Wondering how to live greener? You've come to the right place. Each week we challenge ourselves to try a new task ... or "amp up" something we're already doing. We raise our awareness, learn from each other and develop Eco-friendly skills which will improve our lives and protect our planet. Doing so together gives us power ... the power to Change The World!
If this is your first visit, please click HERE for information and a complete list of all the challenges we've taken on so far.
This post contains great information and I encourage you to read through it at your leisure ... however, if you are short on time, you might find the following quick links helpful:
I spent last week dreaming ... imagining a perfect green world. Our challenge asked that we not only picture an Eco-friendly life but think about the steps we could take to make it a reality. The beauty of an exercise like this is that it takes us beyond our normal routine ... it allows us to think bigger than our own lives.
The Honor Society are those people who help us spread the "green" word by writing an article about our challenges and/or leaving pertinent comments.
Argentum Vulgaris begins describing his green world by saying, I would begin by turning the clock back 50 years. From there, he gets rid of several things. Hop over and read Change the World Wednesday – 3rd Jul for a glimpse at the life he imagines.
Flora Foster gave CTWW a headline spot in The Flora Foster Daily. Other interesting content includes a post on July Superfoods and one entitled Educating Your Kids Financially When You are Homeschooling.
Lois accepted our "reduce energy" challenge and, in Change the World Wednesday, Catching Up, shares some things she learned while visiting her son. She also accepts this week's task and describes her perfect world. It's lovely!
Betty Manousos swung by to say "hello" and wish everyone a happy 4th of July! Thanks, Betty!
Cristina dropped in and shared her thoughts: My perfect green world would center on the idea of little to no waste. Its hard to convince family and friends. My hubby really dislikes cloth napkins and my no paper towel rule. However, he has adjusted and we've compromised in other areas. I would love to get rid of all paper products all over the world. Disposable plastics too! My cat uses pine litter which breaks down better than conventional litter, we use cloths a lot in lieu of paper, make our lists on our phone and reuse a ton of tossables!
Ann says, I love green, and recycling and enzyme is my way to go.
Alicia began creating her perfect green world awhile back and continues to plan for the future. She shares this: There is so much more that we would like to do. Solar is something we are going to be doing on down the road. I think it would be awesome to be off the grid. When we build our house we are going to use recycled materials where we can and really make it energy efficient. I want to get rain barrels so that we can store water for our Summer plants when it gets dry and doesn't rain for days. This past year to save our plants we bought a sprinkler system and watered our plants. Our water bill doubled that month!! On one of our trips to Monterey we stayed in a hotel that used salt instead of chlorine for the pool. I would love to do that. We want to start gardening with wood chips. Not only is it so Eco Friendly but the yield of fruits and veggies is simply amazing. It also eliminates having to use any pesticides. If you are a gardener you should check it out. Oh the list goes on and on with ways we would like to be "greener" But we are good examples of how all you have to do is just start. We started about eight years ago recycling our paper products.Then we started making our own detergent and dryer balls.One thing led to another and now we pretty much have eliminated all the toxic chemicals from our home and products we use on our bodies. To think it all started with recycling paper!
And finally, you can see what I dream about in this post: In My Perfect Green World.
Our Twitter friends joined the conversation and shared the following:
From @lavishandlime
- Don't let water run while rinsing dishes. Fill one sink with wash water & the other with rinse water.
From @proamusa
- @KariPost: Photos from Nature Photo Explorers, a collaboration btwn the Bonnyvale Environmental Education... fb.me/1vlz7CwIl
The #CTWW Gang are those folks who tweet our challenges using the hashtag #CTWW. If you're a Twitter member, I recommend following them ... they share great things. Let's meet them:
My Final Thoughts:
Jimminy Cricket, a Disney character, sings that if we wish on a star our dreams will come true. But that's only part of the story. Imagination is like a seed in our mind. It helps us expand our thinking and see possibilities. If we develop a plan and begin taking steps to achieve our dreams, they can become a reality. And that's where Jimminy Cricket's magic really begins.
Thanks, everyone! If you wrote an article, I Stumbled, Tweeted, Facebooked and posted it on Google +. You can help spread the "green" word by using the share features located below this post.
This Week's Challenge:
Every year, in early September, Mrs. Green hosts Zero Waste Week. This year's theme is "Use it Up!" and will address food waste. Between now and then, folks can sign up and take advantage of tips, recipes, and lots of encouragement. I thought it would be a great subject for this week's challenge. Here you go ...
This week, in addition to avoiding food waste, please share your ideas for how we can all eliminate it in our lives. The idea here is to share tips, strategies, recipes, etc. ... anything that will help us "Use it Up" rather than send it to a landfill.
AND, TO KICK IT UP A NOTCH ...
Head over to the Zero Waste Week site, register and check out all the great information.
Head over to the Zero Waste Week site, register and check out all the great information.
WANT MORE? OKAY ...
Spread the word and encourage your friends and family to join the movement! Let's ban food waste forever!!
Spread the word and encourage your friends and family to join the movement! Let's ban food waste forever!!
Will you accept the challenge and become a "Zero Hero"?
Until next time ...
WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD ... ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!