Getting to the Bottom of Going Green

   Going green could be considered one of the hottest trends these days, and like most trends going green has been overexposed. More and more people have grown tired of the constant stream of green, green, green, and I'll proudly admit that I was one of them. But knowing that going green was a supposed good thing, I decided to put my frustration behind me and meet with a couple of the founding members of the LA Green Consortium. While I had many questions to ask, the first one on my mind was the most basic of them all, or at least seemed the most basic.


What is Green?

    Green is much like the word 'the.' It may seem stupid to ask what it is - after all everyone uses the word all the time, but when you do, most people have no idea or possibly more dangerous, think they know and really don't.
    The similarities end there. 'The' is actually very hard to define; whereas, 'green' is surprisingly simple.
    "[Green] is really just the ability to choose products that have less of an impact on the environment," Blayde Penza, one of the founding members of the LA Green Consortium, said. "There's no perfect green product. Nothing is totally green and has no impact on the environment. Everything has some impact. It's making the right conscious, intelligent choices that have less of an impact, and that's what green is."
    Of course, what has less of an impact could be subjective and hard to define. But overall, the concept of going green is very simple. It's doing what's good for the environment, and as a result, doing what's good for you.


Why Go Green?

    Another question often ignored. Going green is brought up time after time in the media, but rarely do you see a solid reason for why you should do it. Sure, they sometimes will say you can save money or save the environment. But those vague reasons aren't always strong enough to convince people to change their entire lifestyle - and going green is a fairly large lifestyle change. So I wanted to know why, and the answer was more personal than I expected.
    By saving the environment - keeping it clean and healthy - we preserve our own health. Many of the un-green products that harm the environment also harm you and I. And if preventing bad health isn't a good motivator, I don't know what is.
    There are many organizations that have compiled data regarding the impact of un-green products and processes on our health:

The Environmental Protection Agency
Center for Disease Control and Protection
Natural Resources Defense Council

    Those are just a few. In addition to preserving our health, it's important to go green to preserve our natural resources. Without them, it will be harder to live. Many of the resources above contain data regarding that topic as well.


How to Find Green Products

   While there are quite a few green gimmicks out there, most of the time it's fairly easy to find green products. You just have to do a little research. One of the founding members of the LA Green Consortium, Deborah Guyer Greene, suggests asking:

• Where did the product come from?
• How was the product made?
• What is in the product?
• How far did it travel to reach you?

    Getting the answers to those questions will tell you if the product came from a reputable company known for making decisions that benefit the environment and people's health, if the product was made using processes that don't pollute or harm the environment, if the product is made from recyclable, renewable or organic materials and if the product has to travel a very short distance to reach you, which minimizes the amount of fuel used to ship it. All of those things help to make a product greener than others, and the more "green" it is, the better.


Easy Ways to Go Green

    Other than making smart purchasing decisions, there are many ways to go green.




Green Resources

    There are a number of green resources to help you go as green as possible. Here are a few:

Treehuger.com
Thegreenguide.com
Thedailygreen.com
IdealBite.com
Plentymag.com
NaturalHomeMagazine.com



My Takeaway

    The most important thing about going green is to remember that you don't have to be perfect. Going green is a lifestyle change that takes time. You won't get it right in the first week or month because nothing is completely green. So focus on doing what you can, because every little bit helps. And with the new perspective of green that I learned from the LA Green Consortium, I no longer feel frustrated with the idea. Instead, I'm motivated to change the bad or un-green habits in my life to those that preserve the environment's and my health.