It’s late, and Earth Day is nearing it’s close, but I can’t let it go by without some celebration chez Kirby! I did say a couple of years ago that I wanted to ensure that I took the time each year on Earth Day to make a change in my lifestyle for the greener. I do live a fairly eco-conscious lifestyle, but there’s always room for improvement.
Let’s see…what’s left to change?
But I can do more! And what will it be this year? I want to walk more. I walked home from work today. It’s a good 3.5 km walk with a couple of good hills. I’ve found a friend from work to walk with, so it’s actually a treat, particularly with the blossoms and blooms of Spring to brighten the way! I hope to make walking home part of my regular routine, rather than taking the bus both to and from work. It will be better for my physical health, as well as my carbon footprint.
I’m a pescetarian, but I want to eat less fish and seafood, because of the waning fish stocks, and the sad state of our Oceans in general. Len and the kids still eat meat, but their consumption has been greatly reduced over the last few months, and no one has mounted a mutiny yet! They only eat meat at dinner, and they have at least one vegetarian meal a week. I’d like to improve that a little.
The kids helped plant the garden at daycare today, which is what I hope to repeat here at home on the weekend. I love that they had the chance to spend the afternoon in the garden; digging, planting, watering, and also just learning to appreciate the effort that goes into growing your own food. And I have to say, how great is their caregiver, that she does this with the kids?! Great!
All in all, not a bad start to the Earth Day eco-consciousness cycle. I hope that next year at this time I can say that I walk regularly home from work, and that my other goals have become sustainable habits.
You can find ways to green your lifestyle too, by taking the Earth Day Network Footprint calculator. I took this two years ago, and again last year. They have made the calculator a little more sophisticated, and more fun to use this year. I didn’t improve my score over last year, but with less fish/seafood/animal products in my diet, I can hope to beat my score of 3.1 next year!
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