Our goals

These are the goals we have set for ourselves as a family. We are going to try them for one month, and then revisit them. I'll post on the progress of these goals, and the challenges we face in trying to meet them.

Ways we negatively impact the environment:
Make garbage that goes in a landfill
Use electricity
Drive cars
Buy food that is grown in an unsustainable manner or from far away
Consume goods that deplete resources, are made far away, end up in a landfill, etc.
Use water

Our goals to minimize this impact
1. Only put our trash on the curb one time per month. We have a normal-sized garbage can (35 gal).
This goal still bothers me, because any amount of waste is going in a landfill, and that is pretty horrible when you really think about it. Is it possible to not produce any waste? It would probably be very, very hard. We'll start with this one!
a. Only buy food that comes in packaging that can be reused or recycled. No plastic packaging that can't be reused or recycled.
b. Buy everything possible in bulk, reusable containers
c. Use only cloth bags for shopping
d. Bury organic waste (cat litter, dog waste, non-compostable food)
e. Compost paper waste (dryer lint, kleenex, coffee filters, etc.)
f. Compost ALL food waste
g. No disposable towels, paper towels, napkins, plates, or anything else where possible.
We already cloth diaper anyway! :)
h. No single-serving packages (juice boxes, string cheese, granola bars, etc.)
i. Stop all junk mail.
j. Switch ALL bills to e-bills. pay all bills online.
k. Recycle everything. If it can't be recycled, don't buy it.
l. Buy goods that are recycled (like 100% post-consumer recycled toilet paper)

2. Consume less electricity
a. Elect to use wind-generated power
We did this, and we do pay more, but its worth it. Plus, you get a yard sign! You can also opt for a fixed rate. Find out more here http://www.greenmountain.com/services/OR/index.jsp They serve Florida, New York, New Jersey, Texas and Oregon. PGE customers can sign up very easily.
b. Line-dry clothes
I love line-drying my clothes anyway.
c. Switch all bulbs to compact fluorescent when they burn out.
These need to be specially recycled when they burn out (in like 4 years) because they contain mercury.
d. Not use a fridge in the winter (?)
Has anyone tried this? If so, i'd love to hear about it. Why keep your fridge at 40 when its 40 outside here most of the time? What's to stop us from keeping stuff in the garage in the winter?
e. Keep thermostat very low in winter (we don't have a/c)
We keep ours at 66 daytime, 59 night.

3. Drive car less
What I would really love to do is not own a car. We just bought a used minivan. Maybe if we get into the bus/bike thing we could sell it. I looked into flexcar, but the nearest flexcar is really far away from our house, so it would take forever to get to it.
a. Jay only carpool, take bus or ride bike.
There are some times when he has to be at work really early or work really late, in which case he will probably have to drive. Its pretty rare, though.
b. Laura to bus distances over 1 mile. Walk distances less than 1 mile.
We can't bike because Emmett is too small for the bike trailer. When he gets bigger, though, we will do a lot of that.
c. Meal plan and only grocery shop once per week.
I will have to drive to the store. I can't imagine getting groceries and 2 kids on the bus. Yikes. But we can walk to one local store, so we will do that more.

4. Vast majority of food (80%) local and/or organic. Nothing from more than 1000 miles away (I realize we may not know where ingredients for some products like crackers or something come from, but at least the producer of the product would be local)
a. Have a garden--freeze what we don't eat fresh.
We do--yay! And its huge and awesome. I will post pictures soon.
B. Don't eat out of season. This means no bell peppers or tomatoes in the middle of winter.
C. Buy food at farmer's market, or from local farmers at New Season's/Co-op, etc.
D. Eat very little animal products
E. Minimal restaurant-eating, less than once per month.

5. Don't buy anything new, except items that need to be new for health or safety.
I realize this is going to be hard. We are going to try it though!
a. borrow, trade or buy used items
b. even then, consume mindfully
c. Consider packaging of all products when buying
d. Buy nothing new that is made in a sweatshop or foreign country
f. Tell others not to buy us new gifts.

6. Reduce water use
a. Time showers--5 minutes or less
b. If its yellow, leave it mellow. If its brown, flush it down...
c. Laundry extra large loads only
d. Fill sink when doing dishes (rather than running water).