GO GREEN NOW

GO GREEN for A DAY

Of course you may commit to adapting the following schedule and going green for a day. Here's what your daily schedule might look like once you've begun to put all the pieces of your yearly, monthly, and weekly goals in place. GO GREEN! ONE GREEN DAY:

• 6:00 AM - Rise and shine! Wake up body and soul.
• 6:10 AM - Devotions or meditation (I personally like the Bible.)
• 6:30 AM - Exercise, walk, run, bike, yoga. (Combine or rotate.)
• 7:00 AM - Read the morning paper online (Improve your mind)
• 7:15 AM - Shower with a low-flow shower-head. (Groom & Dress)
• 8:25 AM - Pack your lunch in reusable containers.
• 8:45 AM - Brew a cup of eco-friendly coffee at home and pour into a reusable mug.
• 8:50 AM - Power down before you leave the house. TVs, chargers, computers and many appliances drain energy even when not in useif they are plugged in. This is "standby power" & it costs U.S. consumers over $4 billion each year.
• 9:00 AM - Carpool to work. Bike or walk to work. (50% of air pollution comes
• 9:30 AM - At work, use your laptop. (They require much less energy than desktops.)
• 11:00 AM - Print on both sides of the page, single space files, decrease margins
• 3:30 PM - Scheduling a conference call with a client instead of a face-to-face meeting
• 5:55 PM - Plug your computer into a power strip & switch off at the end of the day
• 6:00 PM - Text your partner to say you're on your way home. Texts use 30 times less energy than an email.
• 6:15 PM - Bundle your evening errands to save gas and reduce pollution. Starting a car with a warm engine emits one-fifth the pollution created by starting a car with a cold engine.
• 6:20 PM - At the gas station, tighten your gas cap. In the U.S., 47 million gallons of gas evaporate each year. Tighten and turn until it clicks.
• 6:25 PM - At the ATM, say no to a receipt. Americans use 2 billion feet of ATM paper a year.
• 6:30 PM - Take canvas bags to the supermarket. Just put them back in the car for next time.
• 7:15 PM - Before your head to dinner and a movie, print the tickets from your desktop.
• 8:00 PM - Eat dinner at a restaurant that serves locally grown, organic food. Check gengreenlife.com or the "Organic Nutrition" section of this web site for lists of eateries and food stores that serve environmentally friendly vittles in your zip code. If you eat at home, choose a burner smaller than your cooking container and no need to preheat the oven if you're cooking food for longer than 20 minutes.
• 11:00 PM - Prepare for a good nights sleep. Reflect on the positive elements of your. Give Thanks. Don't argue with your partner now; instead, set your alarm for 3:00 AM. When it sounds look at each other and decide if it's worth arguing about then.

HAVE YOURSELF A GREAT GREENER DAY. (From National Geographic Green Guide. Winter 2009)

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GO GREEN THIS WEEK 

A "NEW" year's resolution can be made at any time. Perhaps now is the time for you to make a NEW resolution to lighten the load you leave on the planet. Small changes can add up to BIG results and great changes. The key is to educate yourself and begin your journey.

In the next week consider several areas on which you may focus your gradual changes.

• FOOD: Where does your food come from, how is it packaged, how much waste does it generate? Do food scraps go in the garbage or are they composted.
• TRANSPORTATION: Vow to take fewer car trips for the next week. You can walk, bike, combine trips. Ever go shopping on Monday, then run out of milk on Tuesday, eggs on Wednesday, Coffee and salad dressing Thursday? WAIT and combine.
• ENERGY: Schedule an energy audit for your home to get a list of suggestions for reducing your home's energy use. You may get a free audit from your utility company or there are many firms that will examine a home for a nominal fee and give you a list of options that will immediately save energy and money. You can than start working on the changes needed, one at a time, as it makes sense to you.
• EVERYDAY PURCHASES: Create your on "Go Green Now" kit. Small purchases that lead to a great impact include: * reusable tote bags, * stainless steel water bottle, * travel coffee mug, * BYO - lunch supplies - an insulated carrier, utensils and wax paper or aluminum foil (instead of plastic wrap, * Fluorescent light bulbs.