The pretty easy changes...

My top five things you can do to be more responsible with resources without drastically changing your life (my resource impact information is all from Ideal Bite):

1. No more bottled water! There are so many reasons for this one.  Really, anything designed for single-use is generally wasteful – and plastic is among the more difficult things to recycle.  In fact, many used bottles don't get recycled (this is an old article, but it still makes me shudder).  Your tap water is just as good, and maybe even better than the water in the bottles (check this out).  If you want “pure” water, go with a water filter on your tap or a filter pitcher. Certain plastics leach dangerous chemicals into their contents (yick) – watch out for #3, 6 & 7 plastics, PVC and bisphenol-A.  Plus you can get such cute, practically indestructible, wonderfully-reusable aluminum bottles these days - and even if they are a little expensive, you'll make up for it in saved money from buying bottled water. My personal favorite is my SIGG bottle.

Resource impact: Ideal Bite says that if 10,000 people drink filtered tap water rather than bottled water for a year, we could save enough oil to fill 79 kitchen sinks.

2. Say no to paper and plastic grocery bags.  It's so simple to bring your own bag to the grocery store.  I keep a few in my car so I can just take them in with me when I make impromptu trips, as I so often do.  Sometimes you get a couple of cents back when you use your own bag.  My purple PCC bags get compliments all the time on how pretty they are (you can see the bag on the right side of this page - and the page says that PCC sells their bags at cost!).  Most bags hold more than a paper or plastic bag, so you can carry fewer.

Resource impact: Ideal Bite says that if 10,000 people brought their own tote instead of using plastic grocery bags, we would avoid using 9 million plastic bags in a year.

3. Bring your own mug to the coffee place.  I have a couple of Starbucks mugs (or "personal cups") that I leave in my car with my grocery bags.  I have one grande cold-drink cup, one grande hot-drink cup, and one short hot-drink cup, so I can choose depending on what I'm in the mood for.  Of course, if I want a venti, then I have to use their cups (and for some reason the cups that look like talls are actually shorts, don't know why that is).  This tip has its issues for me, because my mugs are made of #7 plastics, which grosses me out a little bit, but until I can find suitable replacements, I'll keep using them.  I also feel a little funny taking a Starbucks-brand mug into another coffee shop, so I usually don't.  I'm on the lookout for brand-neutral, preferably aluminum, mugs that I like and will work instead, but I'm not there yet. Also, some Starbucks offer “for here” mugs – you just need to ask for them – which are great if you are planning on staying there for awhile. That way you also get to enjoy how pretty your drink is.

Resource impact: Ideal Bite says that if 10,000 people bring their own mugs for a year, we would avert the weight of 1,517 baristas in disposable-cup waste.

4. Think before you print. Not to be eco-pretentious, but this was actually something I was doing before I was an environmental nut. I keep a box under my desk with any paper that I’m done with that only has printing on one side. Then, any time I print a draft of something, a receipt, or really anything that isn't going to be seen by anyone else, I take pages from that box and print on the blank side. Other printing tips: print in draft mode when you can, print double-sided (on blank sheets of paper), and reduce your margins. There’s even a petition to have Microsoft change the default margins in Office. And of course, in general, don’t print if you don’t have to. This is actually kind of hard for me; I like to have hard copies of my documents. But I’m trying to adapt to keeping electronic copies of certain statements and similar paperwork.

Resource impact: Ideal Bite says if 10,000 people print most of their documents in draft mode, we would use 20,000 fewer ink cartridges per year.

Ideal Bite also says if 10,000 people change their margins to 0.5-in., in a year we would preserve more than an acre of trees.

5. Unplug your electronics. In the environmentalist world, they call these electronics “energy vampires” or “phantom loads” – probably because they are pretty scary. Most electronics continually pull electricity from the wall, even when they aren’t on and in use. For many items, getting rid of the vampires is pretty easy – i.e., don’t keep your cell phone or camera chargers plugged in at all times. For other electronics, like your computer or TV, most enviros will recommend plugging into a surge protector or power strip that you can turn off when your items aren’t being used. My computer and all of its accessories are on a surge protector that I turn off after I turn off my computer for the night.

Resource impact: Ideal Bite says if 10,000 people plug their cable boxes into power strips that automatically turn off when not in use, we would save a collective $300,000 per year.

Next time: Five more things you can do to reduce your impact; these ones are still easy but take a little more effort than the first five.

Thoughts and Changes

I was recently at a youth conference and attended a forum called "Kingdom and Environment." When the list of forums was presented, I was surprised at the number of people who rolled their eyes and groaned. "Not another lecture on being 'green!'" Taking care of the earth is such a political topic now - meaning it is by nature polarizing - and being "green" is the trend on which advertisers are capitalizing.

My personal convictions have lead me to have a passion for environmental issues, and for the last six months or so, I've really been wrestling with what that looks like in my faith. It just doesn't seem to be widely acceptable to be Christian and to be an environmentalist. And I feel like I sometimes have to deny who I am in Christian circles by not speaking up about my passions and convictions in this area.

Reading the book Blue Like Jazz was probably the first step in helping me come to a better understanding of myself. Donald Miller says things in that book that made me think as I read it, "Hey, I've thought that before but never knew how to put it in words." Miller loves Christ, and he isn't conservative - in fact, he's a Democrat. I'm not really either a Democrat or a Republican, but it helped reassure me that I can have godly convictions that lean toward the "liberal" side. I'm not attacking Christian Republicans here; I'm just saying that I started to realize that I wasn't somehow more evil for taking a liberal stance on an issue. The key is whether I'm being led by God or by other people, from anywhere on the political spectrum. I started to pray that God would show me what to think and feel about politics and politicians, as hinted at here:

I felt a long way from the pre-me, the pawn-Christian who was a Republican because my family was Republican, not because I had prayed and asked God to enlighten me about issues concerning the entire world rather than just America. ~from pg. 19 of Blue Like Jazz

There are a lot of issues that I could talk about, but the main focus here is on the environment. And I feel really strongly that I am called to take care of the earth to the extent that I can. I have lots of info about the how (some of which I've already shared on my blog), plus I'm on about five e-mail lists from environmental organizations, so my head is constantly getting filled with new ideas to implement in my life. But it has really been the why that I've been learning the last few months. God showed me some Bible verses that encouraged me: God renews the face of the earth (Psalm 104:30). Much as we groan and wait for the redemption of our bodies, so does the creation eagerly wait for redemption (Romans 8:18-23). And even the idea that the land should have a Sabbath year as laid out in Leviticus 25.

The "Kingdom and Environment" forum really encouraged me as well. The speaker emphasized that loving God and loving people, the Greatest Commandment, should always take precedence over loving the earth. But I've been thinking the last few days about how I'm actually loving God and loving people through the ways I love the earth. God emphasizes over and over in the Word that He loves His creation - I am loving God by taking care of what He loves. I am also loving God by being true to the convictions He has put in my heart. And I am loving people by not being selfish in how I use resources (at least trying). By realizing the impact my actions have on the environment that we all share. And by considering the very poorest people in the world and how my wanting more "stuff" impacts their lives. (Watch The Story of Stuff. It takes a good chunk of time to watch, but it blew my mind and absolutely tore at me how much I abuse other people through all my stuff.)

I have such a long way to go in changing how I impact the environment through my life. But I still believe in the power of small changes, and I think most of the work revolves around the everyday choices I make. I'll go back to Blue Like Jazz here: "I am not browbeating myself here; I am only saying that true change, true life-giving, God-honoring change would have to start with the individual. I was the very problem I had been protesting." (pg. 20)

I am going to strive to continue to make changes in my own life. I am sick of divisive political agendas, debates over the legitimacy of global warming, and the everywhere-you-look green trend. I am not striving to be environmentally-kind to push people one way or another, to save the planet, or to give myself a gold star. The heart behind all this is that I want to be a good steward of the things I have been given, I want to love my neighbor, both next door and around the world, and I want to honor God.

So I'm changing the name of my blog. The word I've been liking most recently is "sustainable."

sustain:
1. to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, as a structure.
2. to bear (a burden, charge, etc.).
3. to undergo, experience, or suffer (injury, loss, etc.); endure without giving way or yielding.

God has given me a place on this planet, and it helps sustain - bear the weight of - my life. I want my life to help sustain and support it. The definition I like best there is to "endure without giving way or yielding." I don't promise to update this blog more often than I have, but I hope to - to record the things I've learned and share the ideas I encounter. And I hope through this process that I am better able to sustain myself and my lifestyle (by the empowerment of God).

Be Informed

A couple of Web sites that help you to be informed when making your shopping decisions. I may have written this before, but I love the idea of voting with your wallet.  For example, I don't shop at Wal-Mart, even though I could probably save a lot of money there, because there are just so many problems with that corporation that I just don't agree with.  I'm not trying to sound high and mighty with that statement, because I definitely give my money to plenty of companies that I probably shouldn't give my money to, but Wal-Mart at the least is one company that I've made up my mind against.  I need to keep visiting sites like these to find out about others I should know about:

Co-Op America - A site that encourages you to be a responsible shopper.  Learn about the companies that you patronize.  Find out abuses that have been reported.  Compare companies within an industry.  There are even grade charts to help with these comparisons - although I'm a little skeptical about these charts because a "no information" is graded higher than a letter grade.  In other words, if no information is known about a company, than it is rated higher than a company with all Cs.

Who Is Behind Your Green Snack? From TreeHugger - Gotta love the fine folks at TreeHugger.  I could just use this blog to constantly point people to that one.  This particular article is about knowing the big corporations who are responsible for various organic brands.  The story for most is that a company that produces an organic product grew successful enough that a major company bought it out.  Read all about who owns who now - and decide for yourself whether it matters to you.

It's not just about cardboard and pop cans

Prompted by a recent conversation with a dear friend about recycling, I started thinking about all of those "hard-to-recycle" items. Mostly electronics. I think by now most of us know that there are a lot of bad things in electronic equipment that should not end up in landfills. But taking time out of our lives to drive out to a recycling center is not practical for a lot of us - it's just much easier to toss that broken monitor in the trash bin.

So here are a few places that will take your electronic trash, with only a little effort on your part and either for free or for pretty cheap:

CFL Bulbs: The Home Depot will accept used CFL bulbs at any store, at the returns desk, for free. Note: They need to be unbroken bulbs. See the press release for more info.

CDs, DVDs, and Jewel Cases: There are a number of organizations that will take in CDs and DVDs and their cases, and many will do so for free. I like the CD Recycling Center of America because it has an easy to navigate Web site and is very clear about how the material should be packaged and what will happen to it. I actually just packed up a box to ship today. The CD Recycling Center does not charge for the service; however, you will need to pay for shipping. If you send your box via USPS, you can use media mail and it shouldn't be too expensive.

Other Electronic Equipment: Costco will not only recycle your old electronics for free, the company may even pay you for your equipment. Through the Costco Trade-In and Recycle Program, Costco will recycle your notebook PC, Mp3 player, digital camera, printer, monitor, etc. Simply follow the directions on the Web site to determine if your item still has any value - if it does, Costco will give you a gift card for recycling the item. For example, I went through the steps on my 5-year old Dell notebook and had an estimated valuation of $60. Not bad. And even if your item doesn't meet criteria for a trade-in, you can still send the item in for recycling for free. Costco will send you a pre-paid shipping label, and you just need to drop off the item and a shipping center. I like that the program has a zero tolerance landfill policy.

Another place to recycle electronics is through Sony's recycling program. Sony is working with Waste Management so that you can take old electronics to Waste Management drop-off centers for recycling - for free.

Not Such a Material Girl

I love that being "green" is getting so much attention lately; I think that when environmentally-friendly items are readily available, then even people who don't really care can live a little more responsibly. Buying items that are recycled, organic, or just all-around take less of a toll on the earth are better; however, buying less is still the best option. There's absolutely no waste if you skip buying something you don't really need.

That being said, I'm not very good about buying less. I'm fascinated by all the things I see in the world around me -- I want to try the various gadgets, have the cute clothes I like, etc., etc. And then of course, you get to the holidays, when everyone wants to know what you want. You can ask for all of those things you restrained yourself from buying throughout the year. In my family, asking for specific items is actual doing people a favor, because we don't like having to figure out what someone else wants.

So I was excited about finding a couple of cool online gift registries. The first is the Alternative Gift Registry. It allows you to create a wedding or baby registry with both tangible and intangible objects - anything you want. The samples show people asking for, yes, a DVD player or some place settings, but also for recipe cards with people's favorite recipes or used books or cleaning advice. It allows for people to ask for the things they think they really need for their lives and not just things to fill up a registry. It emphasizes the relationships between people instead of the presents, can cost significantly less, and can have positive environmental impact.

A less altruistic option but still something that I find really cool is TheThingsIWant.com. It's a "universal" wish list, meaning that you can add items from any Web site to your list. I see this being particularly useful for family Christmas and birthday lists. I tend to make an amazon.com wish list with books and movies on it, then have to send around e-mail lists with in-depth descriptions of the exact bag I want or the color and size of these shoes from REI. If I only want one item from a store, then there's no point in creating a wish list on its site. This option can be a one-stop-shop for all those material things I can't help from wanting.