What are your green goals for 2012?
I hope everyone has had a cracking start to 2012. I feel a bit bogged down catching up on everything leftover from 2011 but other than that, it’s been good!
One of the things I’ve been struggling over all week has been my first Recycle This post of 2012. At this time of year, I usually set myself a green goal or two for the year – and invite everyone else to set one as well. Something that, with a bit of focus during the year ahead, will become a lifelong reducing, reusing or recycling habit.
In 2010, I wanted to curb my addiction to cheap clothes – it took a while and an additional quota-based challenge in 2011 but I think I’ve cracked it now. Last year, I aimed to reduced the amount of food waste & food packaging waste we generated and while we haven’t been perfect in that regard, I think things have improved a lot.
This year though I can’t think of anything that feels like such an obvious crunch point for me/us. We’re not perfect by any means and are still working on improving our habits in a number of different areas but nothing feels like it’s an obvious “we really need to do that to be greener” thing this year.
I suspect it’s partly because we’ve been at this for a while now, have addressed the low hanging fruit and now I’m being blind/have rationalised away our biggest problems areas. I’m going to think very careful about that sort of thing for inspiration over the next few days but while I’m doing that, I’m asking for a bit of inspiration: what are you guys planning to do (or not do!) to make your life greener in 2012?
My goals are mainly homestead related…adding more perennial-edibles to the landscaping which will reduce the amount of trucked-in food we have to buy. Plus I plan on canning/dehydrating a lot more homegrown produce this year. AND I’m hoping to add a greenhouse from recycled materials to the garden this summer so we can grow greens all year ’round.
Oh and lose 10 lbs and be a more loving person :)
All great goals :)
I’ve had “produce more food in the garden” as a to-do item for the last two years but there are always ways to squeeze more out of it, isn’t there? What do you think you’ll make the greenhouse from?
Ideally, I’d love to have a proper glass greenhouse, maybe from old French/sliding doors? But my husband is pretty busy with school and work, so I don’t know if he’d be able to find the time to build something like that. So maybe a better option would be PVC pipes and heavy duty plastic for a growing tunnel/hoop house? I could build that myself :) We found spinach growing under the snow this weekend, so any sort of grow house would help my goals along.
I have always been a recycler but I am making it a goal to do more creative recycling and sharing them this year through my blog and giving workshops to underprivileged children in Latin America via Voluntario Global (http://voluntarioglobal.com.ar) teaching them creative ways to recycle so that they can either create items for themselves or sell them.
Wow, great plan! I’d love to hear how that goes :)
I have 3 green goals for 2012, the first of which is simply to attempt to repair ANYTHING before replacing it. I might not be sucessful at the repair but it’s got to be worth a try.
The second and third goal, need some explanation, I feel. The town where I live has recently been voted the 4th worst place to live in the UK. Whilst I will be the first to admit that it’s not a leafy green hamlet of thatched cottages surrounding a pond on the village green, it’s NOT a bad place to live. What is missing is a serious injection of PRIDE, nobody seems to care & it shows. So, I have already started by making sure that my street and the adjoining one are free of litter, if I succeed in that I may extend my area. The third goal is to guerrilla garden a very neglected piece of ground adjoining a busy roundabout, I haven’t really started this except to do a little litter picking.
More great goals!
I might not be sucessful at the repair but it’s got to be worth a try.
All the best tinkerers I know started by fiddling around/just giving it a try so it definitely is worth it :)
Our city is like that too – people have been told it’s a grotty place so they treat it that way. Litter breeds litter etc. Possibly a bit grander than you’re planning for the guerilla gardening (as it’s a lot more organised than guerilla!) but the Woodland Trust is giving away free trees to community/schools/youth groups this year – http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/moretrees-moregood/advice-centre/Pages/packs-of-trees.aspx
My goal is simply to be extremely mindful of buying or collecting more stuff. I have a habit of bringing home all sorts of things..rescues from the recycle or trash bins included.
The first place to be green is in my home without all the cluttered chaos. I need to live much more simply. I will continue to recycle, creatively craft with reUSE in mind, and engage people in new ways of looking at their own cast offs/ daily consumerism.
That’s one of my general ongoing goals too – I have collected so much destined-for-landfill stuff over the years with projects in mind but have not got around to using most of it. While I don’t want things to go to landfill, I have to be realistic too.
Let me know how you get on with it and if you manage to suss out any addiction-busting habits :)
I will be planting my first vegetable garden!
I will also try to get my boyfriend to recycle more :)