Green, Greener, Greenest

A little list of relatively painless changes that will reduce your environmental impact, and in many cases also save you money and make you healthier. Not a bad deal!

1. Self propulsion. Human-powered travel is good for the world, your mind and your body. The most important thing is mustering up the discipline to slip on your walking shoes or mounting your bicycle when easier alternatives exist. Just remember: You’ll never curse yourself at the end of the month for getting too much exercise!

2. Composting. There’s something satisfying about turning kitchen scraps into garden goodness. It doesn’t take a lot to transform your kitchen waste into rich compost, and if done properly there will be no odour. Not only does composting reduce waste in landfills, but it also helps build an understanding of the processes of nature.

3. Reduce energy consumption. There are hundreds of steps we can take to lessen our energy requirements. Change incandescent bulbs with fluorescent, take steps to insulate your home, buy an energy-efficient car, use cold water to wash clothes, use low-flow shower heads, and keep the heat lower.

4. Don’t drive your kids to school. Chauffeuring the kids not only damages the environment, but also teaches your kids how to be couch potatoes. If you don’t have time to accompany your child by foot talk to other parents about “school pools.”

5. Offset your carbon emissions. Much of the technology required to help us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions is still being developed.  One way you can support technology development and other initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to offset your CO2 emissions by paying a voluntary fee which goes to support these initiatives.

6. Recycling. Our grandmothers and grandfathers come from an era where recycling was a way of life. Our efficiency of resource exploitation has allowed us to regard recycling as non-necessary from an economical perspective. There is a price to pay, however, and any efforts we make to reuse and recycle will reduce the strain on the environment.

7. Get out into the woods. Take the kids canoeing and camping. There’s no better way to instill a sense of environmental stewardship than to get out there and experience the environment we’re impacting. Our wilderness is a collective garden for all to enjoy, and the more we experience it, the more we’ll want to preserve it.

(By Colin Angus. Originally published in The Vancouver Province, April 22, 2007)