10 Simple Ways to Make an Environmental Impact

I was inspired to write a Top 10 list after reading The Bad Pitch Blog’s Media Relations’ Everlasting Gobstopper post. My Top 10 subject was born out of inspiration found earlier in the week via Stan Rapp’s post on Jaffe Juice and further inspiration came from my looking forward to attending The Green Goat’s holiday party tonight. With that, I introduce my Top 10 Simple Ways to Make an Environmental Impact:

1. Carry your groceries in stylish canvas instead of plastic.
2. Clean the green way.
3. Say no to bottled water – if that’s too much opt for an eco-friendly bottle.
4. Support your local farmers.
5. Support businesses that invest in eco-friendly business practices.
6. Take public transportation, just make sure to carry a bottle of hand sanitizer.
7. Stop the junk mail madness.
8. When you print, print on both sides of the paper. If you work for a company that has their printers set to single sided printing (and the company will not switch to double sided), bring home the paper you would normally throw in the recycle bin and use the clean side in your home printer.
9. Plant a tree, or donate to an organization that will plant one for you.
10. Stop using disposable cups, plates and flatware. If you own your own company give your employees a company mug instead of supplying them with an endless supply of disposable cups.

Also of note, as I was putting together this post I came across an article in the Austin Business Journal announcing that Whole Foods will be banning plastic bags from their stores by early 2008. Kudos to Whole Foods for doing their part.