Getting Smaller

In my second week of my 30 days to a smaller footprint, I disconnected all of the power in San Diego for massive amounts of energy consumption...Ha! But seriously it was a really odd timing and got me thinking a lot about the energy we feel like we need to consume. In the absence of power that night, people came out in the streets and enjoyed the company of others. There were BBQ's, kids in the street, people on bikes and millions of stars in the sky that are normally not visible due to the cities lights blocking them out. I wish more nights were like that.

Here are the little things I did this week to reduce my carbon footprint:

I took scrap paper that was going to get recycled and created writing notebooks.
Made glasses out of old jars that would have other wise gone in the recycle bin.
Began to walk more
started using a water filter and began filling up a few remaining plastic bottles I had around the house and used those as my "on the go" water bottles filled with purified water.
I have completely stopped printing out any paper.
Started cooking a lot more and reading labels when I buy food.

Its the little things that add up :)

30 days to a smaller footprint

It is never all or nothing, it is never to big to take on and little things can bring on change that is more than imaginable. This is a realization that I have been focusing on lately and it is a truly powerful understanding and way of thinking. We are surrounded by ideas and thoughts in our daily lives that influence us to believe that we are small and powerless and I refuse to believe in this media driven philosophy.

We know that we are living in a way that is not sustainable and what we are consuming today is leading to a less than perfect tomorrow. I have decided to stop being an uneducated consumer and become more conscious of the decisions I make and the effect it has on the environment around me. That brings me to my next 30 day project which is 30 days to a smaller carbon footprint.

There are a couple things I want to talk about before I dig into what I do day to day to take on this project. First is the idea that taking on a sustainable lifestyle means drastically changing your life. This is where the  notion of "all or nothing" comes in to play. You do not have to change everything you do to make a difference and in fact ,there are many small things that can be done to really make an big impact. The other important thing I am realizing is that thinking green really is a way to save money as well.

What is happening in the world around us is that we are running out of Oil, we are wasting our fresh water at an amazing rate and the amount of coal we burn to produce electricity is off the charts. Oil is in everything that we consume... gasoline, toothpaste, plastic, rubber, etc... Think about how Ironic it is that we are using Oil to produce Plastic to then bottle fresh water that we are running out of. This scenario to me really sums it up. We all have tap water in our homes that is safe to drink and undergoes heavy testing and regulation but we would rather pay a hefty price for someone to bottle it for us and market it to us. Bottled water is more expensive than gasoline and to me, that is absurd.

There are 2 things that I want to accomplish with this project. 1, I want this to turn into a way of being and 2, I hope it inspires even 1 person to take even just one of these ideas on.

September 9-3

I have always heard that flushing the toilet wastes lots of water so for me this was an easy first thing to do. I took a 1 litre empty plastic bottle, filled it with sand and then put it in the back of my toilet. This will save 1 litre every time I flush as the plastic bottle displaces any extra water. This is something that everyone can do and could not be any easier. If you have an adjustable "ball cock" (hee hee) in the back of your toilet you can also adjust this to a lower position which allows the water to fill to a lower rate with out putting an object in the toilet to displace water.

Yesterday I went to the local Grocery store to see how easy it was to buy items that use recycled materials. I ended up buying:

TeePee that was made from 80% post consumer content

Farm Raised Organic Eggs

Farm Raised Organic Chicken

Cleaner that was biodegradable.

In stead of buying paper towels I took shirts that I was going to give a way and cut a couple up into reusable towels.

The above list is quite short because I really was not buying a whole lot and the more I get educated the more I will be able to buy smarter products.

I also went around my house and unplugged any appliance that does not get used on a daily basis like my microwave, and I unplugged power chords and chargers so they were not drawing power out of the outlets when they are not in use. I am also making it a point to turn off any lights that I do not need to be on.... I am horrible about this sometimes sleeping with all my lights on... total waste.