Blog Action Day: The Power of Simple Actions

The most depressing thing I can hear someone say is “why bother?” Why bother changing lightbulbs, turning down the thermostat, using “green” cleaning products, and buying local when our government has failed to take the vast, far-reaching actions needed to spur global environmental change? The ice caps are melting, and we are losing species at an alarming rate. What does it matter how one person lives their life in the face of all of the work ahead of us?

My response to this is that it matters more than you can imagine. One person’s simple actions, when compounded and repeated by millions of people across the country and the world beyond, have the power to change the world. One person recycling and refusing to dump chemicals on their lawn and garden becomes an example, and even an inspiration, for others to do the same. And, in our own lives, one simple change leads to another, and that leads to another, and small changes can lead to bigger changes along the line.

That’s the whole point of green:easy—we have to start somewhere, and the only person we have control over is the one wearing our clothes, living our life. There is no such thing as a “small action.” Change a lightbulb, reuse a jar, wash your clothes in cold water instead of warm. Simple actions, surely, but these simple actions can change the world.

This was my contribution to Blog Action Day—I am one of over 15,000 bloggers uniting today under one cause, the environment. To participate, visit the Blog Action Day website to get started, or to find out which other blogs are involved.

Make the Most of Every Piece of Paper

Friday is green:work day here at green:easy, where we give you simple, inexpensive tips to make your work life a little more eco-friendly,  whether you work from a home office or a corporate cubicle.

Despite all of the predictions that we’d soon be a paperless society, we are all still buried under mountains of faxes, memos, handouts, brocures, and paper-based handbooks. The good news is that,  even before we recycle that  memo, we can put the paper to further use. After all, “reuse” comes before “recycle” for a reason!

Tips for Getting Plenty of Use From One Sheet of Paper:

1. Keep a clipboard on hand. Any one-sided documents that you’re done using can be put, blank side up, on the clipboard to jot notes and messages down throughout the day.

2. Cut one-sided documents into quarters, and use the small pieces of paper in place of message pads, scratch  paper, or sticky notes.

3. Keep paper that is blank on  one side to print out drafts of documents.

4. When possible, print or copy on both sides of the paper.

5. Use strips of used paper as bookmarks, placeholders in documents, or to separate piles of  copies for sorting later.

6. Bring used paper  home for  your kids to draw on  the blank side.

7. Bring used paper home for your kids to make winter decorations, such  as paper chains and snow flakes.

8. Shred used paper and use it as packing material.

9. Shred used paper and put  it into your  compost bin, where it will provide carbon to the pile.

10. Don’t throw out old handbooks or manuals when your company updates them. Since they’re already bound, they make perfect notebooks!