3.1 A day in the life... Continued

Noon - Sam and a friend head to a nearby Chinese restaurant for lunch. The friend wants to get their lunch "to go" so they can sit by the water and enjoy the view while eating, but Sam refuses on the basis that the restaurant still uses Styrofoam containers for "to go" orders. Instead he and the friend eat quickly so they can take a scenic walk before heading back to the office.

During the walk, Sam stops at a fruit stand and picks up more berries and some tomatoes. Buying locally ensures that Sam's food is not trucked across country to get to him, helping the environment, local farmer and Sam's health all at once.

5 p.m. - Sam walks to the BART station and heads out. He needs to make a stop at a warehouse store tonight to get some groceries. He calls his wife to tell her he'll be about an hour late. In his backpack, Sam carries reusable grocery tote bags and he has two large ones he bought from the warehouse store some months ago. They will easily hold his soy milk, meats and bread.

Sam finds that buying in bulk helps the environment in a few ways - he can buy many things in one place rather than travel to different stores for different items and he can buy items in larger packages, therefore reducing the amount of packaging that's manufactured for food and then quickly disposed of.

At the warehouse store, Sam gets a smoothie and a pretzel for dinner. He saves the plastic cup the smoothie came in and brings it to his daughter later. She uses them for painting. Instead of using a paper plate for the pretzel, Sam uses just a napkin, which he figures will take up less space in the landfill.

7 p.m. - Sam walks in the door just in time to take his son to soccer practice. His son has new cleats today because he outgrew his older pair and he begins to throw the old ones in the trash. Sam stops his son and takes the shoes with them to the field. They walk the 1 ½ miles to the soccer field, which Sam sees as a good warm-up for his son. Sam asks the other parents if any of their children wears a size 2 and finds a taker for the newly new cleats his son outgrew.

10 p.m. - Before bed, Sam adds some potato and carrot peels to the family's compost bin.

Do you see any ideas in Sam's day that might help you in your day? Could you give up the Starbucks cup in favor of using an insulated mug (which might keep your drink warmer longer anyhow)? Could you not flush every single time you use the bathroom? Could you take shorter showers, keep your house colder in the winter and warmer in the summer? Could you walk instead of drive?

Learning to live Green isn't about changing your life in a drastic way, though for some people that might be the case. For most of us it's about asking hard questions about each thing we do in our day. Is there something we could do differently that might be better for the environment?

In most cases, making small changes is easy and effortless and adds no undue burden or cost to you. Sometimes you'll even save money and you might even save time. But if your desire is to help the environment, your benefit might be less obvious, but you'll feel it. You'll know that today you did right by the environment.

With that in mind, let's look at some simple changes you can make that will help the environment.