What do you do to be green?

I've recently learned of and joined a local mom's group focused on grass roots political eco-conservation. I've been green for many years but I'm still learning new things each day that are simple and cost effective while protecting the environment. To date our family has: *converted our home to eco-friendly personal care, home care, skin care, and nutritional products that we buy manufacturer direct via online & delivered to UPS store for p/u. *changed all lightbulbs to CFL's. *buy grains, spices, teas, etc. in bulk whenever possible. *shop organic, local, in season. *amassed a healthy supply of canvas shopping bags that we use at the store(s) and farmer's market. *drive a hybrid. *turned down the water heater so that we can shower w/o having to use cold water. *cloth diapered our daughter/donated the diapers to our son's orphanage. *donated microwave oven *donated plastic storage containers and bought some glass, and save glass jars to use for storage. *shop from consignment & thrift stores as much as possible. * host clothing swaps with other mom's. * I work at home, DH telecommutes the maximum his employer will allow. * prefer naturopathic, homeopathic, and chiropractic medicine to allopathic. * buy books/tapes/etc. at library book sales. * recycle, compost, and cook from scratch. I recently learned about having chickens and my city allows 3 per house. We're waiting for the next class to learn more and implement that. I also learned about alternative solar and wind turbine energy (we don't have enough land in the city for turbine) but should we remodel we will use solar energy. I'm probably forgetting some things because I know we're not perfect.

RE: What do you do to be green?

WOW! How inspiring. I too used cloth diapers and loved it honestly! We also use homeopathic and chiropractic care. Tell me more about how you compost. We live in the city now, but when I grew up in the country composting was pretty easy as there were no neighbors to be concerned with. A few years ago we composted but found that racoons and possum found our compost heap that was in a fence like container. I'd be interested in learning more. Thanks!

RE: What do you do to be green?

WOW! You must live somewhere that's sustainable for that lifestyle. We're with you there (in spirit). Alas, I live in a town that has virtually no accommodations for public transportation, recycling, or alternative energy. But, I've done what I could and told my daughter her weekly "chore" is to separate the plastic bottles from the cans. (We drive them to a bin in another town). And just today she told the neighbor "we recycle!" And she took the neighbor's bottle and put it in our bin. Hooray. Good luck to you all.