The other day, my boss came into my office. She was very serious and handed me a small box. She asked me to open it. I had no idea where this was going so I did as I was asked. After all, she is the boss.
Inside was a slip of paper inviting her to stop by a booth at the local fundraising executives conference. The paper fit neatly into the box and was supported by a giant piece of foam. I looked at her, horrified. I knew why she had handed me the box.
"Well, " she said, "since you are our resident environmentalist, I thought I'd let you deal with this."
That's me.
Never in a million years did I ever expect anyone to refer to me as an environmentalist. In fact, only about a year ago, I carried my groceries in plastic bags, thought recycling was a pain and used incandescent light bulbs! So what made me change?
It wasn't an overnight decision. I credit Al Gore. An Inconvenient Truth was the catalyst. I wanted to do something. I started with light bulbs then started bringing my own bags to the store. And then I become obsessed. I devoured information like it was a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Magazines, websites, TV shows. And then I had to learn how not to be preachy. I didn't mean to be. I was excited. I just wanted everyone to know what I was learning.
And here we are. The Green, The Bad and The Ugly. This blog will cover my adventures with all three.
As for the box that held the slip of paper... I called the marketing company and spoke with the person in charge of this nightmare. I told her that we were appalled and that we would not be stopping by their booth. She tried to tell me that everything was made from recycled materials.
"Have you heard about REDUCE, reuse and recycle?" I asked. "Do you know our planet is in trouble? Who ever thought this up must have some serious problems."
"I'm sorry you feel that way," she replied. Then she hung up.
This blog is about encouraging the good, outing the bad, going green and staying green while keeping a sense of humor. Basically, thinking outside the overpackaged box...
