Green Options » simple living

Green Talk Radio: The Zen of Living Less to Have More

Sean Daily — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:00:35 +0000

GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily talks about achieving personal productivity and a simpler and happier life with Leo Babauta, founder and lead blogger at ZenHabits.net.

[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]

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Green Talk Radio: The Not So Big House

Sean Daily — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:00:54 +0000

Sean Daily, Green Living Ideas’ Editor-in-Chief, discusses small home living and the growth of New Urbanism with Sarah Susanka of Susanka Studios, author of The Not So Big House.

[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]

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GreenTalk Radio: The Urban Homesteading Path to Freedom with Jules Dervaes

Sean Daily — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:13:38 +0000

GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily talks with Jules Dervaes of Path to Freedom. Path to Freedom is a grassroots, family operated, viable urban homesteading project established to promote a simpler and more fulfilling lifestyle and reduce one family’s “footprint” on the earth’s dwindling resources.It was established in 2001 in Pasadena, California by Jules Dervaes.

[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]

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GreenTalk Radio: The Zen of Living Less to Have More with Leo Babauta of ZenHabits

Sean Daily — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:44:57 +0000

GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily talks about achieving personal productivity, sustainability, and a simpler and happier life with Leo Babauta, founder and lead blogger at ZenHabits.

[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]

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Simplify, Simplify, Simplify: Less is More When Living Green

Megan Prusynski — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:30:02 +0000

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
—Albert Einstein

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.
—Henry David Thoreau

We must live simply, so that others may simply live.
—Gandhi

Ah, the simple life. No worries, no responsibilities, it’s the stuff of dreams. But in today’s world, living is far from simple. Simplifying your life often seems like one more impossible task on your long to-do list. Even though common sense tells us that the most environmentally conscious life is a simple one, it’s much easier said than done.

The Simplicity of Ecopreneuring

John Ivanko — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:15:18 +0000

“Simple living” continues to garner much pop culture hype, sparking books, magazines and a slew of self-help opportunities to assist you to declutter, scale back and slow down. Environmentally conscious and sustainable living fall under the simple living radar, but where does ecopreneuring or running a green business fit in?

My wife and I incorporated numerous “simple living” strategies into our business over the years. While our lifestyle may exude quintessential simple living elements — from canning applesauce to crafting holiday gifts — there remains an inherently complex element to our ecopreneuring workstyle. Our calendar looks like a treasure hunt map of lines of travel, Bed & Breakfast guests arriving and departing, writing deadlines, family gatherings, and our son’s home-school group projects. We always juggle multiple unrelated projects.

A better word than “simple” to describe our ecopreneuring approach is “focus.” By consciously choosing to do certain things, we inherently simplify by prioritizing. We open more time to focus on what we really want to do by eliminating (or at least seriously reducing) time drains, including the following:

(1) Daily commute.
With the average daily commute in the US now nearly a half-hour, by working from home, we save over seven days per year driving to someplace, not to mention the fossil fuel emissions of daily driving.

Do you Live to Work? Ecopreneurs Use their Green Business to Make a Life.

John Ivanko — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:35:34 +0000

Life offers more than a paycheck, corner office and promotional title.

In fact, many of us are working ourselves to death. Less than 40 percent of working Americans actually take all the vacation time that they’re offered, and many who do have a hard time disconnecting from the office, voicemail and e-mail. Added to this are the hours each week we spend commuting, wasting time and polluting the environment unless you’re fortunate to be able to walk or bike to work.

For many years, I let myself be defined by what I owned and the company I worked for (at a big advertising agency, of all places). For many people, their identity is so closely associated with their job that when they stop working, they end up passing away not long afterwards, lacking hobbies, social connections or life purpose. But what it says on a business card says nothing about our passions, interests, talents or aspirations.

A shift in perspective is underway, from desiring a standard of living defined by possessions and financial wealth to a quality of life defined by experiences and genuine well-being. For many people, maintaining their high standard of living contributes to their poor quality of life, not to mention often contributing to the destruction of the planet.