Another inspiration to pare down our consumption and green up our daily lives is the No Impact Man. If you are unfamiliar with No Impact Man, I highly recommend perusing his blog from the past year. Colin and his family conducted a year long experiment to see how little they could consume (resources, water, electricity, etc.), while living in a NYC apartment. Upfront the No Impact experiment looked impossible, but they were in fact quite successful. Compared to the lifestyle of the average American, Colin’s family went to the extreme; however, much of the world lives without the abundance and material wealth of the average American. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the American Dream has gone from the “pursuit of life, liberty and happiness” to the “pursuit of better, faster, bigger, and more stuff.”

The first Earth Day was held in 1970 and yet, until recently, environmental activism has been frowned upon by popular culture. Over the past few years, the stylish and tech savvy crunchy bunch, have successfully taken the slur “tree hugger” and turned it into a mark of pride. Being crunchy and green is growing ever more desirable. Unfortunately, the appearance of being green has become too easy and real activism has gained little ground. For the most part in trying to appear green, we overlook the real need to pare down our consumption. Rather than rally to the cry of “Reduce Reuse Recycle” our American culture of materialism has instead translated into an ever increasing array of supposedly green products. From cars to sheets the public is being misled into feeling green with the catch words: organic, hybrid, and bamboo. This is why No Impact Man is so inspiring, because he actually reduced his consumption and thus his environmental footprint on the planet.

Meanwhile the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid was named “Green Car of the Year.” The Tahoe may be a hybrid, but that can’t hide the fact that the thing is still a big hunk of metal (read: waste of natural resources) with terrible fuel efficiency. Of course, many of us would never presume that a Tahoe Hybrid is in fact green, but we have been lead to believe that smaller Hybrids are green. The fact of the matter is that any new car uses many resources in manufacture and thus waste is created in the process. In Europe, auto makers are leading the pack in making car parts so that they can be recycled, while in India folks are working to make car ownership accessible even to those living in poverty. Unfortunately, the greenest car is the car that doesn’t exist.

While our grandparents may have been excessively frugal as a result of living through a depression or world war, we have become excessively wasteful, simply because we can. Like our grandparents, No Impact Man really has a point. When it comes to life (ours and that of the planet) less really is more. The difference between the two, is that No Impact Man has shown us that a modern, tech loving, city dwelling American family can happily get by on less. I’d like to be optimistic and think that we have reached a tipping point with the popular success of the No Impact Experiment. Hopefully, mainstream America is beginning to catch on that one pair of well made shoes is more valuable than twenty pairs of cheap shoes, and to make a real change, we need to reduce our consumption.

Here are some easy ways that our family has been working to reduce our consumption:
1) Make a 30 day list — if you want to buy something new, but unnecessary, put it on a list, if you still think that you need it, buy it then.
2) If it is made in China don’t buy it…at the least, if you have to buy products made overseas, try to by products that are certified Fair Trade or made in countries with better labor (and safety) practices. Made in the USA is best, as at least the worker was paid minimum wage and fewer fossil foods were needed to ship the product.
3) Buy green: if you really do need new sheets spring for the organic cotton ones; if you need a water bottle, buy a reusable one; if you need tennis shoes, recycle your old ones, and look into buying new ones made from recycled or sustainable materials
4) Buy used — Americans buy and have so much that people have attics full of stuff that never gets used. Likewise, people are always getting rid of stuff, if you want something new, make an RSS feed for the item on Craigslist. I just picked up a NIB Food Processor for less than half price — it works beautifully, and since it was manufactured 8 years ago, no new resources were consumed in its production!
5) RECYCLE: recycle glass, paper and plastic products; take re-usable clothes and other household items to a local charity (we donate to the Longmont Humane Society Thrift Shop); sell lightly used items on Craigslist; recycle technology at Staples; and, properly dispose of potentially toxic items (like a broken CFL).
6) Reduce: We’ve signed up with both Green Dimes and Catalog Choice to try and cut down on the influx of unwanted catalogs and junk mail. We have a few stubborn catalogs that continue to arrive in our mail box, but our over all mail has been reduced significantly in the past few months.

We may try and kid ourselves into believing that simply buying and using green products, such as CFL bulbs, will save the world, stop global climate change, yadayadaya, but it won’t. In fact BUYING anything NEW will not change things. What will make a difference is changing and reducing our overall pattern of consumption.