What Makes You Green: Environmental Mentality

I’ve been attacked by naysayers who claim one cannot be an environmentalist and consume meat. I beg to differ, but that’s my opinion.

For years I was a happy vegetarian. My husband is a devoted carnivore. We have five children and my vegetarianism fell to the wayside. I’m not a short order cook, my husband DEMANDS meat (and luckily fish qualifies as meat in his world) in his dinner and chances are the kids and I are eating the same meal. That’s a little thing called life.

Does this mean we are not green?

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Absolutely not. To me, being green is about so much more. We recycle everything under the sun tossing out only 1-2 bags of trash each week for seven people. I’m looking for ways to reduce that. We compost. We reuse. We buy fair trade & organic products. We live chemical free both in our food and our household products. We support small business. We support education of the green life style. We make a conscious effort to not buy more than we need. Unfortunately we don’t live off the grid, though we are working toward a fully self sustaining house (using solar power and private well). We have changed out all our light bulbs, sealed our house up to prevent leaks and have taken care of all our phantom power suckers. Our children carry wastefree lunches and are happy to share why with their friends. I carry my reusable coffee mug and Klean Kanteen everywhere, even to church Sunday morning.

Among my community of parent-friends, I’m considered over the top green. They have a good laugh about my ideas during gatherings, but I know they are listening. One Mom told me recently that she quit using chlorine bleach and switched to vinegar in the wash because of our discussion. We are seeing a growing community of Prius cars in our area. Ours was the first, now we can usually find a twin wherever we go. Are they buying the Prius because we have one? No, more likely its the economy and desired fuel savings more than being green. But it is happening nonetheless. I help educate others about things we can do to help keep our homes healthy and save the planet at the same time.

I’ve been accused of lacking in environmentalism because we aren’t vegan and I’ve more often been accused of being a little over the top. So I ask, what makes you green? Do you consider yourself light green, dark green or somewhere in between? Share your green-ness with us (and any tips you have!).

Photo from Dreamstime under RF-LL license.

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