First Steps to Living Green

Taiga Company   
June 15th, 2011

This image was taken from the Geograph project collection

By Julie Urlaub

Green living is relative. It’s all about perspective.  A sustainable lifestyle often means different things to different people.  For those with broad eco awareness and who are well versed in sustainability concepts, living sustainably may be very different than someone just beginning to make sustainable life changes.  Compared to living green by someone else’s standards, we encourage those in our eco-friendly training to view sustainable change from a personal perspective.  From that stance, a sustainable lifestyle becomes a more manageable pursuit.

Within our sustainability consulting, we hear a number of opposing comments to sustainable living.  Some of the most frequent comments we hear from clients and peers are:

•    “There is just too much effort involved in living a sustainable lifestyle.”
•    “I can’t afford to make sustainable changes.”
•    “Sustainable living does not apply to my life.”
•    “I am already living a sustainable lifestyle.”

Whether in business or in your personal life, sustainability is a personal journey that does not have an end or a state of completion.  Too often we find our clients focused on the “top of the mountain.”  They become overly concerned with the gap between where they are and a far-reaching reference point or comparison they have defined for themselves.  We encourage our clients to:

•    Define and focus on sustainability concepts that are uniquely inspiring to that individual.
•    Be aware and try to limit external comparisons as a means for defining action.
•    Incorporate sustainable actions that easily fit into your current lifestyle.
•    Place actions that become difficult on the shelf until they match your lifestyle.
•    Focus more on the process and less on the results of sustainable living.
•    Remember that it will never all be done.
•    Find the joy in making sustainable changes.

Our eco-friendly consulting practice suggest to focus on the daily choices we, as individuals, make that can have significant impact on our social surrounding, the environment in which we live, and on our personal life experience.  Some may be major sustainable lifestyle decisions while others may be as simple as:

•    Do you want paper or plastic?
•    Do you want organic or conventional?
•    Do you want a paper or an electronic copy?
•    Do you want to share a ride or take your own car?

We view each decision point as an opportunity to integrate eco awareness into some of these decision outcomes.  While the result of every choice we make does not have to be directly aligned with sustainable values, the inclusion of sustainability concepts in the thought process can greatly improve the evaluation.

Just thinking about sustainability or even a sustainable lifestyle can be daunting subject to anyone when viewed in its entirety.   By making changes that are inspiring and manageable relative your current life, the process of incorporating sustainability becomes much easier.

This story originally appeared at the Taiga Company Blog

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