Frugally Green

What is the most prominent thought that comes to mind when you think of words like ‘frugality’ and ‘sustainability?’  What sort of emotions do they evoke? If they trigger thoughts of scarcity, lack, or limited resources, you’re not alone.

Most of the attention given to these concepts and lifestyles is based around the idea of scarcity – there’s just not enough to go around – so that’s how people relate to them.  The frugal tend to believe that they have a limited amount of money, so they must decide on things to give up in life to stay ahead financially.  Environmentalists believe that because there is only one earth, we must continuously search for ways to use less of it or we’ll run out.

The effects of a scarcity mindset

Is it true?  Sure.  When you base every tomorrow on what was possible today, it’s easy to project exactly where you’ll be next week, next month, or even next year.  If you believe that what you’re capable of today isn’t enough to conquer everything you’ve dreamed, then it’s absolutely true.  I’ve spent a lot of time thinking this way.  It makes sense.  It’s tangible.  I could wrap my brain around it. So, I’ve continued down this path believing I’m on the right track, but I’m not, and today it stops.

After really confronting and wrestling with this idea, I believe that this is where the frugal and the environmentally conscious really have it wrong.

You see, this type of thinking, when allowed to run free, can permeate all facets of life and turn into an overall mindset, causing you to believe that you’re limited in what you’re capable of achieving.  This really becomes problematic once it seeps into your creative, problem solving mind space.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Here’s a little secret I’ve picked up from fellow bloggers Steve Pavlina and Chris Guillebeau about personal finance and, as a result, environmentalism:

The only person that decides how much money you’re allowed to make or what you’re allowed to do to improve the world is you.

Even though it feels like your boss sets your income and some higher power has determined what you must do to be a good environmentalist, it just isn’t true.  I’m completely guilty of this.

Let’s pause for a second and let that sink in.

Abundance as an alternative

Now,  I’m not suggesting that you go out and buy everything that strikes your fancy or turn all the faucets and thermostats in your house up because living abundantly is the only way to exist happily.  No.  What I’m suggesting is that you don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the situation you’re in is the only situation available to you.

There is infinite wisdom in the concepts of prioritizing and living simply, but they do not exist in a vacuum.  I believe that in order to find a true solution to our economic and environmental woes, these concepts must be interpreted in a way that allows you incredible focus on the most important issues.  And these issues must be determined by you.

By 2050, we’re going to add 2.5 billion bright and smiling faces to the planet.  That’s about 28% more than we have right now.

I hate to admit it, but recycling my milk carton, in and of itself, is not going to dig us out of the hole we’re in.  With inflation slowly eating away at savings, banking my change from the convenience store in a jar is not going to secure my financial freedom all on its own.

If you’ve been reading Frugally Green for awhile now, you know that I love to talk about making little changes like ditching bottled water and hypermiling.  They’re quick and easy to implement. You also know that the reason I like to talk about these small gestures is because they are so beneficial in propelling you to bigger changes like unplugging your dryer and eating less meat.

The focus is not the change itself; it is the progress of it. Seeing progress can open your mind to a whole new world of possibilities.  Where once there was a giant burden, there is now a great opportunity.  Like I’ve said before, success begets success and continual progress can open your mind to more abundance-minded thinking.

This is why I find technology so inspiring.  It’s no secret I’ve often complained about how I can’t keep up with it and many times I shouldn’t, but the truth is, it’s refreshing to know that there is a world of people out there inspired by possibility.

Where the scarcity-minded see a need to simply do less, the abundance-minded see an opportunity to do more with less.

This is the heart of the sustainability movement to me – finding ways to do more with less. With an abundant outlook, anything is possible.  Let’s stop breaking our backs shoveling coal into power plants and start letting the sun, wind, waves, and earth do the work.  Why flush our toilets, wash our laundry, and water our lawns with drinking water when there are thousands of gallons of it running off of our roofs?

Looking only for ways to do less doesn’t really address the problems we face every day at their deepest level. We default to this mentality because it’s been done so many times before and we’ve proven it works, to an extent.  It’s a safety net.

A quick case study

For many years, I’ve managed my money with a very close eye.  I had a budget that accounts for every dollar that comes into and goes out of my life. My net worth was growing like crazy.  My goal-targeted savings accounts were really adding up.  And I was completely unhappy.

Something had to change.  Thanks to my inspirers (mentioned above), I’ve been able to allow myself permission to relax my budget a bit, take off a bit of the edge that comes with sweating every penny, and guess what? In a very short period of time I’ve found several new, less apparent solutions to make more money doing things that interest me.

Similarly, but with a slightly different twist, I’ve saved a significant amount of money and carbon and methane emissions by reducing my meat consumption, and I’ve discovered all kinds of delicious alternatives that keep me satisfied on veggie days.

By deciding to reject scarcity, new opportunities opened up.  When I spent hours managing every dollar in my life, I was too busy to see all the opportunities floating around just above my head (which was pointed down at a complicated budget) and when I was busy chomping on beef every day, I was scared to let it go because I couldn’t see the alternatives that were staring me in the face once I finally committed.

Final Thoughts

Now, obviously I’m no expert on the abundance vs. scarcity debate.  I am but a beginner, dabbling in the concept.  All the same, I gave myself the opportunity to try it and found some success.  I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t share that with you.

Many of us in the world of frugality and environmentalism, though well intentioned, are very set in our ways.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned on this journey, it’s that my greatest strides are made when I step out of my comfort zone.

If you’re ready to step out of yours, I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas.  This is more of a journey than a destination and there’s no reason we can’t be on it together.

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The giant, blue abomination to the left has been the monkey on my back for the past 5 months of Frugally Green.  I first got the idea to start this website after deciding to build a compost tumbler to reduce our kitchen and garden waste.  It was going to be awesome.  The only problem was that I wasn’t really interested in food or gardening, but I sure was interested in a hands-on project.  So, I found a way to make the whole idea more exciting by making it more complex than it ever needed to be.

The beginnings of a frugally green failure

I scoured the internet for the most interesting composter designs, I sat down and drew up my super-awesome-and-improved plan in AutoCAD, making a detailed materials list and then headed to the hardware store to pick up the materials.

I came home and set to work, taking pictures at every step.  I just knew that millions of people were going to want to know how to build this thing and have the most fun of their lives spinning their rotten food around. It was going to be a how-to of the century.

5 months later, I have yet to write a single word or share a single picture of this contraption.  Why? Because I never should have built it in the first place.

Sure, I do use it every day.  Yes, it does work (as far as I can tell).  But, the truth is, there is nothing frugal or green about this thing beside the fact that it is, indeed, a compost bin.  It’s a giant, plastic barrel that carried soy sauce half-way around the world propped up by an unnecessary chunk of metal that’s supported by more wood than needed to remain sturdy. Failure!

I took on this project for all the wrong reasons.  At the time, I didn’t actually care about the function of the composter, I just wanted a green project to busy myself with and I wanted to flex my mental muscle and do something complex.  As a result, I ended up with a less than perfectly functional product that used a ton more material and cost more money than what was ever necessary to get the job done.

The awakening

If I had actually cared about compost at the time, I would have done a little research and found out that turning it is not very important.  I would have also learned a number of other things about it that would have influenced my design to a simpler and more effective result.

What I failed to realize while dreaming up this contraption was that anyone can take a simple idea and make it complicated.  Real innovation occurs by taking something complicated and making it simple.

So here’s my new how-to article for building a truly frugally green compost bin:

• Step 1: Make a pile.

…

Yep, that’s it.  That is all you really need to make good, useful compost.  You don’t even have to spend a dime.  Don’t feel guilty that your composter isn’t as nice as your neighbor’s (if your neighbor even has one). Just revel in the fact that it works just as well.

If, you have pets or nocturnal visitors that will make a mess of your compost pile, we can add just 3 more steps to solve that problem as well:

• Step 1: Screw a few scraps of dimensional lumber together to make a box.

• Step 2: Find a piece of scrap plywood and mount it to the top with a couple hinges.  Add a latch to the front if you have raccoons with he-man strength.

• Step 3 (Optional): Paint the entire assembly to satisfy your aesthetic needs.

• Step 4: Fill with compostable materials.

Now, we’ve added 300% more complication to the process and if I were one of those sleazy marketers, I’d substitute the word ‘complication’ for something sexier and make it sound like the greatest thing since tumbled compost, but I won’t, and composting really is as simple as making a pile.

There is nothing fancy required.  I wish I’d realized that before I spent a whole weekend driving around town buying all these things I didn’t need.

The real lesson learned

There seems to be a common perception these days that the more complicated an idea or product is, the better it must be because it’s had more thought and effort invested in it.  This is patently false.  The best ideas in life are almost always the most simple.  Think back to the most enjoyable, memorable, or even productive times in your life.  Were you doing something complicated or something relatively simple?

Many times we overcomplicate things because we want to impress others or feel like we have to prove to ourselves that we can do something we’re not sure we’re capable of. Testing your limits is the fastest way to grow, but don’t take the wrong approach.  If you really want to stand out and prove something to yourself, take your most complicated ideas and simplify them.  Anyone can do the opposite.

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Thanks for dropping by today.  Frugally Green started 5 months ago in April and since then I have made a number of commitments to change they way I do things in order to live more responsibly.  I think it’s important to look back once in awhile to make sure things are still on track and I’m still moving forward, so that’s the intention of this post – to update you on my progress.  Also, keeping you up to date with what I’m up to creates a bit of much needed accountability for me.  Knowing that you’re out there reading and expecting some progress is a real motivator for me to stick with it.  So lets see what I’ve been working on and how it’s been going:

Green investment

Back in May and June, I wrote a 4 part series on my journey to become a green investor. After carefully detailing what was important to me about an investment and how I would choose it, I finally made a decision at the end of the series and bought it.  I intended to buy $2,500 in shares of the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF but this was my first time using an online broker, and I flubbed a little bit, only buying $2,410 because I could not figure out how to base my purchase on dollar amount instead of number of shares.  The share price dropped before my trade was completed and I ended up with $90 just sitting in my trading account.  Whoops.

Since purchasing the shares in early July, they have gone on a bit of a roller coaster ride anywhere from a few percentage points up to a few down.  At the time of this writing, it’s up about 8%.  I expect more turbulence through the rest of the year and that doesn’t bother me.  This is a long term investment that I did my homework on and I will do my best to keep my emotions from clouding any judgment along the way by checking the progress as infrequently as possible, but still keeping up to date.

Hypermiling

A lot of readers found my article about saving money by hypermiling fairly useful.  Personally, after 2 more months of practice, it looks like I’ve hit a plateau.  I’ve yet to make it significantly above 24 miles per gallon.  I’m still happy with this as it cements my roughly 7 mpg improvement over my old gas guzzling ways, but I still really want to hit 25 mpg.  I’m going to have to do some real zen/ninja like research as well as trial and error to figure out how to make it there.  You can be sure though, that if I figure it out, I’ll be reporting back.  In the meantime, you can follow me on Fuelly as I track my gas mileage at every fill up.

A reader disagreed with me in the comments of that article about the effectiveness of slow acceleration.  I used two tanks of gas to test his theory that faster acceleration is actually more effective and found that it did not work for me under normal driving conditions.  I actually performed worse than normal.  Still, his argument had merit and I can only encourage you to take the time to test and see which method is most effective for your car.

Also, I’ve quit turning off my truck at stop lights. I noticed after awhile that it was taking a long time to restart and, like I mentioned in the article, it might be wearing out my starter.  I’ve decided to be safe rather than sorry this time.

Air drying laundry

This has been going awesome and I’ve practically eliminated my need for a dryer. I’ve got a long chain-link fence in my back yard parking lot that is adequately protected from the sun and usually has a light breeze – the perfect outdoor air drying situation.  Every Sunday I actually look forward to pulling my clothes out of the washing machine and hanging them up on the fence.  I’ve even stopped using the dryer to soften the clothes at the end of the drying cycle as I’ve noticed that I actually prefer a little stiffness in my clothing now (though this may be a psychological trick I’ve played on myself because I hate using the dryer).

A lot of people thought this would be a real time sink having to hang everything up and take it down, but I’ve found it to be just the opposite – I actually save time. I’ve become very efficient in hanging and removing clothes from the fence.  And, when I’m not sitting around for an hour waiting for the dryer to stop so I can immediately pull my clothes out before they get totally wrinkled, I’m able to go off and do other important things with my day.  It doesn’t matter how long the clothes hang on the fence.

I am starting to run into a problem, though, as I knew I eventually would.  It’s started to rain again here as the seasons begin to change.  I still have not set up a good indoor drying solution.  I guess this had better move up the priority list.  Luckily for me, a reader left quite a comprehensive set of instructions for me when I decide to actually do something about it.  Thanks Debbie!

Be green, not elitist

I wrote this article after hearing a friend of mine argue with another friend about turning unused lights off in his house.  It made me think about how I approach my personal commitments with other people.  After some reflection, I noticed that I’ve fallen into the same trap before, criticizing others while trying to make myself look like a hero.

I am the last person on Earth that should be throwing stones and it really made me think about how to effectively communicate my values without seeming pushy or belittling others.

After some more development on this subject, I’ve adopted what I believe is the best principle for me: lead by example and let the rest take care of itself.  Most of the people I come into contact with on a regular basis know where I stand on environmental issues.  They don’t need me to explain it to them.  By simply being truthful with myself about who I am, I naturally attract those that are more interested in this kind of lifestyle.

Everyone is free to implement change in the way that they see fit.  They don’t need me to tell them how to do it.  If someone asks me how I do it, I’m eager to explain, but I try very hard not to offer unsolicited advice anymore.  It’s rarely appreciated.

I have to admit I’m still a little rude to litterers.  I haven’t figured out the best way to handle a situation like that besides kindly informing them that they ‘accidentally’ dropped something while offering it back to them.

Eat less meat

Wow, this one has been tough.  I started my eat less meat challenge about 2 weeks before actually publishing the article, and, like I mentioned in the comments, it’s been very easy to slip up and either forget which day I am on (I’m only eating meat every other day now) or accidentally eat something with meat in it without realizing it until it’s too late.

I’m starting to think it might actually be easier to simply go vegetarian! I’m not ready for that, though, and I must progress at my own pace.  After a few weeks, it’s certainly become more routine and easier to handle, but it’s no walk in the park yet.  I’d never realized until now how mindless a task eating has been for me – the steps often being little more than 1) buy food, 2) prepare food, 3) place food in mouth, oftentimes skipping step 2.

Changing such an ingrained habit is no simple feat, but it feels right, so I will continue despite the difficulty.

Final thoughts

Writing an update article like this has been really helpful to me.  Hopefully it’s been helpful to you, too.  Sometimes I’m stricken with doubt about whether or not I’m doing the right things or if I’m really making much of a change.  Looking back and seeing where I’ve started from has given me some useful perspective and confirmed that yes, I am doing some worthwhile things here and yes, I am making progress.

That feels good to know.  I’ve got a long way to go on this journey, but a quick celebration on the way there is a great motivator. Thanks for being a part of it all.

Now I want to know more about you.  Have you challenged yourself to make any changes to your daily life?  How’s it going?  What’s been hard and what’s been enjoyable? What are the things that keep you motivated and on track?

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A few years ago, a gal named Crissy Trask noticed that everywhere she went, people she met were excited and interested in the green movement.  Everyone was talking about how important it is to live responsibly and be mindful of the earth.  Then she realized that all these people that seemed so gung-ho about an environmentally friendly life weren’t actually doing anything about it.

After a bit of research and asking around, Crissy realized that the people in her life were excited and interested in the prospects of a cleaner, more sustainable world, but didn’t really know what they could do to help or even where to go to find out what they could do.  That’s when she decided to write It’s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living.

Who should read this book: If you’re relatively new to the concept of sustainability, need some help navigating the lingo, or looking for some help figuring out what types of pursuits might fit your lifestyle, this book can offer some guidance as well as references that you can continually look back to.

Who shouldn’t read this book: If you’re looking for a matter-of-fact guide to tell you what to do, then this book isn’t for you.  Also, if you’re looking for playful storytelling, this book won’t be a good fit – it’s very middle-of-the-road in its presentation.

It’s Easy Being Green is just what it says it is, a handbook.  In fact, I prefer to think of it more as a reference manual as it is filled with definitions of commonly heard (but often misunderstood) terms from around the greenoshphere (I just made that word up so no, it’s not included in the handbook) as well as tons of external resources to get you going in the direction you want once you’ve read it and decided what that direction might be.

The real value in this book, in my opinion, is the 59 page list of tips (organized by topic) that allow you to define a roadmap of things you will do to improve your eco-footprint.  At 59 pages, it’s a bit cumbersome, but it’s really comprehensive.  Here’s how you use it (This process is also described in the book):

1. Read through all the tips, one at a time, making a check in the 3^rd box next to it if it sounds interesting to you.
2. Go through the list again, looking only at the tips you identified as interesting and place a check mark in the 2^nd box if you feel it’s something you’d actually like to pursue.
3. One by one, go through each tip and begin to accomplish them, giving yourself a time frame to complete each one.  To avoid overload, don’t focus on more than one item at a time.  Give each your full attention.
4. Using the 1^st box next to each tip, give yourself a rating of 1-5 to identify how you feel you performed implementing it.
5. Start over at step 1.

This section of the book has the ability to turn into a living document as you fill it out and pursue the tips you identified.  Once you’re done, you might find it useful to go back and look over all the ones you chose, implemented, and scored yourself on.  You’ll probably find that you performed a lot better in certain areas than others.  It might help you to prioritize your green pursuits going forward.

I should also mention that Crissy understands that her audience likes to buy stuff as she includes 2 chapters in her book titled Buying Green and Green Shopping Online. Personally, I prefer the Don’t Buy Stuff method to getting through life, but that’s not exactly realistic and it’s important to know how to make the best choices when you need to purchase something, so I’m glad she covered it thoroughly.

Crissy also writes a chapter titled Getting Involved where she provides numerous tips and resources for easy ways to connect with organizations that promote sustainability in areas you may be interested in.

Overall, I can’t say that It’s Easy Being Green was a great fit for me.  I feel like I’m slightly beyond the level of material that was presented, but I do appreciate all the external references provided.  I’ve written down a number of them that I will eventually check out to see if they could fit into my pursuits. But like I said earlier, if you’re just starting out or need help finding direction, you might find a lot of guidance from this handbook – especially from the 59 page worksheet.

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It’s easy to get caught up in excitement when you’ve decided to make a change in your life and are moving forward.  Maybe you’ve decided to lose weight and get healthier or start a new career and create a better future for yourself.  In my case, I’ve decided to live a more sustainable life that will provide a better future for the generations to come.  If you’re reading this site, you’ve probably made a similar commitment.

As we know, there are a lifetime (and then some) of changes that we can make to maintain such a commitment.  Frugally Green is all about selecting and implementing the changes that will be beneficial to us.  At the same time, it’s worth recognizing that as we dig deeper and deeper into the culture, it’s natural to begin inserting our new awareness into more aspects of our lives, presumably aspects that might cost money.  This could come in the form of buying more organic and natural foods, clothing, or household supplies, purchasing the most efficient appliances or automobile, or installing renewable energy systems to reduce your dependence on coal and foreign oil.  It could literally be anything.  So what’s a guy or gal to do with all of these opportunities but limited financial resources to pursue them?

Priorities based on values

We make decisions every day about what to buy and what not t0, what to do and what not to do, who to associate with and who to leave be.  Consciously or unconsciously, we make these kinds of decisions as a result of our values and what we think is important.

There’s no reason to change how this process works when deciding on sustainable pursuits.  The key is to become more aware of how we make these decisions (funny how that keeps coming up) so that we can make them with strategy.  As mere mortals, we can’t pursue every green change that passes by us.  It’s completely impossible – too much for a person to bear.  For some reason, though, many people still try and burnout is one of the most often cited causes for failure.  They stretch themselves too thin and can’t keep up.  How unsustainable!

In order to find sustainable success, you need to decide what’s important to you and prove it.  Take a second and think of the three most important values you hold.  These values are the core of who you are.  No one should ever be able to contest these.  Now look at your daily actions towards a sustainable life.  Do they match up?

If you can answer yes, then maybe you’re dialed.  You are committed to your core values and you broadcast it with every breath.  If that’s you, then I applaud and am, admittedly, a little jealous.  I’m not there yet.

When I first decided that I was going to change my actions and start living more responsibly, I began devouring every tidbit of information I could about the subject (info addiction is something else I’m working on).  I wanted to change everything about me! Out with the old, in with the new.  Guess how long that lasted.

I couldn’t keep up with all the ideas that came my way and I certainly couldn’t afford them.  I was constantly chasing something new, changing course over and over again.  And for what?  A lot of the ideas I tried to implement were in aspects of life that I typically didn’t value highly anyway.  For example, I think gardening and pursuing a diet filled only with local organic foods is amazing.  I have immeasurable respect for those that take on such challenges, but it’s not for me.  I’m not a foodie.  I eat to stay alive and usually couldn’t care less whether I’m eating lobster bisque from a 5 star restaurant on the bay or a bean burrito from the taco truck down the street.  I cook huge batches of pasta and eat it for days straight as if it were going out of style.

Let go of the uninteresting

You might have noticed that I don’t write many articles about food or clothing.  Some might see this as a weakness – I’m losing potential visitors by not covering all the bases and keeping everyone happy.  I don’t see it this way.  I actually see it as a strength.  By focusing on what I really care about – consumption, consumerism, home improvement, personal development – I am able to consistently offer up the best articles and resources that I am capable of producing.  If I tried to fake it just to please those out there that want more of something that doesn’t interest me, it wouldn’t work.  They would see right through me, know that I half-assed it, and would probably be less interested in the site anyway.

I’d rather have an intensely interested small audience than a huge one without a strong focus.

I still think that being aware of the social consequences of what I eat and wear is important, but if I spend too much time, money and effort on this facet of life that is, frankly, boring to me, I take a lot of time away from opportunities to grow in leaps and bounds in the areas that I’m actually excited about.

I don’t have to be the best at everything.  In fact, I don’t even want to be.  I want to focus my energy on excelling at the things that naturally intrigue me.  Doing this makes it easy to change because it’s simply adding another layer to a dimension that I’m already in tune with.

An example of this, for me, would be waste management and recycling.  I’m already a fan of simplicity and reduction in my life, so getting excited about how to reduce the amount of waste I produce is easy.  I started out with simply learning what is and isn’t recyclable, but it has naturally progressed into so much more.  I now have a system set up making it easy for everyone in our house to recycle, I’ve built a home-made compost tumbler for compostable food scraps, learned to cook in a way that reduces wasted leftovers, and I now evaluate purchases based on the disposable packaging they come in.

Would I have been able to accomplish all that if it didn’t already fit into one of my life values?  Probably, but I would have had to work a lot harder for a lot longer to get to the same place.  I believe very much in hard work, but I believe even more in smart work.

Opportunities to outsource

A lot of personal development books give advice on ways to build and strengthen your weaknesses.  They help you bring them up to ‘acceptable’ performance levels in order to be a well-rounded individual.  That’s fine, but who wants to be just acceptable?

Consider for a moment, the idea of outsourcing your weaknesses and making your strengths incredible.  Outsourcing is not just for major corporations and when you do it in the sense that I’m talking about, it’s not a dirty word either.  I’m a do-it-yourselfer to the core, but I recognize where I’ll be wasting my time and energy trying to accomplish something I’m not interested in.  It takes courage to admit that you can’t do everything, but to be effective and efficient in your pursuits, you must.

I’ve found that teaming up with like minded friends and family is a good way to make sure that all the bases are covered without spreading yourself too thin.  Everyone is different and naturally predisposed to enjoying different types of activities, so why not make that work for you?  Maybe you know all about food and clothing and your partner is a whiz with public transportation.  We all need to eat and clothe our bodies (all present nudists exempt) and most of us need to get around, so why not trade responsibilities? You take on the grocery list and the thrift store hunting, and your partner can manage the transit passes and bike maintenance.

Think of the 5 closest people to you in your everyday life.  Now think of something you can offer them to make their lives easier and more sustainable and go give it to them. Then, think of something that each of those 5 could do for you to make your life easier and sustainable.  See where I’m going with this?  We do this kind of trading all the time in our relationships anyway, this is just an exercise to hone it to a more specific topic.

When you accept that you can’t and don’t need to be the best at everything and allow yourself to excel at what you really care about, you open yourself up to a whole new level of accomplishment – one that’s not bogged down or held back by a sense of responsibility to things that don’t really interest you.  Use that accomplishment to help others. Allow them the same freedom so that they can do similarly for you.

I’m reminded of my friend’s favorite Jerry Garcia quote, “If it’s not fun, why do it?”

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I’d like to be able to say that when I was in college, environmental sustainability was just starting to take a foothold at universities around the country.  Honestly, though, I don’t know if that’s true.  The farther down the rabbit hole I go, the more I realize that the roots of the green movement started long before me.  While I’ve always pursued sustainability to some extent as a personal goal and aspiration, it wasn’t until very recently that I began to think of it in terms of a possible career path.

Apparently, I’m not the only one.  Colleges and universities around the country are now offering and expanding options to students looking to improve the world through environmental stewardship.  The Princeton Review now even keeps an honor roll of the most sustainable schools (so disappointed not to see my alma mater on there).

If you’re headed off to college, back to school, or already enrolled, there are several things you can do to make sure you’re at the top of the pack when you graduate.  You may be interested to know that graduating suma cum laude is not on the list (though there’s nothing wrong with that).

Always take on interesting projects

This is one of the easiest ways to stand out from the crowd.  Most college students are just trying to get by, regurgitating the same facts and ideas that they’ve absorbed over the years.  By designing projects that truly interest you and challenge you to do your best work, you’ll stand out to your professors and even future employers, even if your conclusions aren’t revelations.  It’s easy to get it right when you’re repeating the same steps someone else has 100 times before.  It’s far more difficult and interesting to blaze your own trail.

People notice when you step outside of the box. For example,  while all your classmates are studying the effectiveness of a green roof, you could be researching the cost benefit of different types of green roofs across different types of climates.  An original idea can go a long way.

Make valuable connections

Never miss an opportunity to create a meaningful connection with someone.  The more you make the better.  These are the people that will inspire you to be the best you can be, force you to healthily challenge your beliefs, and provide you with connections to the people and companies that you want to work for.  Don’t limit yourself to classmates.  Connect with professors, department heads, club and organization leaders, and guest lecturers that you find interesting.

Since I graduated from high school, I’ve had five or so different jobs and have only ever submitted one resume and been to one interview.  I now work for one of the leading green contractors in the US and I never even had an interview.  I don’t say this to pat myself on the back, only to emphasize the power of the connections you can make with people. You simply never know where they’ll lead you.

Also, don’t be afraid to sever connections with the wrong people. These are the ones that bring you down and will try to hinder you in reaching your goals.  Sometimes, when we’re eager to make all the connections we can, a few bad ones slip in there.  Our first impressions aren’t always right!  Being able to recognize these poor connections  and, more importantly, end them will improve your odds of success exponentially. Furthermore, don’t make connections just to network. These kind of folks are sleazy.  Just be natural and do your best to connect with people that are interesting to you.

Seek out challenging internships

The best way to find the job you want right out of college is to get your foot in the door before you graduate.  Use the network you built above to do a little legwork for you.  Don’t settle for one internship, either.  Pursue many throughout the course of your academic career, and in different fields, even if your degree is very specialized.

I only completed one internship while in college and luckily ended up in a pretty good fit, but I still truly regret not making the effort to pursue more opportunities before tying the knot.  The only way to know what company will be the best fit for you will be to try many of them.

Besides, the more internships you’re able to complete, the better positioned you’ll be to accept a position with a company that is the best fit for you and with potential multiple offers on the table, you’ll be in a great place to negotiate your starting salary.

Stay on top of technology

This is just one of those things you need to do to be as valuable as possible to your future employer.  If this is something that comes naturally to you, then it will probably be easy.

It does not come naturally to me.  I seem to always be a generation or two behind whatever new and exciting technology is available to me.  You don’t need to know everything about the latest and greatest in every aspect of life.  You just need to be able to identify the areas of technology that are important to your field and focus on them.  This is easier to do if you’re passionate about what you’re studying!

The technology leaps in the green industry are staggering right now, but if you can navigate them and prove proficiency in the latest and greatest while all your classmates have given up and stuck to what they already know, you’ll have positioned yourself pretty well.

Start side projects

This has got to be the most important of all the things you can do to make sure you’re successful coming out of college.  If you find success here, there’s no need to even go looking for a job out of college.  You’ve already created one for yourself.

Start small and try all sorts of things.  Constantly be on the look for opportunities to use your knowledge and skills to provide people with something they want or need.  Fail all over the place. It doesn’t matter how many times something new doesn’t work out because you’ll learn something with each attempt and you’re still in college, so you’re allowed to fail (you’re allowed to fail out of college as well, it’s just more difficult to grant yourself permission).

What’s the worst that will happen? You’re future employer will be impressed by how self-motivated and creative you are? That doesn’t sound so bad.

Graduate early

No, you don’t have to give up the “college experience” to do this.  I wish I would have known that sooner.  I rationalize my choice to spend 5 years getting my degree to myself every day, but deep down, I know I could have had an even better experience and came out way ahead with more forethought and planning.  Don’t make the same mistake I did.

They say kids these days grow up too fast, but trust me, year five induces symptoms of acute senioritis.  This doesn’t even take into account all the costs associated with expanding your collegiate career by a year.  I’m sure you can think of something better to do with your money.

Final Thoughts

Basically, the best thing you can do to ensure your success is to love what you’re studying and what you’re doing.  When you love what you’re studying, practicing all of these tactics and becoming fully engaged with the world around you is easy.  It’s something you want to do, not something you have to.  How do you target what you love to do?  Well, that’s a topic for another post, but here’s one big hint – do the opposite of what everyone else thinks you should do.

Where are you at on the higher education spectrum – completed, in progress, going to attend, not going to attend?  What do you want to know about sustainable schools and education programs?  What are your career aspirations? How did you decide what to study?

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I love to eat cows – steaks, hamburgers, tacos – yum.  I love to eat pigs – pork chops, ribs, bacon, sausage – delicious. Chickens?  I love them too – all the way from their little legs and wings to their thighs and breasts – even gizzards! Salmon, trout, sturgeon, halibut? Can’t get enough of it.  Every cell in my body is a ravenous carnivore.  Just to put it all in perspective, I read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle while eating a juicy hamburger.  Now, have I thoroughly turned off all of the vegans and vegetarians out there?  Probably, and I do apologize, but this post today isn’t for you.  You already know what I’m about to say and you’ve been practicing it for years.  The world needs more people like you.

Today, this article is for people like me – people who love meat with every bone in their body but are open to learning more about how their consumption of it is affecting their quest to live a sustainable life.  You probably know already that eating meat is more expensive than eating fruits, vegetables, beans, and other seemingly less delicious alternatives.  What you might not have considered is the huge environmental impact eating all that meat creates. But how much more expensive is it and what impact does it really have on our global eco-system?

The dollars and cents of meat

When you compare all the work and resources it takes to raise a cow to maturity and get it onto your dinner plate versus what would be required of, say, a cucumber, there’s no difficulty in seeing why you’re probably used to paying about 150% more for ground beef than your typical vegetable.

An animal like a cow requires enormous amounts of space, water, grain, hormones, antibiotics, and time to reach the status of tasty and consumable. The statistic that a vegetarian requires 300 gallons of water a day to produce their daily food compared to 4,000 gallons necessary for a meat-eater is just one shocking metric.

Looking back on my last few weeks of meals, I’ve realized that I probably eat meat, in one form or another, at least once a day, often twice.  This is costing me a small fortune!  If I scaled back my meat consumption to just once every other day, a small and easily achievable goal, I could really save some money.  A quick back-of-the-napkin calculation brings it to around $37 a month!  If I were to go wholly vegetarian, I’d save closer to $50.

I could save about $600 a year by practicing vegetarianism. Ya know, I’ve been meaning to do more traveling, and two years of vegetarianism would cover the cost of a round trip ticket to almost any major airport in the world. Compelling.

Don’t get too caught up with the money.  It’s highly motivational for some, but there’s another very legitimate reason to evaluate your meat consumption.

The environment and meat production

The environmental impact of large scale meat production, especially in the United States, is tremendous.  When you think of the biggest changes we can make to green our world, what comes to mind?  I’ve always thought of things like solar panels and wind turbines, biodiesel, recycling centers, and electric cars. No doubt, these are all important pieces of the puzzle.  But recently, I learned that the biggest and most important change that I can make is to reduce my red meat consumption.  It’s not a change that immediately jumps out at you.  It’s not a topic you’ll likely hear about in the news, and it’s not the forefront of technology so there isn’t much of a mainstream crowd cheering it on.

Come to think of it, most of the high value sustainable changes that have to do with personal conservation and responsibility never seem to get much attention.  What gives?

Anyway, looking back, you might notice that all the reasons that meat is so expensive are the same reasons that it’s so unsustainable:

An animal like a cow requires enormous amounts of space, water, grain, hormones, antibiotics, and time to reach the status of tasty and consumable.

The space required to raise enough beef to feed our incurable appetite is exponentially higher than for a comparable amount of non-meat foods.  They drink water by the gallon.  There doesn’t exist enough grass to feed all the cattle that feed us, so their diet must be supplemented with grain that is grown elsewhere and transported to them. You know…so on and so forth.

It’s been estimated that over half of all fossil fuels used in the US are used to raise animals and as much as 80% of our farmland is dedicated to it as well. Reducing meat consumption is more important than driving more efficient cars when it comes to energy independence. And think of what we could do with all that farmland.

This isn’t all, though.  I saved the best for last. Get this – cow farts (and burps) are a leading cause of ozone depletion. The methane gas they emit in their flatulence is 20 times worse than the carbon dioxide belching out of your neighbor’s hummer.  Humans produce methane gas as well, but a cow produces 800 times more of it every day. Now, judging by Jessie’s habits, I’d say the margin is much narrower, but I’ll default to the scientists this time.

Suffice it to say that our taste for meat is really wreaking some havoc on Mother Earth.

But I didn’t crawl all the way up the food chain just to…

Me either. I know. I’m not asking you to become a vegetarian.  I don’t want you to become a vegan.  Not if you don’t want to.  I don’t want you to deprive yourself of food you love.  Like I said at the very beginning, I love meat too (refer to the opening paragraph for all the types and ways).

What I want you to do is become more conscious of how much you eat, especially red meat.  You may eat all kinds of meat and not even realize that you’re experiencing the law of diminishing returns. If you eat meat every day, how much are you actually enjoying it? What if you only ate it every other day? Once a week?  How much more would you appreciate it if you had it less often?  Big changes start with small steps. Challenge yourself to cut back a little bit and you might find it’s not so bad.  You might even discover you like it when you start feeling healthier and enjoying the meat you do eat that much more. You might not even notice that the change you make is keeping Ol’ Heifer from stinkin’ up the joint. Who knows what could happen.

As for me, I’ll be taking myself up on the challenge I proposed earlier: one serving of meat every other day.  It feels like a great place to start.  I know that if I can meet that goal, I can cut my consumption back even more and continue doing so until I’ve made a huge change to my habit without feeling any pain.

Now get out there and eat some veggies! And remember, a clean colon is a happy colon.

Do you eat too much meat? Did you realize how big of an impact factory farming has on our environment?  Do you disagree and think we should eat meat until our colons explode?

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Protecting the earth isn’t always easy.  Neither is saving money.  In fact, sometimes it can be downright hard work.  Becoming frugally green requires a shift in lifestyle design that a lot of people just aren’t comfortable with.  Living consciously is an important virtue, but it isn’t easy. So what can you do if you’re just not up to the challenge?

Here are 8 steps you can take to make sure you avoid the hassle of living an environmentally and financially conscious lifestyle.  You won’t make the world a better place, you probably won’t save any money, and you certainly won’t grow as a conscious individual, but everyone around you living similarly mediocre and unconscious lives will likely be very impressed.

Always buy cheap

Never mind that each piece came from a different corner of the world, was produced in a highly toxic facility and that you’ll have to buy another one when it breaks in a month because it was so poorly constructed by underpaid third-world slaves in a sweatshop at 3 AM on Christmas.  Your friends will be impressed that you’re so thrifty.  You always find the best deals!

Always buy “green”

This option is easy to spot because they made the box twice as big to fit all the reasons why it saves the world on it.  Rather than figure out how to improve the product, they hired a new marketing team to “accentuate” all the “green” details that weren’t so important before.  Don’t even look at the price or comparison shop, just eat it up because the best way to lead a sustainable life is to surround yourself with things that tell everyone else that you care.

Talk a big game

The more you know about the green culture, the more you can tell other people about it.  Keep up appearances by trading tricks and tips with all your friends.  Don’t bother actually implementing them.  That takes time and effort.  Besides, the more people you tell about all the great stuff you know, the less you actually have to do.  As long as they’re all doing it, it won’t make much difference if you do. But, what if they’re all like you?

Ridicule your friends

Don’t give up.  They’re only one more insulting comment away from seeing everything your way!  The only way to influence people to live like you do is to shove your lifestyle down their throats.  Get in arguments.  Shout louder when they offer different perspectives.  They won’t get it until you’ve uncovered every last undesirable characteristic they possess.  Careful with this tip, though. They won’t have to dig too deep to retaliate.

Produce more energy, don’t conserve it

The more renewable energy you create, the less you need to worry about conserving it.  If you’ve got the money, buy a few more to power the sauna and the 72” plasma TV in your theater room.  There’s no need to reduce consumption when the electricity you generate makes you feel so good about yourself.  If you don’t read your electricity bill, you won’t even notice that it hasn’t changed.  This is another friend impresser.  Throw parties once a year to show off the windmill in your back yard.  Make sure there’s a great view of it from the hot tub.

Donate but never volunteer

It’s long been known that the more money you throw at a problem, the easier and faster it is to fix.  Take this to heart and send a few dollars out to worthy foundations here or there, but only if you get your name on a plaque or something.  Remember, though, don’t ever give them any identifying information you don’t have to.  Someday they might actually ask if you’d like to help and you don’t have time for that.  Besides, what do they need your time for when they have your money?  Plenty of others are sure to help, right?  Showing up might open you up to other changes you need to make in your life.  You’re busy and don’t have time for this either.

Never challenge yourself to do more

Find a nice comfortable spot and stay there.  This is the easiest way to get through life.  And life is tough, so don’t add to it!  Besides, you already do more than most people.  Isn’t that good enough?  When someone presents a great idea to you that sounds like work, politely brush it off while highlighting the other things you do.  This is the best way to diffuse the request, as most people are very understanding.  They won’t question your decision.

Don’t take risks

If you never take a risk, nothing will ever go wrong.  You can feel good about yourself knowing that you’ve successfully navigated your way through life without ever causing a commotion.  All those world changing ideas you have?  They can’t be that original.  Someone else will probably do them so don’t worry about it.  Besides, what if you did give them a shot and they didn’t work out quite like you’d planned?  People might think you’re a failure.  Best to just fly under the radar.

The final word

There are plenty more ways to lead an average life, and quite honestly, there’s nothing wrong with average.  But if you’ve found yourself here, then I’m going to guess that you’re probably someone that is looking for more.  Looking back, I wrote this piece quite sarcastically.  It might offend some, but I’m hoping it will inspire more.

There are no two ways around it.  Living a meaningful and conscious life is hard work.  Most people will opt for the easier route as their lives are hard enough as is, but if you’ve read this far, I believe you probably are, or at least have an urge to be one of the few that opts to break free from the sea of mediocrity.  Congratulations. You have a long, often frustrating road ahead of you,  but you know it’s worth it.  Anyone can do it, most wont.  Which one are you?

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