This blog is an experiment in making my lifestyle greener. I’m not planning on quitting my job and moving to a farm any time soon, or become a hippie, or make my own clothes. All I want is to make little changes in my life that will make me more environmentally responsible.

Why am I doing this? Well, it all started with an article on salon.com about plastic bags. You can read the article yourself, but the bottom line is: plastic bags are bad. A lot worse than you think. After reading the article, I happened to be in a bookstore, and picked up a couple of books about ‘going green.’ The books were:

• It’s Easy Being Green by Crissy Trask, and
• The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen

I have found both of the books helpful so far. They take the approach of making small changes in your life rather than trying to do everything at once. What I especially like about the Trask book is that it has a chapter full of tips in different categories such as ‘Energy’ or ‘At work.’ The reader can check off the tips s/he is most interested in, and then return after trying them out, and rate their success implementing a particular tip.

One thing I’ve noticed after becoming interested in this, is that it made me see everything I do in everyday life in a different light. To give just one example: I started paying attention to what I eat, how it’s packaged, how much garbage it generates, how much food I throw away, etc. Once I started paying attention, I saw how one person can make a difference, and how little actions multiplied over a lifetime can have a large environmental impact. I also saw that a lot of the time there is no clear-cut ‘best’ solution (i.e. paper vs. plastic bags), and it really takes some thinking and research to figure out what makes the most sense.

I plan to use this blog to report my own progress, the things that I am doing to change my behavior, what I am learning, and where I am succeeding or failing. So without further ado…