It’s Easy Being Green

Over the past year of living in Toronto, I’ve made some positive changes in my life; one of which was getting a little more… social.

Another, partly due to the conveniences of living in a city, was a conversion into someone a little more… green!

Here’s what I’ve been able to do:

• Make use of public transit during the week, and as much as possible on weekends, minimizing use of my car. Walking everywhere has been great for me physically, as well.
• Get into the habit of saying “I don’t need a bag, thanks”. I felt kind of weird saying it at first, but now it’s second nature. And it just feels right, especially when I saw a cashier put a gift card into a plastic bag, just the other day.
• Make use of the Green Bin program, which I didn’t have access to before. Organics don’t make up near enough of my garbage, but it is a decent portion.
• Buy reusable bags for groceries and liquor. I do still get plastic grocery bags from time to time, for use in my garbage can, and organics.
• Buy reusable cups, for my chai latte fixes at Starbucks. As a small bonus, this nets you a ten cent discount, as I found out.
• Make use of compact fluorescent bulbs in most of my light fixtures.
• Minimize use of A/C and heating. Having a smaller space and living in a condo building help here.
• And — fingers crossed — have made an attempt to reduce junk mail. To do this, I printed out one of the signs available on the Red Dot Campaign site, and taped it up in the back of my mail slot. In the past 4 days, I’ve only received one piece of junk mail, which is some sort of crazy record. (Update: Two months later, and still no junk mail, aside from the occasional one or two!) And just to cover as many bases as I can, I also just added my name to the Canadian Marketing Association’s Do Not Contact Service.

As a result of my job change earlier in the year, I have also been flying a lot less, which I know makes a huge difference on my footprint, relatively speaking. This one’s primarily outside my control, and may change in the future, which may mean I’ll have to look into carbon offsets.

Despite the above, there’s still a lot of room for improvement, however.

Here’s what I still can do:

• Replace the vanity lights in my bathroom, which should be easy once I figure out the wattage. (Done!) I also have an incandescent, dimming bulb in my living room lamp, which I may just be able to swap out, but I’ll need to do more reading first.
• Eat less take out. I do usually fore go any beverages with said meals, but should really get into the habit of making a lunch. The block for me here, I think, is that I’m not sure what I could practically make for myself and enjoy, besides sandwiches!
• Take the train to see friends, and potentially to see my folks as well.
• Get rid of my car, altogether.
• Sign up for Bullfrog Power, assuming I can switch utility companies, and if it’s within my budget.

How are you being green?