Green By Example

Happy Earth Day!

This past Saturday, I attended an Earth Week event, the Go Green Expo.  It married my two favorite activities: saving the environment and shopping.

The booths ranged from fake lawns to healthy cookware, biodegradable trash bags to recycled sailcloth shower curtains and handbags (of which I bought one of each). I know the motto is to reduce, so I thought carefully about each purchase I made. (OK, so I don’t need another bag but sometimes I can’t help myself!)

This event also had speakers throughout the day. We attended a talk by Mariel Hemingway, who has written a new book, Healthy Living From the Inside Out. And after the talk, I had a new green hero.

First of all, she is completely gorgeous and you can tell that she really takes care of herself. I’ve seen her on some "green" shows so I was familiar with her philosophies.

She talked about eating as a privilege and thinking about what you’re putting in your body as well as the products you put ON your body.  She spoke about how to be still with yourself, yoga and being respectful of the planet and ourselves.

But the one point that stuck with me was when she talked about people wanting to know how to convince others to live healthier. She said that you have to lead by example. You can’t force feed anyone this information…they won’t take it.

I thought about that...and my blog, accosting my co-workers about paper cups, huffing at the person in front of me when they take the plastic bag, and telling my husband not to eat fish. Maybe I wasn't leading, but preaching.

Then last night, I was at my play reading group. Every week the group leader brings bottled water and it drives me insane. This week, she happened to mention how horrible it is to buy plastic bottles, but that convenience wins. This sparked a discussion.

Someone said that the plastic is supposedly bad for the water. Another yelled out that her water sometimes tasted funny after a long time in the bottle. Another whined about how the security at the airport took her plastic Poland Spring bottle that she’d been using for two weeks and how pissed she was. (Believe me girl, he did you a favor!)

And then the one girl yelled, “Who cares about the bottles in the trash?  It's easier!” I wanted to leap across the table and smack her. But then Mariel popped into my head and I calmly reached into my bag, pulled out my Sigg and took a sip.

Someone said, “I need to get one of those!” Another complained that she loses everything. My response was, “If you spend the money on it, then maybe you won’t lose it. And it’s better for your health.” That was all I said. Hopefully I led by example and maybe inspired one person to switch her water bottle.

This Earth Day, I commit to doing the following:

I will not take any cabs…only walk or take public transportation.
I will make sure that the lights are out in any room I’m not in.
I will choose things that have little or no packaging.
I will take a shorter shower.
and…
I will lead by example!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!