Earth Day

I have a dream, well I have many dreams. Dreams and goals are what motivate us. Without a vision the people perish. One of my dreams is to encourage sustainable, healthy, green living in the Youngstown, Ohio area (and anywhere else life's journey will take me). I want people to know that living green is something we all can do. So maybe we can't all go out and buy a Smart Car or even fit our family in one; but we can all do something. And as we each start adding those some things together we can begin to make some big changes. I hope to provide practical ways to make changes. I must admit that I currently am not eating as organically as I would like, nor am I living as green as I hope to be some day. But every step in the right direction is setting us in positive motion. So let's look at Earth Day, and get when step closer to a greener community.

Something very interesting to me is that my parents, native Brazilians, have extremely light carbon footprints. Why is it interesting? Because they don't even know what a carbon footprint is. Brazil is the largest recycler in the world, at least last time I checked. Today, their efforts to be green include the politics of global warming. But they have been green for decades, because they have had to be. With such a large population of very poor people - "reduce, reuse, recycle" was not a mantra for being a responsible citizen - it was and is a means of survival. Thankfully, I have inherited my parent's ways of saving money, which also happens to be green. I enjoy living frugally, because it allows me to make a huge impact on the environment and live very well. How can I live well and be frugal? Stay tuned...

A few things that I do include:
I am striving for a paperless office. I have reduced my files tremendously. This was a matter of purging more than anything else and is a work that is in constant progress. The idea of being completely paperless is an inspiration to me - not a current reality. In my business this has been a shift in practice and policy. Much of my work is done via the Internet or by telephone vs face to face appointments. This has saved me time, resources, paper and money. I do very full loads of laundry in cold water. I turn my lights off. I buy less in plastic packaging, buy less in general. I am more aware of consumerism than ever before. I am very mindful of using my car time and stacking my errands.

The company I work for has planted over 870,096 trees; those are the ones that folks reported. I know that there were many more because I never reported mine and I bet others forgot to share their totals too. This makes me very proud to be part of my company. This 2009 Earth Day Wangari Maathai 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and founder of the Green Belt Movement will ceremoniously plant our millionth tree at corporate headquarters this earth day. This film clip from Taking Root shares part of her passionate story. Inspired by Wangari our tree loving sales leader Ellie Rogers fostered the Million Dreams Million Trees Campaign

Let's make a difference. Join me in my dream.