Your Guide To Green

Learn what it takes to lighten your
ecological footprint

Just a small percentage of people changing the way they shop and the way they live can be a powerful force to persuade politicians, move markets, and inspire fellow citizens to change.

For years, I've told my readers and audiences, "Every time you open your wallet, you cast a vote for or against the environment." What's excited me most about this notion is that the marketplace is not a democracy: It doesn't take 51 percent of the population voting one way or another to effect change. But it does take an understanding of the relationships between the things we buy and the things we do, and their impact on the environment.

Many of us know well the challenges and confusion each of us faces in trying to "go green." The challenges come when you try to do the right things, not simply perform a few symbolic acts every third week in April around Earth Day.

The confusion sets in when you try to truly grasp the environmental implications of your purchases and actions. Understanding the environmental impact of something as simple as using a polystyrene foam coffee cup instead of a paper cup or a washable mug requires digesting an impressive amount of technical information. Not to mention addressing such significant, everyday issues as how to minimize the impact of commuting to work, manage our cities, and cool and heat our homes in environmentally responsible ways. Much of this information is incomplete, inaccurate, or conflicts with other data.

The result is that we often do the wrong things, or do nothing at all. Amid the frustration and confusion, it can be difficult to maintain perspective. Consider this: Even if you were to make all the "right" environmental choices during your next trip to the supermarket, the benefits to the earth would be wiped out by the mere act of driving one mile to and from the store in a poorly tuned, gas-guzzling car with a cold engine and under-inflated tires. The point is we have to undertake the significant acts as well as the symbolic ones.

Realistically none of us will ever get everything completely right -- it's simply not possible. Every day, even the "greenest" among us uses resources and creates wastes that must be disposed of. That makes each of us a contributor, however unwittingly, to environmental degradation. The most we can hope for is to do the least amount of damage in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.

But that doesn't mean our actions can't have a powerful impact on the environment or be a potent force in persuading others to be more responsible. All it takes is a little knowledge.

There are many sources available and one of them is a book titled EarthScore. It can help you get a handle on the way you live and the impact your actions have on the earth.

Over time, as each of us grows and changes, our impacts on the earth change too. As we set up a household, find a mate, perhaps raise kids, change jobs, change homes, take vacations, retire, and so on, we use different types and amounts of resources that in turn create different types and amounts of waste. Tracking these changes and their impacts can help each of us decide what, if any, alterations may be appropriate.

EarthScore provides a personalized scoring system designed to help individuals measure their specific personal impact. By understanding your own habits and lifestyles over time, you can identify where you can truly make a difference.