It's not too late to participate in another No Impact Week, inspired by Colin Beaven, the No Impact Man. We pointed it out last month but didn't hear much back from readers, so either the idea for participating in a no-impact lifestyle for a week just hasn't caught steam, or it's a little daunting. What's your holdup? We'll start with our reasons for holding back.
No Impact Week, Again
What's Stopping You?
SimpleSteps.org is putting on another No Impact Week, and here's how they describe it:
Starting Sunday, November 15th, 2009, this one-week "carbon cleanse", developed as a truncated version of Colin Beavan's, the original No Impact Man's, year-long experiment, is a chance for you to see what a difference no-impact living can have on your quality of life. It’s not about giving up creature comforts but an opportunity for you to test whether the modern “conveniences” you take for granted are actually making you happier or just eating away at your time and money.
We signed up to see how much of the week we could accomplish. We took a look at the How-To Guide (it's like a lifestyle version of the Green Cure!) and here are a few of the things we are daunted by:
1. Finding different transportation. Our current situation leaves us without a good public transport option, but maybe we could find a couple of colleagues who live in the same neighborhood, or work from home.
2. Not creating any trash. At the office, it's easy to turn to paper napkins, but this week maybe we can pack our own towels.
3. Eating only local foods. We actually eat very locally, but not everything in the cupboards has a small carbon footprint (we do love chocolate). We'll give ourselves a couple of extra points for picking our own veggies from the garden, but dock ourselves for the few guilty pleasures (organic apples were on sale!).
4. Unplugging. It gets dark so early, and our apartment doesn't get much natural light anyway, so cooking by candlelight or powering off the fridge? Probably not going to happen. But we aren't using the A/C or fans right now, and we don't have a TV, so we're already scaling back on energy usage.
What's funny is that when we started the list above, we thought it'd sound a lot more difficult. But really, with all the small steps we've already taken... No Impact Week might be a breeze. The How-To Guide helps to put things into perspective, showcasing small ways that you can make big changes.
We are in the process of becoming vegetarian for environmental and health reasons; what's the big deal about making those same kind of changes in the rest of our lifestyle?
When you break it down into small pieces, it's not so radical after all. So, now tell us what's stopping you.
Related posts:
• It's No Impact Week: Are You Participating?
• 'No Impact Man' Colin Beavan and Michelle Conlin
• No Impact Man Gives an Update
(Image: Amber Byfield for Re-Nest.)
Comments (3)
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I did this challenge a few weeks ago... The absolute hardest thing for me, from the trash to the eat local was how to deal with the fact that I have several cats.
There's a huge green hole in dealing with pets in our society, and I still don't quite know how to make it any better.
(but the rest of the project was fun!)
view lorigami's profile
Pets are a problem. I guess we will just have to declare our pets to be non-participating members of our households! I have cats, and they definitely aren't going to eat less meat (cats pretty much need 100% animal protein in their diet) or cut back on their litter usage. :)
I had trouble figuring out how the online participation was supposed to work. I got the impression signing up that I would get emails or something during the no-impact week, but nothing happened. I thought the idea was that you had an online community, but it just didn't materialize.
view matchbookhymnal's profile
Currently I live in a city, Copenhagen, where it's impossible to separate biodegradables from the rest of the trash. Denmark calls itself green, but fails to offer those without a compost in their backyard a way to properly get rid of their bio waste. Unbelievable.
And here, if you're on a tight budget, you often have to buy your tomatoes, avocados etc. packed within not only a plastic bag but a plastic tray as well. Holy cow what a waste. I'd love for the stores to have an area where you can unwrap all of it, so that they'd have to dispose of it...
Talk about making it easier for people to live green. I do use a bike for all my transportation needs though.
No Impact Week sounds interesting, but it makes me a bit sad too, at least when it comes to things that are sort of forced upon me.
view luftskibet's profile