Living Green

In these times of economic crisis and concerns over climate change and global warming, our thoughts are turning more towards reducing our ecological footprint to a more sustainable living, simply put, living green.

Sustainable living goals can be said to have begun back in 1954, with the Helen and Scott Nearing publication, "Living the Good Life" opening the way to the ¿back to the roots¿ movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Whereas the early pioneers of green living advocated a simpler lifestyle, with reduced dependence on luxurious home comforts, modern technology, for all its faults, has enabled green living without the necessity to drastically change our lifestyle. We can, as it were, have our cake and eat it too.

We can achieve green living in many ways. Storing rainwater, using solar powered water heaters and investing in composting toilets can have a significant effect on our water usage. Even the simple trick of placing a brick or weighted plastic bottle in the toilet cistern can reduce the amount of water used when flushing by as much as 70%.

We can purchase green bedding, towels and washcloths. These days there are many household products developed using sustainable and renewable resources, such as organic cleaning materials. There are even organic cosmetics available. We can use more eco-friendly methods to heat our homes, such as geothermal heat sources and insulate our homes more to reduce the energy losses from the heat we do produce.