It’s Blog Action Day, a day when thousands of bloggers write about one issue in an attempt to raise awareness about the environment. The “green” movement is no longer a fringe movement, but one that has gone mainstream for practical reasons – many of the “green” trends happen to save consumers money. Simple.

This post by Seth Godin helped clarify the argument for me with his “times a million” post.

If we figure that the average driver in the US does 20,000 miles a year, I’m going to use about 400 gallons of gas. A car getting 20 mpg is going to use closer to a thousand gallons. Figure that there are about 100 million actively driven cars in the US, which means that the net difference if “everybody did it” has the potential to save 60 billion gallons (600 times 100 million) of gas. A year.

He’s not necessarily making an argument for change, but for considering one’s actions, and the context of one’s actions.

There are many simple, little things that you can do to make an impact. My argument has long been that Americans’ motivation to change is going to be less about altruism and more about the bottom line. Read: how much will I save if I do this?

1 – Mark your calendar for the next Green Matters workshop on 14 November where the focus will be on “explor(ing) green building materials, home furnishings, and cleaning supplies you can use to make your home and environment healthier.”
2 – Read Dave’s blog
3 – Move to places where you can “get to stuff” without getting into your car every single time you need to get a gallon of milk or go to soccer practice. Or, work to “get stuff” closer to where you are.
4 – Put your preconceptions aside; read (for your feed reader – here’s some of the “green” blogs I read)
5 – Consider your actions, think differently, do the little things like using reusable bags (they hold more groceries, stand up like paper bags and have handles!) Real estate tie-in: “These bags are recycled by Winchester, Virginia-based Trex and turned into Trex decking and railing, the leading brand of alternative decking lumber in North America.”

Change doesn’t have to hard. One step at a time is all it takes.

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