Want to Really Go Green?

A friend sent me this very interesting video on what it truly means to go green. We all tend to think that we are doing a great job by using reusable shopping bags, buying fluorescent light bulbs, and recycling, and those things are great, but apparently they don't make as much of an impact as we think. In this video, Graham Hill, founder of Treehugger, gives us a scale for how much we should be doing to go green and how to do it in very simple terms:

For those of you who don't have time to watch the whole video, here are some notes I took:


The average Co2 Emissions - American Average vs. World Average:


What most of us do now is only reducing that 20 tons by 600 lbs or 1.5 percent:

Bigger impact items = becoming a weekday vegetarian, flying smart, and using green energy
Why fly smart?

• Flying from New York to Bangkok = 9.8 Tons Co2 = half of our yearly carbon footprint = yikes!!!

How to fly smart?

• Combine business trip flights with vacation flights
• Instead of meeting in person meet online via Skype or iChat
• Fly via newer planes
• Fly economy class.

Where to buy green energy?

• Click here

Why become a weekday vegetarian?
Combined they can reduce our carbon footprint by half - from 20 tons to 10 tons:I don't fly much, but I am intrigued by the idea of becoming a weekday vegetarian. It is healthier and cheaper and you would still get to eat meat on the weekends. One thing I personally would worry about is the fact that I have mild hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, and I control it by diet. This mostly means limited carbs, especially simple or processed carbs, and eating a lot of protein and vegetables. I also have no idea how to create good-tasting, healthy vegetarian meals.

Although I don't think I'm ready to commit to a weekday vegetarian lifestyle, I'd love to find some yummy vegetarian recipes to cook every now and then.

If you have a favorite vegetarian recipe to share, I'd love to try it out!