Looking Back on 2008

As I look back over the past year, I am absolutely amazed by how far Ben and I have come on our quest toward sustainable living. Our lifestyle is much different than it was just a few months ago. This is inspiring to me as I look forward to a new year. Many steps toward sustainability seemed far out of my comfort zone when I started them. With practice, however, they've become normal.

In that vein, I think our three largest lifestyle changes this past year have been as follow:

1. Organics: We took the Mission Organic 2010 challenge and just kept going. Now we buy about 90% of our groceries organic. We've also made commitments to organic clothing, which greatly reduces our impulse purchases.

2. Plastics: We use cloth shopping bags almost exclusively now, and we've eliminated the vast majority of plastics in our kitchen, including plates, bowls, cups, spatulas, tupperware, etc. We're starting to eradicate the plastics in the rest of our house (BPA-laden toothbrush bristles will be the next to go!).

3. Driving: Our progress in this category is far from complete, but we are much better than last December. Ben carpools to work, I bike to my volunteer job, and we both really think before just getting in the car and going. We've cut down on our driving around town, and we've taken most of the excess weight out of our cars (car mats, CD cases, ice scrapers -- in FL). When we do drive, we've been learning to incorporate some of the basic tenets of hypermiling.

We still have plenty of room to grow in each of these categories and will actively work toward becoming better in these ways.

I issue you a challenge. If you are can only commit to a few new sustainable behaviors this coming year, I encourage you to consider one or more of those listed above. These are excellent beginning steps toward making your lifestyle more sustainable, happy, and healthy.

Eco Fashion Sale

Considering it's so soon after the holidays, most of us probably don't need anything right now. However, if you've been needing a new work outfit or if your jeans are getting kinda holey, now is a great time to look at what Green Loop has to offer. Through Jan. 11, they have a wide range of organic and otherwise eco-friendly clothing and accessories (including shoes) on sale 50-60% off.

If you need new clothing and consignment is not an option, the next most eco-conscious option is sustainably grown and manufactured items. Check them out.

Luggage

Traveling for the holidays? Remember to keep your vehicle as light as possible. The less weight your car/plane has to tow, the less gas it must burn. Take only as much luggage as you really need, down to the outfit. No one riding in your back seat? Leave your floor mats at home. In fact, your own weight greatly impacts your mileage. Just another reason to loose some weight!

So, empty out your car, and think before you pack!

Biking as Political Statement

Biking is a fun, healthy, and sustainable hobby that anybody in suburban, urban, or rural areas can enjoy. Perhaps more importantly, though, biking is a political act. Biking to go to a friend's house speaks to people in your neighborhood; biking to go to work speaks to people at your work site; biking to go to the grocery store sends a message to your community at large.

Biking is a political act in the US, and especially in suburbia, because of America's historical love-affair with the single-user, gas-based vehicle. Treating your bike as a means of transportation, not just a child's toy, provides lookers-on with an alternative to the system that brought us a system of sprawl, pollution, and loss of community. To many riders, bikes carry symbolism of the economic and lifestyle system we must create in the face of "peak everything."

You're right: riding your bike is not as fast or easy as driving your car on errands or to work. But try biking to the grocery store just once a month and see how it goes. Then bike to work with a friend once a week. You'll steadily get more in shape and gain confidence in your lifestyle choices. Biking will STILL not be as fast or as easy as driving, but it will be more satisfying than driving ever was. I promise you that.

Once you are more comfortable biking, you may wonder how you can make the transition to biking as transportation easier and more fun for those around you. Simple: ride more often, and ride with friends! Doing these simple things raises community awareness of alternatives to a system that doesn't really make anyone happy. If you live in or near a larger metropolitan area, consider joining a "Critical Mass" ride. These once a month group rides on major roads work to assert bikers' rights to the roadway. Remember, you have all the same rights to use the road as a car driver does. (Of course, all the same traffic laws apply to you, too.)

In fact, riding more often and with more people also helps in a very concrete and measurable manner. The more bicyclists on the road, the fewer injuries bikers incur. It's all a matter of raising awareness and teaching your community to watch for bicycles on the road, not just other cars. [Just for fun, check out these videos put out by Transport for London that illustrate this point about not noticing what you're not looking for.]

Remember, your personal lifestyle decisions effect much more than just your life. In transportation, as in so many arenas, "The personal is political."

Image from http://opensource.boxwith.com/archives/old%20bike.jpg

The Chemistry of Gift-Giving

Scientists doing MRI work on the human brain have found out some interesting things about the release of dopamine and oxytocin. What they've found, in short, is that adults get more pleasure from giving gifts than from receiving them. Children, on the other hand, get more pleasure from receiving gifts than giving them. Read more about the science and experiments here.

What does this have to do with sustainability? Knowing how to maximize pleasure from your holiday (or birthday) gift lists produces a more efficient use of material resources, thus making your gift-giving more sustainable. Why require the consumption of vast amounts of physical resources and energy production if your recipient isn't going to get a large amount of joy from your gift?

In that spirit, this Tree Hugger article lays down four suggestions for the most joyous use of gift resources.

1. "Children should never give gifts to adults - [K]ids get little joy from giving gifts, and adult receive little joy in receiving them. Why waste the planetary resources on creating the physical object? Forget these gifts." Instead, to incorporate a habit of giving rather than just greed and consumption in your children, consider asking them to volunteer with a charitable, educational, environmental, or non-profit organization for a few hours as their gift to you. In this way, children are learning to give back to the community and giving a gift that doesn't require any physical resources at all.

2. "Adults should always give gifts to children - Clearly, this is dopamine all around; adults enjoy giving, and kids enjoy receiving." This does not, of course, mean that you must give children store-bought or environmentally-damaging gifts. Hand-made, second-hand, or even temporary gifts work just as well to light up everyone's dopamine centers without harming the planet.

3. "Adults should give other adults gifts, that are in themselves gifts. This is a tricky one because adults like to give gifts but not receive them. Oftentimes, this one plays itself out as an agreement between parents and adult siblings that no gifts will be exchanged, then everyone goes ahead and buys something for everyone anyways because they want to make themselves feel good! In this case, the best course of action is to give nothing, which is ok and terrific for the environment, if you can deprive yourself of the joy. Another good idea is a donation to the charity of their choice." You don't have to deprive yourself of the joy that giving gives you. Instead of the usual physical gifts, however, choose charitable, service, or consumable (food) gifts. Or give the recipient something s/he really needs, like new underwear or next semester's textbooks. Don't worry if you don't think your recipient will be overwhelmed with child-like joy; according to the science, adult gift recipients rarely are. If you give them something they really need, you are making their lives easier, which is an enormous gift in and of itself.

4. "Children should share in gifts with other children, that have no giver. - This one is even more tricky - how does one enjoy a gift that isn't even given? Aha, this is the miracle of the season, the true Christmas spirit. Frankly, how to generate this type of atmosphere is unclear but when it happens it feels great and is pretty low-impact on the planet - happy thoughts cost the Earth nothing. For starters, I suggest getting the kids high on sugar and let them run around hogwild..." This humorous description is a way of saying 'let the kids enjoy being kids.' Let them give each other the gift of their companionship and fun.

For here or to go?

Let's face it. Sometimes we're all just too lazy or too tired to cook a legitimate meal for ourselves. Take-out, of course, is an excellent option. However, the waste that comes along with carrying out food is NOT such an excellent option. No Impact Man gives his advice on the take-out question. [Find the original article here.]

"Take out tubs, individual action, and changing minds"

Yesterday I posted about the trash I'd generated through eating takeout when I got too busy to cook for myself. Someone commented that eating takeout--in itself--is no problem. Cooking at scale may save energy. The problem is the plastic or cardboard containers that get generated.

Commenters left two suggestions behind for ways to get take-out without making trash. One is to take your own reusable containers to the take-out place yourself. I've done this before and the server liked it so much, he gave me extra food.

Another option is to ask the manager of your favorite food place if they would mind keeping a reusuable container belonging to you on hand. That way, they can deliver to you and you don't have to pick it up. When the delivery man drops off your food, you give him back a second, clean container to take back and store until next time.

Here's what's neat about this kind of idea. When you do it, it generates buzz, because other people are forced to get involved. It's like the glass jar I carry for coffee. Everyone wants to talk about it. Same with the reusable takeout tubs. Everyone will want to talk and it's chance to change a few more minds.

Image from reuseablebags.com

Holiday cards

Holiday cards have been sent and received for this season. They hang beautifully from our doors or refrigerators or bulletin boards. We enjoy them for a month or so, until the holiday spirit fades.

What do you do with old holiday cards? Keep them, of course! Almost every card you receive can make at least one really good gift tag. Some can make three or four! It's a great way to get more enjoyment from your beautiful cards. Once you've cut out some lovely gift tags, recycle with rest of the card. It's easy, cost-effective, and, best of all, green!

Maybe you'll want to send out more cards to your friends and family next year. Be careful, of course, when you're picking out next year's greetings that you don't buy cards that are made of first-use paper and unhealthy inks. Instead, look for cards made of recycled paper and soy- or vegetable-based inks.

Red Stamp, for example, offers over 100 different eco-friendly cards. They even offer photo cards, if that's your tradition, made from recycled paper and printed with soy-based inks. You can find a whole slew of cute holiday cards at Seltzer Goods. Their cards and envelops are made from 100% recycled paper and made in America. They're also printed with veggie-based inks.

Another great option is Etsy, which is an online resource for handmade items from across the nation. Some artists on Etsy use eco-friendly materials in their cards. (I love these, pictured above.) The holiday cards you'll find on Etsy don't cost any more than store-bought options, AND you'll be supporting individual artists, not corporations and sweatshops. It's quite easy to search the entire database on Etsy, so you don't have to look through each artist to find fun holiday cards.

Of course, more creative green card options exist, too. Zanisa, for instance, sells cards with Christmas tree ornaments made from handmade recycled paper embedded with seeds. These cool cards serve three purposes: you send them as holiday greetings, the ornaments decorate the receipients' trees, and, if the receipients throw the ornaments in some dirt after the holidays, the world is beautified -- and carbon sequestered -- by some pretty flowers. (Don't have any spare dirt? Consider guerilla gardening.)

Another option with auxiliary benefits: getting your holiday cards from a non-profit organization. The Sierra Club, for example, offers lovely card choices made from recycled paper and soy-based inks that feature nature photographs.

Remember, holiday cards typically go on deeply discounted sale right after Christmas. If you're the type to plan for next Christmas on Dec. 26, be sure to look for cards made from recycled paper and soy-based inks. And enjoy!