Mom Goes Green

I’m FINALLY back… Mom Goes Green just returned from a summer hiatus and a nice, long vacation at the OBX with my amazing family! We already miss the fresh ocean air every morning, noon and night.  We experienced it all again this year… from dunes to surf, and sun to moon…

You probably already know that I didn’t leave my green principals behind. We conserved, we recycled and we simply enjoyed the purity of a beautiful environment.

Once again, after evaluating our trip, I feel no guilt.  We were honestly conscious not to be wasteful. We made sure not to waste energy or over-consume — from turning off lights to waiting for a full dishwasher — and even purchased all of our usual organic food and earth-friendly products.

We recycled absolutely everything too. I am proud to say that, over the course of the entire vacation, we created only one small bag of trash… but the amount of recycling was certainly more substantial.  Unlike last year (when my husband delivered our recyclables to the local recycling center!) we were fortunate enough to discover some recycling cans right outside of our condo.  Yes, this was a relief for my husband and quite different than our Myrtle Beach vacation a number of years ago!

I also need to offer some green applause to a community that is wise enough to not only protect the natural sand dunes on the beach but also provide cans for recyclables.  This is a view from our condo deck.  See those two cans with the yellow lids? … yes, recycling cans.  And the one small blue can? … yep, that’s for trash.  But I think it’s very telling that there is more than twice as much capacity for recyclables than there is for trash. They acknowledge that there’s PLENTY that can be recycled and DOESN’T need to become trash.

The point is, no matter where we are, we CAN “tread lightly”.  At home, on vacation, in everyday life, everywhere. There’s always an option, there’s always a choice.  Make the right choice.

Sometimes it’s easy to get so consumed with planning and preparing for a vacation that we forget about the home we’re leaving behind.

Before you leave, your house needs some special attention so it doesn’t continue to over-consume in your absence. When you think about everything that’s drawing energy on a daily basis (and the things that an empty house doesn’t need), it’s time for a checklist.

Here are a few simple (and possibly overlooked) ideas to keep your home green while you vacation:

• Turn off your air conditioning or, in the winter months, turn the heat to 55 degrees.
• Make sure ceiling fans are turned off.
• Unplug nearly everything… computers, TVs, appliances, microwaves, lamps, coffee makers, all of it!  Look at every outlet in your house and most things can be unplugged in your absence.  They WILL still consume “phantom power” even when not in use!
• Install timers on a few lights so your home still appears lived-in but they won’t glow 24-hours-a-day.
• Dial down the temperature or switch off the breaker on your water heater.
• If you clear out an overload of perishables in your refrigerator make sure it’s not too empty… you actually need some content to make it efficient.  If it’s looking a bit empty, just fill and cover a few large pitchers of water.

That’s all it takes.  A checklist and a little extra time and you can keep it green while you play away!

So, Mom Goes Green just returned from a nice, long vacation at the OBX with my fantastic family! There is nothing like fresh ocean air each and every morning, noon and night.  We experienced everything again this year… from dunes to surf, to sun to moon…

Surely I didn’t leave my green principals behind. We conserved (lights off, no waste), we recycled (more on that in a moment) and simply enjoyed the purity of a beautiful environment.

Truly, after evaluating our trip, I feel no guilt.  We were honestly conscious not to be wasteful (especially three minutes after arriving in our condo and experiencing a power outage!). We made sure not to waste energy or over-consume — from lights to waiting for a full dishwasher — and even purchased all of our usual organic food and earth-friendly products.

We recycled absolutely everything too. This ended up being much to the dismay of my dear husband who was sent to deliver our recyclables to the local recycling center on the morning of our departure and, as he approached with an ENORMOUS industrial-sized bag of recycling, was informed that “they must be sorted”… ewwww, (*heavy sigh*) … he had to pick each and every item from the bag and place it in the proper receptacle… and for me (*smooch, smooch*) he did it, and nothing met the trash can!

I could go on and on about all of our practices but, for me, the shining moment was when I took time to sneak to the beach in the late-night, moonlit hours while everyone else was fast asleep and stood there, awestruck.  How amazing and peaceful.

With the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy… I felt so lucky that this planet actually ALLOWS us to live here. Really… everything we need, in perfect harmony, supplied by this beautiful planet (see, I told you it would sound cheesy!) but the moon and the waves… just me and an empty beach… truly, I invite you to take a moment, stop, and just think about it.  It’s pretty incredible that LIFE can be so generously sustained here.

THAT is why I do what I do… I refuse to abuse this “gift”… thank you, Mother Earth…

Sometimes it’s easy to get so consumed with planning and preparing for a vacation that we forget about the home we’re leaving behind.

Before you leave, your house needs some special attention so it doesn’t continue to over-consume in your absence.  When you think about everything that’s drawing energy on a daily basis (and the things that an empty house doesn’t need), it’s time for a checklist.

Here are a few simple (and possibly overlooked) ideas to keep your home green while you vacation:

• Turn off your air conditioning or, in the winter months, turn the heat to 55 degrees.
• Make sure ceiling fans are turned off.
• Unplug nearly everything… computers, TVs, appliances, microwaves, lamps, coffee makers, all of it!  Look at every outlet in your house and most things can be unplugged in your absence.  They WILL still consume “phantom power” even when not in use!
• Install timers on a few lights so your home still appears lived-in but they won’t glow 24-hours-a-day.
• Dial down the temperature or switch off the breaker on your water heater.
• If you clear out an overload of perishables in your refrigerator make sure it’s not too empty… you actually need some content to make it efficient.  If it’s looking a bit empty, just fill and cover a few large pitchers of water.

That’s all it takes.  A checklist and a little extra time and you can keep it green while you play away!

Yes, summer is dwindling… and as I spend small portions of days preparing to send our kids back to school I keep running across reminders of the vacation that was not so long ago, but seems so long ago.

The drive took us through breathtaking views of West Virginia mountains where we were awed by trees as far as the eye could see.  It was amazing to see so many undisturbed miles without areas cleared away for development.  My views on chopping down trees are no mystery.   Can you just imagine how invigorating the air in the middle of those mountains must be?

I think about our kids running wild over the Jockey’s Ridge sand dunes, the largest active dune system in the Eastern US.  What a difference to those treed mountains… conditions on the dunes are so harsh, vegetation can only grow on the outskirts.  But the sunset… ah, the sunset.   The silhouettes in this photo are actually our precious kids, standing where the top of the dunes (that are believed to have been formed millions of years ago) seem to meet the sky.

And what beach vacation doesn’t include lots of ocean time.  Just the sound relaxes me.  I could watch the waves for hours on end and I get wrapped up in how vast and amazing the ocean is.  The irony is that one of our favorite adventures was trying to find sea glass washed up on the shore.  This sea glass is actually glass that has found its way into the ocean and gets tumbled and smoothed by the water, sand and salt.  Every time we found one it was like finding a real gem and then I start to wonder what it came from, where it originated, who touched it before us and even how it wound up in the ocean.  Yes, ironic that Mom Goes Green and family found treasures in something that started as ocean litter!

The point of all of this is simply that experiencing the mountains, the sprawling dunes and the incredible ocean reminds me of another quote by Divamish Indian Chief Seattle:

“Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints.”

… tread lightly in our daily lives, because this planet is truly amazing!

I just returned from some grown-up fun in NYC… the Big Apple!  This time it was me and my husband only!  Amazing how simple life can be without kids in tow. While neither of us like to leave our kids behind, it’s great to reconnect with your beloved!

We had a fantastic time and were conscious to keep the towels hung in the hotel (so they didn’t get a daily laundering), turn off lights and all that other good stuff, but it’s hard to feel like trekking around the city isn’t making a huge environmental impact.

We walked A LOT but I’m sure we took far too many cabs because (despite our many, many trips) we have never mastered their subway system.  So this led me to wonder, just how green in NYC?

I was surprised to learn that some recent research actually lists the Big Apple as #2 for the least wasteful cities in the US.  Problem is, this research was based on residents which total about 8.5 million.  But how many tourists visit the city each year?… 47 million.  Mind boggling!  That’s a lot of extra people creating trash.

While I did see some recycling receptacles around the city (one for cans & bottles and one for newspapers & magazines), they were still somewhat few and far between.  Even staying at the Hilton in Midtown didn’t provide much help (but I give them credit for all the CFLs!).  This time I didn’t cart a million things home because we ate in restaurants and didn’t make our own food, nor did we buy from street vendors and have a lot of disposable items, so aside from our addiction to cabs, we kept it fairly green.

Where did the other big cities rank?  As usual San Francisco stands proudly at #1.  But I still feel like most tourist cities aren’t doing all they can to see that their visitors have the proper resources to continue their green ways while contributing to local economies.

Aside from using public transportation or walking, keeping it green in your hotel room, and foregoing lots of disposables, what’s a traveler to do? Don’t get me wrong… I (still) love NY, but unless I get elected Mayor in each of these cities, I have absolutely no idea!

Sometimes it’s easy to get so consumed with planning and preparing for a vacation that we forget about the home we’re leaving behind.

Before you leave, your house needs some special attention so it doesn’t continue to over-consume in your absence.  When you think about everything that’s drawing energy on a daily basis (and the things that an empty house doesn’t need), it’s time for a checklist.

Here are a few simple (and possibly overlooked) ideas to keep your home green while you vacation:

• Turn off your air conditioning or, in the winter months, turn the heat to 55 degrees.
• Make sure ceiling fans are turned off.
• Unplug nearly everything… computers, TVs, appliances, microwaves, lamps, coffee makers, all of it!  Look at every outlet in your house and most things can be unplugged in your absence.
• Install timers on a few lights so your home still appears lived-in but they won’t glow 24 hours a day.
• Dial down the temperature or switch off the breaker on your water heater.
• Clear out as much food as possible in your refrigerator and freezer.  Less content means less to cool.

That’s all it takes.  A checklist and a little extra time and you can keep it green while you play away!

When we were planning for our recent vacation I knew there was a lot more to consider than just being green once we arrived at our destination.  Obviously we had to get “from here to there” first.

Our greenest travel options would have been to travel by train or rent a hybrid, but definitely not by plane, since the emissions from airplanes are astronomical and have a tremendous effect on global warming!  In fact, a one-way flight from New York to Denver produces as much carbon dioxide per passenger as an SUV produces in a month!  But since we were driving our own car, we had it maintenanced before our trip (including proper inflation of the tires) and used the cruise to assure maximum fuel efficiency.

While we planned our driving route, we not only considered the trip that was the shortest, but also with the least likelihood of “stop and go” traffic because this only burns huge amounts of fuel (much more than steady driving for a longer distance) and again creates more emissions.  (We mistakenly challenged this thinking on our way home and paid the price in both time and fuel consumption!)

On our way to vacation, we also needed to spend one overnight in a hotel during our travels.  It’s not always easy to locate and select a green hotel when you’re in a remote area of the country, but there are ways to make your stay a little greener.

• Although it was only an overnighter, had we stayed longer we would have chosen to keep and reuse our towels and sheets more than once.  More and more hotels are offering this option and it certainly saves the energy required to do the washing.
• Also, use your same “at home” rules about turning off lights and TVs, reasonable AC temperatures and the length of your showers.  Being away from home shouldn’t be a license to overuse.
• And if you find yourself with recyclables but the hotel doesn’t recycle, take them with you and be sure to find a place where they can be recycled instead of having them become trash.

No matter where you go, how you go or where you stay along the way, choose to “follow the greener brick road” to your destination!

… “aaaaand we’re back!” (insert announcer voice here!)

Mom Goes Green and family has returned from a much needed beach vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (and when I say much needed, I mean MUCH needed!). It was amazing, wonderful and just so incredibly great to be able to give my family 100% of my undivided attention for a change.  (Family:  can we go back now???… please!)

But it should come as no surprise that I was apprehensive about how green I could remain while away, especially after last year’s vacation in Myrtle Beach.  This time I came much more prepared.  I carted along our eco-friendly dishwashing liquid, dishwasher soap and all of our family’s select products so there was no guilt there.  We purchased all of our regular organic foods, and I even brought along our recycled content toilet paper!  And in one week’s time, we created less than one bag of trash to boot!

This year, I am happier to report that there was actually a flier in our condo rental encouraging us to recycle.  And did we recycle?  You bet we did.

Once again, I collected all of the cans, bottles, boxes and jugs and did the “crush’em jig” in our kitchen to pack them all into a garbage bag.  The boxes were flattened and made their way into our beach bag next to our towels to make the trek home for recycling.  As I write, every recyclable we collected sits in our blue can at curbside waiting for pick-up.  Am I pleased that I did it (again!)?  You bet I am.

I will say that while there were facilities to drop-off your recycling, I felt compelled to bring them home.  Why?  I’m not quite sure, but somehow it feels like it’s going to become a rite of passage for me… to bring them home and see that they are unquestionably recycled and never become trash.  Maybe it’s the satisfaction of seeing what I salvaged in our own recycling can, but whatever silly reason I may have conjured up in my head, I know that our vacation left a smaller footprint than would have been left behind otherwise.

Over the coming posts I’ll share more about the vacation and our experiences, but I just wanted to say that yes, I am back, and seeing my “little ones” footprints in the sand was the best, most invigorating thing I could have asked for right now.

… Mom Goes Green will be back in full force soon… (and thanks for the “where are you?!?!” messages… it’s great to know I was missed!)