Blog- Thoughts from the English Retreads pit crew on life, being green and eco-friendly and on our products

…or what do we mean by it these days? A definition from the World Dictionary is; “A combining form representing ecology in the formation of compounds (ecosystem; ecotype); also with the more general sense “environment,” “nature,” “natural habitat”. Yeah, so? So, what I mean by eco is sustainable, green, environmentally friendly, you know… reduce first and foremost, then reuse, and recycle as a last resort.

I aspire to be one sassy, eco-savvy, walk my talk, not too judgmental, coolio sista!  So I’m going start blogging once per month about my eco-endeavors in hopes of keeping myself on the path and perhaps inspiring someone else along the way…or not. I’ll share one simple thing that can be done each month that I believe will help our fabulous Mother Earth which, in effect, helps us!  Woot-woot, love the win-win sitchies!

OK, so what exactly can be done to become more “eco” without completely and utterly changing our lives in such a way that makes our lives more difficult to live right now, in other words how can we ease into it gracefully? Well, lots. Start by being conscious. If you are going to buy a bottle of water and then throw the empty plastic bottle into the garbage, be conscious of what you’re doing. The next time you might decide to save the bottle until you can recycle it, and the time after that you might remember to bring your own fabulous, reusable water bottle. Yee-haw, now we’re startin’ to live sustainably!

I’m going to suggest options that allow us to reduce- reduce the amount of stuff we use, reduce our carbon footprint, reduce how we might be living our lives in a non sustainable way. So, this month let’s do something fun and easy during the summer months, like ride our bikes! In effect we can reduce the amount we drive our cars. There are options, people…ride a bike, take public transportation, work from home (this is a great excuse to use that new fangled modern technology), walk, skateboard, and fill up all of the seats when you carpool. Think of all you’ll save instead of  paying $3.699 per gallon at the pump, and that’s not even  the real cost of gas. The real cost would be closer to $15.00 per gallon when you factor in costs such as the environmental, climate, health, and security cost of gas coming from Saudi Arabia to our gas tanks in America.

This month I will drive my car 50% less than I have been in the past several months. Last year, when I lived a lot closer to town and my office, I would go weeks without using my car, happily and without thought. Now I need to get myself back in the habit, that’s all. With all of the amazing bike paths in Boulder it’s really more fun and easy to ride than drive. I get to look around and enjoy my commute and with parking factored in it takes about the same amount of time as driving a car. I even bought a bike pannier (hmm, my next English Retreads design?) and a basket so I don’t have any excuses about stopping by the farmers market or grocery store on my way home. Loving it!

What is your goal to become more “eco” this month??