Step One: Infiltrate enemy lines

I suppose the best place to start my Quest would be to determine exactly in what areas I already succeed and which areas I'm sorely deficient (read: all). I'll list my successes first and maybe won't feel so bad about the areas in which I lack (wishful thinking).

My biggest success I can attribute to my mom. She taught me well from day one and now, twenty-eight years later I recycle like it's my job. I recycle everything: newspapers, cardboard, all plastic containers, every glass jar, every single can. If recycling were a nation, I'd be Queen. So feeling particularly monarchy, I decided I could do more. I stopped using harsh chemical based cleaning products a while back and now rely on plant-derived formulas. I turned on the energy star feature on my TV (even if it means I can't see the damn thing at all during the day). I unplug the coffee maker after every use and only plug in the toaster oven when I need it. We switched nearly every light bulb to a compact fluorescent (CFL). We started a compost pile at the very back edge of our yard. Green living, hear me roar!

My competitive streak (and it's sizable, I assure you) takes a look at this list and insists I'm doing one heck of a job and surely I deserve an A++++++++++++++ for all this effort. People should emulate you in regard to sustainable, green living, it tells me. You're awesome, it says, the average person probably only recycles, but you? You are the driving force behind living green. Look at all you do! Bravo! Win, win, win!

Thankfully I harbor a modicum of intellect and realize that the list of my successes is pitifully short. Which segues nicely into my list of failures. Or, let's call them the areas where improvement is (greatly) needed. Let's journey down this ugly road shall we?

Sure, I recycle. I've firmly established I am Aleisha, Queen of Recyclevania. Unfortunately, when I say I recycle, I mean, I RECYCLE. Sure, it's better than tossing these items into the garbage destined for years/decades/centuries of decomposition in a landfill that was overcrowded before my father was even a sparkle in my grandparent's eye. If I want to be completely honest however, (not at all, but I'll do it anyway) I overuse to the point that I have to wonder am I really helping as much as I think I am? Sadly, I think I have to file this one under the Needs Improvement category.

Here's some other areas:

• I don't buy locally. Produce/meat/goods/supplies. This is not to say I haven't ever, I just don't do it regularly.
• I forget to turn off my computer pretty much all the time.
• I don't use natural light to it's best possible advantage.
• We don't have low flow anything. Aesthetically pleasing won out on this one. And I still feel guilty about it.
• I use napkins, and more napkins, and yet more napkins. Paper ones. (!!)
• Every room but one in our house is painted in high VOC paint. (mmm...fumey....)
• I know that renewable energy sources exist in my state and I haven't researched them, um...at all.
• I don't buy renewable fabric anything. No particular reason why. I just don't.
• We throw away enough leftovers each week to feed a small army in Asia.
• I don't carpool. Granted, I live four miles from my job and my car averages 32/mpg, so you'd think this wasn't so bad. On the flip side, my fiance drives The Guzzler. His commute is roughly 13 miles one way and I think his gas monger averages 22-25/mpg. And I don't insist we switch vehicles. So...yeah, bad.
• I haven't bought rain catching/storing devices out of general laziness.
• We average about two garbage bags per week. Two people.

There's certainly more I can add to this list, but I think the items above paint a pretty vivid picture on their own. Maybe we'll revisit this list in the future. But I think it's best I start looking toward the future now. How can I improve in these areas? For the answer to that I'm going old school. Back to basics. I'm busting out the three R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

There's a great (succinct) article on www.greenlivingtips.com regarding "Precyclying" (find it here: http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/360/1/What-is-precycling.html). I forgot the most important part of the three R's: REDUCE. This article clearly (without any pithy rambling like you'll find on this blog) reminded me of the benefits of reducing my consumption and why I should only resort to recycling when necessary. So my first task in my quest? Find ways of reducing my overall waste output. And my first target area? The Kitchen.

Now's a good time to warn you disaster's probably imminent. :)

The Beginning: One small human, one GIANT ecological footprint

"If everyone in the world lived as exactly as I do, how many Earth's would it take to sustain us all?"

Recently suffering from a sense of planetary guilt, I asked myself this question. My whole life I've felt that I've lived a lifestyle that is, at the very least, moderately ecologically conscious. Lately though, after watching the Planet Green channel, and reading the increasing number of magazine, newspaper and internet articles, I've given my lifestyle a heck of a lot more thought than I ever have in the past. Do I truly live sustainably? Am I really, in all honesty, living a lifestyle that benefits not only the environment but myself?

The short answer?

NO.

So I decided to find out exactly how large of a carbon footprint I really have. There are numerous calculators on the internet that help determine exactly how much of an impact your current lifestyle has on the world's resources. The results shocked as much as they shamed me. And also started me thinking on my lifestyles impact on not only the environment, but my own self. Perhaps if I lived a more ecologically conscious lifestyle, it could help the environment and my own health and well being.

So here it is. The Quest. It turns out if everyone lived like me, it would take, on average, 4.5 Earths to sustain us all (like I said, shocking). So I pledge to reduce my carbon footprint (with the unwitting help of my fiance, Tim) by at least one Earth in the next two years. I realize this doesn't seem like much. But I'm talking about a complete lifestyle overhaul here--the way we eat, what we buy, reducing our mass consumption, how we decorate our home, even Greening up our wedding.

So I bid you welcome on observing my journey. It's bound to have more failures than successes. I hope to document the majority of it, including the impact it has on my mood, health, and overall well-being. Maybe I'll fail miserably. Maybe I'll end up living in a tree from the overwhelming guilt of all my consumption. Either way, I'm determined to give it a shot. Wish me luck. Or better yet, change one of your lightbulbs to a compact flourescent in my honor.