Where are we at part II

Ok the final thing I wanted to talk about, what have we done to offset our carbon footprint? Well at least 3 days a week we are carpooling - huge savings there. Then we are monitoring the temperature at the house (we don't have a programmable thermostat yet - that's next) and turning the temp up during the day and down at night so it is comfortable to sleep in. We bought "green" laundry detergent, dish soap, and glass cleaner, and are about to buy floor cleaner. We have a bagless vaccuum with hepa filters - the bagless part is wonderful and less wasteful! and just today I made homemade bread!! great thing about that is - it costs pennies to make is easy (although time consuming) and has no preservatives in it and tastes about 1000 times better than store bought! go to www.thesimpledollar.com and search for bread for a step by step process and it has pictures - plus your house smells fantastic as well. So turning green has it's advantages in more than just saving money department it also increases the quality of life! (home baked bread yay!) have a wonderful day be back soon!

Where are we at?

Update!! ok from the food end of things, I have within the last week started an eating program - lifestyle change - call it whatever you wanna call it just not a dare I say "diet" - lol - ok so what does this have to do with turning green? Well I'll tell ya - I buy only organic food and I try my best to buy local - there is a store called Sunflower Market and they buy local as often as possible. I am also eating less meat - and only lean and starting to buy grass fed organic beef or "natural" meats as much as possible - now this is a pricey option but if you limit you meat intake )most people have much more protein than they really need) and maybe do a meatless meal or two a week it will come out about even.

The cost and materials of raising animals for the store is outrageously expensive and horrible on the environment and usually inhumane to the animals. Buying organic or natural meats really helps to cut down environmental damage because of the better conditions these animals are raised in compared to the mass market way. Some people take this to the farthest end and go vegetarian or vegan - not me or my family because I believe there are other alternatives but it's definitely an option!! Here is a very entertaining film on the subject http://www.themeatrix.com/very informative and fun at the same time.

Carbon Offset

Ok so it's been awhile but I'm back! so I wanted to feature the carbon footprint today. Basically finding out what yours is and what you can do to help your own. Why is this important? because this is our beautiful planet and we can ALL - weather wealthy or poor impact things in a positive way - as a matter of fact the less money you have, the more doing these things can impact you in a positive way - fortunately for us "turning green" also comes with the saving money benefit!! ok off the soap box - go to www.earthlab.com and you can either just do a carbon footprint calculator or sign up for the Earth Day 2008 challenge which basically says that in the next year you will work on making your carbon offset 15% less than it was or you can just use this to figure out your offset http://epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html

or here is one more http://fightglobalwarming.com/carboncalculator.cfm this is a good one too.

ok so I will share my households personal calculator: My Earth Conservation Score is 358 and my carbon output is 15.2 tons/year (yikes!) and here is what they say about that score "Generally, scores range from 150 - 900, lower the better. Your ECP score is calculated based on six categories related to Home, Energy, Work, Commute, Travel and Lifestyle. The average score in the US is 325; in Canada is 305."

I actually thought that it would be higher considering both my honey and I commute 60 miles a day total. He does ride his motorcycle pretty frequently and I drive my 4 cylinder truck everyday so I guess it's better than what it could be!

Next up I will share what I am doing so far...