so I now sneak laundry outside when he’s not around.  It’s an unusual household where a couple fusses over who gets to do the laundry.
7. Lawn care - No more lawn watering.  Releasing myself from having a green lawn was incredibly liberating, though many people now leave lawn service fliers on my door.  We also bought a reel lawn mower.
8. Reusable grocery bags - Generally grocery clerks say something nice to me about this. One foreign bagger once had a problem me trying to bag my own groceries at his station, but that was an isolated incident.
9. Limited air conditioning - We try to live with the seasons as they were meant to be, and use the heating and cooling systems in our house as little as possible.
10. Paperless at work - I made my job at work paperless, and we’re rolling the process out company-wide, where it doesn’t conflict with local tax law.

Some of these lifestyle changes might have been easier if I had warned my husband before we got married. But who ever promises it’ll be easy?  My next step is to work more on the diaper situation; it’s hard to be an environmentally militant working mom when daycares use disposables.  So far, I’ve tried g Diapers (compostable! biodegrade within 6 months!) but those diapers actually biodegraded much faster, and completely disintegrated on my son’s butt.  I think they must be better for smaller, less poopy babies than the one I got.  Seventh Generation’s chlorine-free diapers make me feel better, but they’re still disposables, and not the whole solution…