Green Options

Car-sharing has fantastic upsides: it’s flexible, you don’t have to pay additional costs for insurance or road or vehicle tax, you don’t have any maintenance costs and you don’t have to clean the damn car!

Editor’s note: The following post was originally published on Green and Clean Mom. “Green & Clean Mom can inspire you to try a little harder, be a catalyst for change and to offer you some new tips and news on how to be the green, sexy and sassy mom…I know you are!”

What does it mean to be green? With snow covering the ground this time of year, it’s hard to imagine the color green! I asked my three year old Henry and he told me it was a color. Duh. A color with many shades. I looked out the window but all I see is white. Imagining the green grass I wonder,  can’t we all be some shade of green of this New Year?

I don’t profess to do everything “green”. I try to make everyday choices that I feel are safe for me, my children and for the environment. I recycle and try to not be wasteful with electricity. I unplug items that are not in use. I turn my SUV off when I’m not in it. Yes, an SUV! See, I’m not 100% Green but I am a shade and everyday this shade varies. I write this to show people that you can do something and be some shade of green.  Being Eco friendly and living a green lifestyle, buying organic and choosing natural toys - isn’t always easy, but it is possible.

As kindergarteners to post-grads across the U.S. begin returning to school this month and next, they’re finding more and more of their campuses taking steps to reduce energy consumption, save water and go green. All this week, we at EcoLocalizer plan to highlight some of the ways in which schools nationwide are working to becoming more sustainable.

The University of Florida in Gainesville, for example, is launching a campaign to encourage students, faculty members and staff to reduce individual car travel in and around town. UF’s “One Less Car Challenge” (the grammar nag in me has to note it should be the “One Fewer Car Challenge”) asks everyone to explore other ways of commuting, including bicycling, regional transit, car-pooling and car-sharing.

This may not be a newsflash for some, but higher gas prices are causing Americans to drive significantly less.  For the first half of 2008, 30 billion less miles were traveled by car than in 2007.  Mass transit, bicycling, car pooling, and even horses (in my community at least) are making a come back to help Americans save money at the pump.

Via:  7Gen Blog