Five Tips for Living Green
We hear the term so often these days: Green Living. We hear more than ever how important it is to care for the environment around us, but what is green living, really? How much sacrifice does it require? You don’t need to build a tree house off the grid topped with solar panels to do your part—there are many simpler approaches that go a long way toward helping preserve and restore the environment.
1) Live in a green apartment building
Green living might sound like roughing it in the sticks, but the truth is, you can live ecologically and sustainably in total luxury, right in the city. Answering to the calls of environmentalists, some developers and architects have been tapping their ingenuity to create luxury New York City apartment buildings that are truly green.
Take Glenwood’s Emerald Green rental apartment building on West 38th Street. From top to bottom—literally, from the green roof to the bamboo floors—this stunning new rental residence is incredibly eco-friendly. You can feel good the top notch amenities here, especially when you consider the long list of green features. To name a few: energy efficiency through solar panels and other efficient means; Energy Star standard appliances; energy-efficient lighting and reduction of light pollution; ecologically-minded surface water management, including rain water harvesting; Low/No VOC paints, adhesives, wood finishes and other materials; rapidly renewable materials such as bamboo and cork, plus recycled, content such glass; Natural and sustainable exterior materials; and charging stations for electric cars. And the lovely green garden space is a great place to hang out with your similarly ecologically-minded neighbors.
2) Keep up with the latest tips for living green
In recent years, some great blogs have arisen out of the need for sustainable, green living. Follow some of them, and you will be sure to discover all sorts of green living ideas. One of the most popular is Tree Hugger. It covers just about every aspect of green living—cars, science, design, architecture, travel, food, business, fashion, beauty and more. Grist, which bills itself as “A beacon in the smog,” is another very popular blog.
3) Take green living on the road with you
Just because you are trying to shrink your carbon footprint, it doesn’t mean you can’t hit the road (or the sea or the sky) and take a vacation. While a stay-cation or trip to someplace close to home will definitely reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, there are other eco-friendly ways to fly the coop. Ecotourism provides low-impact ways to visit some of nature’s great wonders. You can’t do much environmental damage while rafting down rapids in Colorado or alongside glaciers in Alaska. If you prefer culture-packed trips to cities, why not vacation in a city with great public transportation, like San Francisco? Or a very walkable, bikeable one, like Chattanooga, Tennessee? If you’re a hard core environmentalist, you might consider a volunteer vacation, where you help preserve hiking trails, or build housing for those in need. And if you can’t find away to travel green, you can still clear your conscience for all that greenhouse gas-heavy air travel by purchasing carbon offsets from organizations dedicated to cleaning up the environment, like Carbonfund.org.
4) Clean green
In the process of cleaning their homes—and their bodies—many people inadvertently also muck up the environment. Many cleaning products contain harsh chemicals and artificial fragrances that contaminate our water, and the air. Consider using eco-friendly house-cleaning products by companies like Seventh Generation, Mrs. Meyers Clean Day. Not only do they cause little to no environmental harm, they also smell better, thanks to essential oils. For your daily shower, consider using shampoos and shower gels from brands such as Kiss My Face and Burt’s Bees, two companies that consider both your personal well-being and the environment to be top priorities.
5) Give the gift of green
Whether for an eco-conscious friend or for someone you’d like to enlighten about the benefits of green living, eco-friendly gifts are a smart idea. It can be as simple as a luxurious piece of clothing made with high quality organic cotton. Blue Canoe has a great selection of chic, organic clothes. Giam offers an encyclopedic inventory of green living gift ideas, for men, women, kids and the home, from natural teak furniture to organic cotton linens, to organic robes and other clothes—to non-toxic nail polish in super-chic colors. Whatever you choose, an eco-friendly present is a gift that keeps on giving, because it helps make the world a better place.
