Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

i'd say we do pretty well... we are slowly replacing all our lightbulbs with flourescent ones, i only run the dishwasher and wash when they are absolutely full ( about once a week). we have an HE washer and dryer that use less water and electrictiy, we recycle everything we possibly can ( i even bring my soda cans from lunch home from work because theres no recycling bins there). i reuse any paper i can- my students laugh at me because i save every bulletin to use as scrappaper LOL i save the paper bags from teh grocery store to use for other things ( picking up dog poop ), and we turn off all the lights we don't use.
i also try to save water when i can too- i take pretty short showers, and turn the water off when i brush my teeth.
i drive an SUV, but its a small one that gets as good gas mileage as a lot of cars, plus i only have a 1 mile commute to work....

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

I feel we can always do better. I was the little environmentalist child at age 8 yelling at people to recycle and save water and asking mom and dad to put solar panels on the house!!!

I'm pretty "green." I drive a compact car (next car will hopefully be a hybrid or alternate fuel car), we are slowly replacing as much as possible with compact flourescents, but actually a lot of our lighting fixtures are really old so I am concered about this (does anyone know if this is safe?), we recycle. We use reusable grocery bags (although we never seem to have the car that has them with us), low flow shower heads, etc.

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

I do some things to help go green but there are others that I don't.

We recycle
Use the reusable bags at the grocery store
use reusable lunch containers
Programmable thermostats so the heat is done when we are not home or asleep
Turn the lights off when we are not in a room

On the other hand, we drink bottled water, I have an SUV, we use fertlizer on our lawn, water our lawn when needed.

Like other said, I am not totally green for my own personal reasons & until I HAVE to do it, I won't change my lifestyle completely

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

While I can't say I am totally green- b/c of my SUV and DH Super Charged Mustang (good luck on that one)

but I try to do my part

1-I bring my own bags to the supermarket - and judging by the raffle at traders joes- I am not alone

2- I went to the dreaded wal-mart and bought those new light bulbs- I only need to change out 2 more- and my whole apartment will be running on them

3- I recycle

4- I take the bus to work- 5 days a week

5- I walk to do most errands- there is a major shopping center 2 blocks from my house

6- I rarely use the heat

7- we live in Queens- we have no lawn

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

I am not green and not afraid to say so. I like my bottled water, my SUV, my brand-name dishwasher soap, etc.

I do like to save money, so I am starting to switch to LED Christmas lights and I do have a HE washing machine/dryer.

Feel free to flame away, but I am sure that there are decisions you make in your lives that I don't agree with. To each their own!

Message edited 1/15/2008 7:33:56 PM.

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

I am going to say other. I am a work in progress. We try to recycle where we can. We bought a house that has solar panels for hot water. Honestly I love them and given the money I would go to full solar. As we replace appliance I am trying to do energy star appliance, we are replacing lightbulbs as they burn out with the energy bulbs. We are not big into the chemicals for the lawn, we mulch and try to do other things but yet we have a mini van. Though we do try to use are car and not the minivan if we don't need to

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

we recycle, replace bulbs, unplug appliances. I have a honda civic.. dh has an SUV (rodeo).. I don't know HOW green we rate.. I would like to do more- I sometimes forget- like enviro friendly reusable food store bags. But forgetting is no excuse for me.. I need to step up already

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

I used to be greener, relatively speaking. My problem is that I'm still doing the same things that I was doing to be environmentally conscious in the 90s (not using aerosols, recycling, etc.), but I haven't progressed much. All of these threads have gotten me thinking a lot, and I am going to try incorporating more "green" things into my life, starting with buying some of the reusable shopping bags.

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

I picked other because there wasn't an option of being somewhat green and that's what I would pick. I drive a SUV and I drink bottled water. But I:
-recycle
-use the reusable tote bags at the grocery store,
-we have a non-SUV car also
-we use mostly energy efficient appliances-we are in the process of replacing all of them
-we use the better light bulbs-forgot what they are called right now
-We use the LIPA green choice which we pay an extra $5 a month for so that we use renewable energy sources
-We lower our heat to 60 degrees when we are not home and turn it down at night
-We do most of our payments online and have opted for paperless statements from any company that offers it
-I am always shredding papers at work rather than just throwing them out. I keep a stack on my desk that at the end of the day I put through the shredder
-we don't really drink soda or juices so as to cut back on waste
-In the summer we only run the AC when it is very hot and we set it on timers to conserve energy.

Those are just some of the examples of what we do. There are many, many more but I just wanted to list a couple. Not sure if you would call me green or not.

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

I picked yes, because I try to be green as much as possible, although I know there's so much more I can do.

- DH and I both drive compact cars, but also run a lot of errands on foot - grocery store, Target, drug store, grabbing lunch/dinner when going someplace nearby.

- Recycle everything we can

- CFL lightbulbs, although I worry what will happen with all that mercury - I know it's not a perfect solution...

- Use the power company's green program, so our power comes from wind, water and other renewable sources

- Computer and several other electronics plugged into a switch, so we can cut power to them when not in use

- Almost never use AC

- Online (paperless) bill pay for about half of our bills

- Eco-friendly cleaning products, including machine washable sponges that can be reused instead of paper towels.

- Reusable grocery bags that we take with us everywhere

- Make an effort to buy local produce, either from a farmer's market or grocery store.

- Try to buy things with less packaging, so there's less waste.

- Live in an apartment. Granted, we don't do this to be green, but we take up less space, use less energy for heat, etc.

Hug a tree!

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

In some ways, but I am positive I could be doing more.

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

$$$ becomes an issue for us when talking about going "green". Also, force of habit and convenience.

I tend to buy the same cleaning products, usually when they are on sale. The green cleaning products can be 2x the price.

I try to use dishtowels instead of paper towels, but I live in an apartment and dont have washer, so if anything is particularly icky, I use a paper towel so it can get tossed.

With the CF light bulbs, a lot of the rooms in our apartment had bulbs when we moved in and I dont want to put the $ into them for replacements when we'll only be here 5 more months. I'd use them if I had a house.

I do usually either walk or take the bus to work. If its pouring rain, I'll drive, but thats like one every 2 weeks. We don't use bottled water, we have a brita. I use a reusable grocery bag instead of paper bags.

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

I try to be green.

I know if I thought about it more I could be better at it.

And I'm working on it.

ETA: I struggle the most with this because I don't know which is better sometimes.

Is it better to use a paper plate because I don't use the electricity and water on the dishwasher?

That kind of thing.

Message edited 1/15/2008 10:18:38 PM.

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

To be honest, not really.

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

i guess i'm not green i mean, i recycle and i use canvas bags at the market - but i'm not green by the definition

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

Message edited 9/21/2009 2:54:09 PM.

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

I put other because we definitely can be doing some things better.

As of now we:
* Have Engergy star appliances - Our house is labeled as energy efficient too
* We never have to keep the heat above 60 because of how well insulated it is
* We recycle
* We buy local produce and in the summer will belong to one of those co-op farms
* We have filtered water so we drink that - although we do keep a supply of bottles on hand for when we need to run out or go to the gym
* We take our smaller car on long trips.
* Our office is going virtual and one of the benefits of that will be that our employees do not have to drive to work.
* When I buy gifts I try to make them gifts that give back in some way like the feed bag from the world food program.
* Alot of retaurants up here use only local produce as well and we make an effort to go to those.
* We use the energy effecient bulbs.

We try to live with a "give back" mentality. For example, I had to have an emergency surgery and needed 2 blood transfusions. While I was in the hospital recovering my FIL donated 2 pints of his blood to replace what I had used from the blood bank. That kind of thing...

But we could definitely be doing more. A lot of what I mentioned above comes easy and we could be putting more effort into it. We do have an SUV. I feel I should mention that.

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

Other – I know I can do better, but I don’t.

I used to be really active with this when I was a kid and there wasn’t so much out there to go green with. Then, well I just got busy.

We still recycle our plastics and glass. I think it’s the little things that help too, so I’ll reuse a paper cup at the gym during my therapy instead of getting a whole new cup each time I need a quick drink.

I don’t bring a new plastic bottle to work everyday, just refill the one I have.

I can usually tell you off the top of my mind which of our two cars is more gas friendly depending on the trip type, length.

I do look for recycled paper products at stores and when I’m out. I never take too many paper towels at a place, just cuz (again every little thing right?). I use my recycle bin at the office when no one else does, yeah it’s a little father, but unlike other places I’ve worked this one doesn’t a separate bin at your desk for paper/non-paper.

I love the look of recycled wood when it’s used in finishing and we plan on buying a used wood kitchen table and will refurbish it (I saw a great one at a thrift store).

So I guess you could say I ‘try’ but then again, I know I fail in so many ways every day. I buy bulk TP & paper towels at Costco. I toss all my water bottles because I don’t know where to recycle them (or if I can).

Re: Spinoff on being greener - who is NOT green? with poll if you want to stay anonymous!

We are trying to slowly transition to become Green.

I have switched to mostly organic produce and meat. I recycle, re-use plastic bags, and in the process of buying the cloth bags from the supermarket.

We have began replacing the light bulbs.

Although we are also in the market for an SUV.

So, I guess I'd say we are borderline.