Recently, I asked Frugally Green Readers what the best ways to improve the world while pocketing some coin for themselves along the way are. As an incentive to answer, I gave away a few prizes.

Turns out, you guys are really smart (of course I already knew that)!

I got lots of interesting replies from a number of excited people.  I don’t want those ideas to be forgotten, so I’ve decided to highlight some of them in a post.

The following are five comments that I selected from that post to highlight here as well as a little commentary from because, well, I like to hear myself talk.

Take a second to think about each one and see how it could apply to your life.  Maybe these ideas could provide a little guidance while you’re setting your goals for next year.

Comment #1 comes from Wendy, who said:

Best way to save while saving planet: Don’t spend money on useless crap that you don’t really need or will even want in a month. Save the money and keep stuff out of the landfill.

Best way to make money while saving planet: Do something you truly love and find a way to get paid for it. A planet of fulfilled souls makes for a better world.

Way to tell it like it is, Wendy!  We can all stand to get real once in awhile about the things we need.  I try to do a little benefit analysis every time I consider buying anything, but I still end up with junk I never really wanted now and again.

I’m right on board with you about doing what you love, too.  Fulfilled souls certainly beat wandering zombies.

Comment #2 comes from KC, who said:

Best way to save while saving planet: Get rid of all incandescent lamps at home. Replace them with efficient CFL or LED lamps. They draw way less power saving you money and result in less emissions at the power plant. They can pay for themselves within a few months depending on your usage.

If you’re concerned about mercury in CFLs, use caution while handling them so they don’t break and recycle them at the end of their life. Home Depot has an excellent CFL recycling program.

Incandescent lamps generate a lot of heat that your AC needs to remove from your home during summers. This causes extra burden on your AC and also costs you money.

No need to go out and replace every light in the house.  Just pick them up one at a time if you want until you’ve totally converted.  The biggest complaint I hear about CFLs is in regard to the quality of light they emit.  People prefer incandescent bulbs to read under.  “They’re superior,” they say.

You know what else is a superior product no one uses anymore?  Asbestos. Same story, different application.

Comment #3 comes from Jason, who said:

The best way to save money while improving the world is to be realistic in your choice of automobile. How much passenger/cargo space do you really need? Are most of your trips made with only the driver in the car, etc.?

Once you have determined what you really require, buy a used, well maintained vehicle that fills those requirements. Make maintenance a priority and do as much of it yourself as you can to keep the vehicle in top condition.

IMO, it is wealthier for the planet to continue to use existing resources as opposed to consuming more in the name of new.

Spot on, Jason. I’m almost a perfect example of who you’re talking about.  I bought a little, old truck right before college to get around in.  I never really even considered what I “needed” in terms of transportation besides something cheap.

98% of my trips are by myself with no cargo yet, six years later, I still haven’t done anything about it. Next year will contain some serious head scratching over how to improve this. Ideally, I’d like to go carless.  No promises…

Comment #4 comes from Susie (aka my mom), who said:

Composting can save you some money on your garbage bill and your garden will thank you next year. It is easy to do and doesn’t have to take up a lot of space.

A blog is always better with family involvement. That’s why I make sure to call out my mom every time she shows up here no matter how badly she wants to remain anonymous.

You’re right, Mom.  Composting is awesome.  However, sometimes compost tumblers aren’t.

Comment #5 comes from Rosemary, who said:

The best way to save money while saving the planet is to live close to where you work! Since I really wanted to live in Boston/Cambridge, I chose to work 3 miles away instead of 20+ miles away! In the summer I bike or take public transportation to work, and in winter time I drive when it’s too cold or snowing.

We also live within walking distance from our main grocery store.

The rent in the city is not that different from being in the suburbs, so from that aspect it’s not too bad either!

This kind of advice is extremely useful, but takes some careful planning to complete.  Finding a good home and a good job can be two of the most difficult things a person does in life.  Getting them next door to each other is even tougher.

Nonetheless, many do it and live very happy lives because of it.  Honestly, how happy can you be if you spend half your working life in a car?

Well, there you have it, folks.  Five suggestions from the brightest minds at Frugally Green on ways that you can reduce your footprint and your bottom line simultaneously.  I hope you take a little time to consider implementing or optimizing some of them in your own life.

Have any feedback on these tips? Any others you’d like to add?

~~~~~

Raise your hand if you do any of these things.  Or, just leave a comment and subscribe get free updates.

Connect with me on Twitter: @tylertervooren

Image of speech bubble by rubyblossom

It’s been a wonderful Christmas and, despite the economy, I feel like I’ve had a pretty stellar year.

That said, 2010 is quickly approaching and I’ve got a lot to do.

I gave a glimpse into my annual review earlier and today begins a week long process of intense planning for the upcoming year.

This is the first time I’ve ever formally done this and it’s brought me to the question, “What can I really accomplish in a year?” You’ve probably questioned what you’re capable of before, too.

Interestingly, it’s pretty common for people to overestimate what they can get done in a day and completely underestimate what they can achieve in a year.

This is clearly evidenced by my enormous daily to-do list and often non-existent long term plan.  A year can be so hard to plan for – too short for your biggest life affirming goals and certainly too long for a goal like “remembering to program the thermostat.”

It can be really hard to figure out what you can get done in 365 days. Yet, to see what is possible to accomplish next year, all you really need to do is look at what you completed last year.

How has your life changed in the last year?

When I take the time to actually look at what I’ve done in 2009, it’s easy to see that my life has changed quite a lot. I’ve done all kinds of things like:

• Make my first green investment
• Increased my truck’s fuel efficiency by 7 miles per gallon
• Quit using my dryer
• Drastically improved my water heater efficiency
• Become a part time vegetarian
• Started composting
• Read countless green books
• Learned all kinds of lessons about living sustainably
• Made new friends to support me in my pursuit
• Helped almost 100 other people improve their lives

If you sat down for a few minutes and really thought about what you’ve accomplished this year, I bet you could come up with a pretty amazing list yourself.

Go ahead and do it and then give yourself a little pat on the back. It’s ok to congratulate yourself. You’ve earned it.

Planning for next year

If you’re like me, you’ve probably never put much thought into planning out an entire year because, well, it’s so dang long and hard to think about.

But, now that you’ve seen what you can do without much thinking, why not take a moment to nail down what you could accomplish if you did put together a plan of action?

If you want to, think bigger and make a plan for how you’ll outdo yourself next year. Or don’t! Just use your planning to focus your goals more specifically on a topic that’s important to you.

Maybe you were too specific this year? Use your plan to allow yourself to branch out and try some new things you’d thought about but never got around to doing.

The sky is the limit here. Your only ceiling is your own imagination.

What if you hate your plan?

Maybe you’re reluctant to start because planning out a whole year feels restrictive. That’s another thing that kept me from doing this for so long. What if you set it all up and then decide you don’t like it?

Well, that’s the beauty of a plan. You can always have a back-up. It’s not a contract. There’re no other parties involved and no lawyers are going to serve you a subpoena if you have second thoughts about your direction.

If you decide you don’t like your plan, change it. Just by getting started, though, you get yourself thinking about what’s important to you.

If, later, you find out that what you thought was important really isn’t, you’ll probably have a better idea by then of what is. Feel free to let go of things that don’t feel right.

If you want to start composting and then realize you hate it, stop doing it. If you decide to walk more, but then realize you’d rather be riding your bike, do that instead.

The whole point is to allow yourself to think big and try new things.

Final thoughts on yearly planning

Many of us plan out each of our days to squeeze as much productivity out of them as possible, but never take the time to look at how each day contributes to a longer, overall goal.

For some, these long-term goals are strongly internal, and that’s fine, but I’ve noticed that I get a lot farther when I put my goals down on paper than when I hold them in. It’s entirely psychological, but it adds concreteness to my resolutions. “I AM going to do this. See, the paper says so!”

What does your list of accomplishments look like for this year? Feel free to use the comments section to show off the things you’ve done. What’s been on your mind that you want to be sure you get done next year?

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If annual planning seems scary and weird, leave a comment, or subscribe get free updates.

Connect with me on Twitter: @tylertervooren

Happy New Year image by Sally M*

It’s about that time.

For those of you with traditional day jobs like me, you’ve probably already scheduled a meeting with your boss for a nice little year end sit down.

You’ll sheepishly dismiss your accomplishments when asked to discuss them and Mr./Mrs. Manager will look at the floor, obviously uncomfortable, telling you what they think you could improve on in the coming year.

Eventually, like two young lovers exploring each others’ bodies for the first time, you’ll awkwardly wander through the motions until someone realizes they have another meeting.  You’ll both sit back, staring off into the distance and saying to yourself, “Glad that’s over.”

It doesn’t have to be that way

Well, maybe it does at work, but it doesn’t have to here.  Performing a self-evaluation each year can be an extremely beneficial process.  And, since it’s your review of yourself you can do it however the hell you want to. At last!  The autonomy you’ve always wanted!  I can’t take credit for the idea though. I must tip my hat to my friend Chris at The Art of Nonconformity.

I’m young.  Only 25.  I have all the ambition in the world with little experience in how to focus it.  For me, a self performed annual review is a way for me to come to terms with what I really want out of life and create a road map to get there.

If you read Frugally Green regularly, you probably have at least a few ideas about things you’d like to accomplish financially, environmentally, or both.

You can read read Chris’ article for an incredibly detailed post about how to perform your own review, but I want to give you an example of how my review will go this year – specifically for Frugally Green.

What went awesome?

Take note of the word “awesome.”  I used it on purpose.  Right now I don’t care about what “went well” or things that “turned out OK.” I want to focus on what totally rocked my socks off.  For me, these things will include:

Never missing a single scheduled post

When I started this site in April, I hesitantly committed to 1 new post every week.  I wasn’t sure if I could handle it.  I had a lot going on.

8 months later and I’m posting 3 times a week and have never missed a deadline. This post is the 69th article on Frugally Green. I almost can’t believe I made it.

Converting to a half-time vegetarian

I was so scared when I wrote about saving money by eating less meat. I was nearly positive that I would end up a total hypocrite.  But I didn’t.

I made a plan and I went after it.  I failed along the way, but got back up.  My girlfriend Jessie joined the cause, we reworked the plan and now I can proudly say that less than 50% of my meals contain meat.  That feels great.

Writing a guest post for Get Rich Slowly

This was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had this year.

My guest post on giving to receive was, for the most part, well-liked by a community that I really respect.  That gave me some serious warm fuzzies.

Also, in 3 weeks it doubled the readership that took me over 7 months to build. It wasn’t easy to write, but it was very well worth it.

What totally sucked?

Again, we’re skipping the boring and dull here and going straight for the mind-blowingly awful stuff that I screwed up. Jeer if you like, it’s all on the table.

I depleted my backlog

My “backlog” is my pile of posts that I can dig into when I am approaching a deadline and can’t or don’t want to spend the time writing something.  A few months ago I decided to take a little break and use a few of these posts.

Well, a few turned into “all of them” and I haven’t taken the initiative to replenish it.  This really sucks because I want to spend more time writing really awesome content, but sometimes end up with mediocrity to preserve the deadline.  You deserve better than mediocre.

I’ve lost faith in myself many times

I almost never show it here, but I can be a total emotional wreck.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve hit the publish button on a post thinking “Ok, this is the one where everyone is going to see that I am a total hack.”  Sometimes I even wonder if this is what I am really supposed to be doing – writing about sustainability.  I’m just an average guy, no different than any of you.  What do I really have to offer here?

This kind of thinking is emotionally draining and it has held me back when I’ve had opportunities to grow.  It must stop in the coming year.

Did I meet the goals I set?

I set only 3 solid, measurable goals for Frugally Green when I started.  Now that we’re at the end of the year, I can say I met* 2 of them.

Reach 100 subscribers

*I’m not calling this met, but I’m going to say it’s practically in the bag.

I’m currently sitting at 97, growing every day and there’s still 2 weeks left in the year.

Just to make sure I seal the deal, if you want to subscribe now, I’ll mail you an awesome book, The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget,  if you’re the 100th subscriber.  That ought to do the trick. (Just send me an email letting me know you subscribed)

Write 34 posts

This is how many I would have written if I’d stuck to posting once a week and didn’t miss a deadline.  I blew this one out of the water. Satisfaction achieved.

Write an e-book

Utter failure here because, well, I haven’t even started writing it yet.

Since I completely missed this goal, I’ve revised it to read “finish the outline of an e-book.” I’ve finally gotten my butt in gear a bit and am right on track to finish this.

The best part of planning is that it doesn’t have to be rigid.  You should definitely take your goals very seriously, but if you fail, no one can tell you that you’re not allowed to revise them to get yourself back on track.

What are my goals for next year?

I haven’t set my goals for next year yet, but you can bet it’s center stage in my mind.  I’ll be spending a fair amount of time over the next few weeks really getting serious about what I want to accomplish in 2010.

Most importantly, I’ll be looking at the previous 3 sections we just went over and determining where my opportunities to really kick ass are.

A few things I know I want to focus on, though, are collaborating with other great writers, developing more content in other media formats (like audio and video) and making some more giant leaps in my own personal quest for a sustainable life.

Also, I’ll need to balance these goals with some other huge life goals that I intend to strive for next year.

Final Thoughts

I believe in setting attainable goals because it helps me stay motivated to achieve them, but I also believe I’m wasting my time if I’m not pushing my limits and trying to stretch the boundaries of what I’m capable of doing.

If conducting your own personal annual review is something you think would be a valuable experience for you, I really suggest you check out Chris’ how-to article.  It’s much more in depth and will lead you right through the whole process.

Do you make it a point to set goals or do any self reflection?  Have you ever considered conducting an annual review for yourself?  What did you accomplish this year and what do you want to accomplish in 2010?

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If you find annual reviews boring and dumb, leave a comment, or get free updates about other boring and dumb ideas.

Connect with me on Twitter: @tylertervooren

Image of business baby by megnut

Any time I think I’d like to to try something new, my brain naturally reacts by creating a list of things that I’ll need in order to do it right.

Does your head work like this, too?

It can be useful to come up with a few things that will help guarantee your success, but if you don’t keep your wandering mind in check, it can quickly generate an impossible list of things for you to buy, make, or otherwise acquire in order to “do it right.”

This is dangerous territory if you’re serious about making a change.  Left to it’s own devices, I know my brain can talk me right out of any good idea.

That’s why, instead,  I like to make short lists of things I don’t need to start something.  This is usually the same list of things I think I do need, but with a little more creative reasoning applied to them.

If you want to start making a better effort to live sustainably, here’s a list of 5 things everyone says are important but that you definitely do not need.  Save your money and get creative.

Books & manuals

If you’ve found yourself interested in the green movement, you’ve probably already read a couple books on the subject and come up with some ideas of what you can do.  Leave it at that and get started.

If you read book after book looking for the one with the magic bullet – the one with all the answers to fit your lifestyle and make your dreams come true – all you’ll ever do is read books.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with reading, but I have a bias for doing.  It’s much more effective in the long term.

Besides, the book you’re looking for doesn’t exist.  Search is just your brain’s mechanism for keeping you from actually doing something uncomfortable.

If you really do need a book with every answer in it, you’d better get started writing.

A hybrid car

Who could even think of going green without taking a serious look at their transportation?  Cars emit so much CO2 we ought to be ashamed to be seen in them.  The only way to do right by the world is to go buy a hybrid car so you can do the least harm.

Wrong.

Yes, cars are a huge part of our footprint, but if you think you need a new  hybrid vehicle to get yourself on the right path, then you’re distracting yourself from looking at the really important issues behind car ownership – how much we drive them and how efficiently we drive them.

A car is a tool and, like any tool, you should have a good idea of how to use it before you buy a new one.

Consider walking or riding your bike for shorter trips. Get familiar with your city’s transit system.  Learn how to hypermile. Basically, get the most out of what you’ve already got.

A newer car is, in most circumstances, better for the environment, but if you can’t afford one, then convincing yourself you need one to go green is just an excuse to not get started at all.

New appliances

Just like a new car, new appliances should be the last thing on your list when you’re learning to go green.  They’re big money pits that your head will try to use against you and your attempts to live more sustainably.

Instead, get the most out of the ones you already have.

Learn the best ways to use your dishwasher.  Keep your refrigerator full, at the right temperature, and don’t leave the door open. Leave the oven door open after cooking for extra heat.

Don’t just forget about buying a new dryer, eliminate the need for it completely.

New appliances are just shiny distractions.  Shiny distractions that keep your mind from getting creative with how you use what you already own.

CFL light bulbs

Despite what all the experts might tell you, you have no need for a house full of CFL light bulbs.  Not all at once, at least.

Before you go spend a small fortune and half your weekend changing every…single…bulb in your whole house, spend some time figuring out which rooms you use the most and when you use them.  Get better at turning lights off when the sun’s out.  Teach yourself to turn off lights in the rooms you’re not currently using.

Once you’ve got these steps down, then go buy CFL bulbs, but just a few of them.

You don’t need to spend half your paycheck all at once.  You can buy a couple and put them in the fixtures that are used the most.  Then, when a light burns out, replace it witch a CFL.

Whatever you do, don’t let the daunting task of changing all your light bulbs get in the way of getting started on a smaller scale.

Tons of external support

Wouldn’t it be nice if everything we ever did got us a big pat on the back from everyone we knew?  I’d love it if my email inbox filled up every day with kudos for my latest post.  It would really be nice.

Unfortunately, not everyone sees eye to eye with you and even those that do are busy with their own lives and probably don’t have time to give you a gold star every time you remember to put the aluminum can in the recycling instead of the trash.

Truly embracing sustainability is something you do to satisfy your own internal values.  You do it because it’s the right thing to do whether or not anyone else recognizes that it is.

When you focus on doing the right thing just because, you can satisfy yourself without having to rely on others to keep you motivated.

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If you want to tell me what else you don’t need to go green, leave a comment, or get free updates to learn all kinds of neat things.

Connect with me on Twitter: @tylertervooren

Image of man reading by kwerfeldein

What does it take to succeed?

Many argue that it takes a sharp mind, a strong work ethic and the right opportunities.

These are just a few of the aspects commonly quoted as the fundamental ingredients of success.

To an extent, they’re all right. When you look back on the life of someone who’s demonstrated success over and over again, these are the things you see.

What often gets overlooked, though, are the many missteps that invariably occur on any path to greatness. These missteps are what most of us regular folks know as failures.

Every time I set a new goal for myself, every time I take on a new environmental challenge, I encounter numerous failures.

What kind of road blocks have you encountered when you’re trying to change something about yourself?

Failure, you see, is a funny thing because there are two ways to interpret it, and which way you choose will completely determine your future success.

Failure as an end

For many, as soon as something doesn’t go according to plan, it’s a clear sign that the plan won’t work and they ought to just give up.

Let’s say you decided that you wanted to use less water. To make a go of it, you’re going to take shorter showers, turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth, and only run the dishwasher when it’s full.

After a couple weeks, you notice that you just can’t drag yourself out of the shower, you still always forget to turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth, and you need to run the dishwasher half full because there’s a dirty cheese grater you need for dinner.

There must have been a fatal flaw in the plan that couldn’t be fixed. May as well give up and look for something else to do.

Sometimes that’s true, but most of the time, it isn’t. With this type of mindset, it’s virtually impossible to achieve anything even remotely difficult.

When you’re trying to do something new, you’re constantly fighting your mind to just do it the same old way. It’s an internal struggle that can be very difficult to win.

Failure as a means to an end

When you change how you look at failure and redefine it as a setback and opportunity for learning instead of an insurmountable roadblock, so much more becomes achievable.

You’re making a difficult change. You don’t have to beat your mind the first time and you don’t have to beat it every time afterword. You just have to beat it once, and then beat it again. And then keep beating it little by little until you’re winning most of the time.

There is no such thing as perfection.

There is no such thing as smooth ride.

There is no free lunch.

Each time you feel like you’ve failed, you get a very unique opportunity to figure out why you failed and adjust accordingly.

As Seth Godin says, fail and fail fast.

Every major change is the result of many tiny failures. If you do it right, each is unique, but they all serve the same purpose – to teach you how to not screw up again.

This means dreaming from a bird’s eye view: “I am going to use 50% less water than I do now by this time next year.”

It means planning at ground level: “I’m going to take shorter showers, turn off the faucet every chance I get, only run the dishwasher when it’s full, start collecting rain water, etc.”

And most importantly, it means analyzing through a microscope: “Why was my shower so long and how can I make it shorter next time? Why did I forget to turn off the faucet and what’s a new trick I can use to remember?”

You rally yourself around a big goal, but you fight in the trenches. You keep figuring out what doesn’t work until you figure out what does.

Final Thoughts

A war is won by failing to win 49% of its battles. An entrepreneur gets rich by failing 99% of her business deals before finding one that sticks.

If you want to change your habits, you have to be willing to fail over, and over, and over again. And then you have to be willing to fly to the moon when you find your one success.

I wrote this post three times before I got it “right.”

Never quit.

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Fail Harder image by thedrun

One of my favorite blogs right now is Naomi Dunford’s Ittybiz.  She writes about ethical marketing for small businesses without marketing departments.  She also has a buzzed haircut and swears like a sailor.  Awesome.

Go ahead and take a second to ask yourself what the hell that has to do with Frugally Green and then I’ll continue.

OK, enough postulating. The answer, interestingly enough, is “everything.”

I’ll prove this by asking you a few questions:

• Do you enjoy saving money and improving the environment?
• Do you sometimes wish that other people enjoyed saving money and improving the environment, too?
• Have you ever had someone ask you what this “green movement” is all about?

If you answered yes to those three questions then, whether you realize it or not,  you’ve had to market your frugally green lifestyle to someone else.  If you’ve ever stumbled over your words and left them with a puzzled look then, unfortunately, you’ve marketed poorly. But that’s okay, we can fix that.  I know you never wanted to be a marketer, but as long as you have to be one, you may as well be good at it, right? That’s right.

On the other hand, if you answered no to those questions, I’m not quite sure why you’re here.  Maybe you aren’t, either.  Hmm…awkward.  Feel free to stick around anyhow.

Anyway, I know a lot of us hanging out in the anti-consumerism camp have a strong distrust of marketers.  We think they’re constantly conspiring to find new, slimy ways to convince us to buy junk we don’t need. Well, yeah, a lot of them are.  But some of them aren’t.  Some of them find a deeper meaning in connecting people with ideas and products that will truly change their lives.  That’s the kind of marketer Naomi is and I know that’s the kind of marketer you want to be.

The other day, Naomi taught me about the difference between selling features and selling benefits.  As environmentalists, I think this is one of the most important lessons we can learn about getting and keeping others interested in the movement.

Features

We care about our environment…a lot.  Sometimes we care about it more than we care about other people.  In fact, sometimes we create an adversarial relationship between our environment and other people because we’re so passionate about it.

That’s why, when people ask us why we “sort our garbage” (sometimes also called recycling), we answer with something like, “Because we’re running out of space in our landfills.”

That’s why, when someone wants to know why we ride our bike around town instead of driving, we retort with, “Because it emits less carbon dioxide into our suffocating atmosphere.”

That’s why we say, “Because it clears our mind of the consumerist culture,” when someone asks us why we don’t watch TV.

These are all examples of selling the features of environmentalism.

Benefits

Technically, they’re all true, but the problem is that all these “other people” we’re trying to get our message out to don’t care about features.  They care about benefits.  Benefits are what they get out of making the changes we want them to make.  Benefits are more compelling to people than features because they can tangibly relate them to their personal life.

Ideas like landfill depletion, carbon emissions, and the consumerist culture are too psychologically far away, too disconnected from the every day goings-on of normal people.  They can’t relate to them in the way they can relate to the benefits they see when they make a change that affects these ideas.  Does that make sense?

So, the next time your neighbor asks you why you sort your trash, instead of going on about landfill depletion, kindly inform them that you call it “recycling” and doing it can save them a bunch of money each year on trash hauling that they can use for something else they care about.

When your co-worker wants to know why you would ride a bike instead of take a car to the grocery store, let him know it’s because it’s fun and the exercise you get saves you money on a gym membership.

If your sister wonders why you got rid of your TV, tell her it’s because you’ve found that it allows you to exercise your creative mind by finding new ways to spend your time and the money saved from the cable bill helps fund your new hobbies.

As backwards as it might sound, true environmentalism is about people before it’s about the environment because, well, what good is a clean, beautiful world without anyone to appreciate it?

What do you think? Is marketing an important part of our “job”? Are people more important than environment?

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Used car salesman image by bonkedproductions

Seriously.

We do all sorts of things every day because we think we have to.  We go to work every day to provide for our families and our futures.  We offer our resources to causes we rather wouldn’t because we feel obligated.  We do this kind of stuff all the time and it’s draining.

When was the last time you really wanted something, but didn’t buy it because you thought it was the responsible thing to do?  “Oh my god, I want it so bad, but I can’t afford it.”

Are you pushing yourself beyond comfort to squeeze the last little bit of elusive sustainability into your life?  Why? Because you feel guilty?  Are you afraid the Earth police are going to come kick down your door and check your thermostat?  If it’s set above 60 degrees, you’re going to be awfully embarrassed.

If you’re trying to green your life because you feel guilty, you’re doing it wrong.  Seems harsh, but I think the sooner people start realizing this, the sooner we can actually start making some meaningful changes in our lives.

There are at least one million different ways to make this world a better place.  There are least one million ways to live a financially sustainable life.  I quit counting at about three-hundred-thousand, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

With all of the options out there, anybody should be able to find something they can do without resorting to guilt as motivation.

What do you care about?  What turns you on?  When you wake up in the morning, what do you wish you were heading off to do?  Why not focus on those things?  There’s no limit, really.

Do you love watching the smurfs and care about the environment?  Make a parody cartoon where the smurfs band together to stop a neighboring tribe form chopping down the forest between them.  Start a website and post your episodes on Youtube.

Love going out for sushi but hate all the disposable chopsticks?  Why not design a beautiful, functional, and indestructible chopstick and start selling them to your favorite restaurants?

If you really want to make a difference, you have to do something you care about.  I really don’t think there are any shortcuts.  When it comes to environmentalism, the difference you make is in the influence you exert on others.  Wiping your ass with one sheet of single-ply instead of four sheets of two-ply toilet paper is never going to fix our environment unless it really excites the hell out of you.

Environmental experts and economists like to argue about what the biggest impact changes we can make are and, if biggest impact changes are what excite the hell out of you, then pay close attention and do what they tell you to.  If that doesn’t describe you, then quit paying attention to the experts and go do your own thing.

Life is too damn short to do a bunch of crap you don’t care about, especially when it’s not going to make a difference.

Here’s the bottom line:

If it doesn’t excite you, you’re going to half-ass it.  If you half-ass it, no one is going to pay attention.  If no one pays attention, you’re wasting your time.

So forget everything you’ve been told about what you’re supposed to do and how you’re supposed to do it.  Start making your own rules and empowering others to make theirs.

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In the world of personal finance, there’s a lot of emphasis given to the net worth calculation.  There’s plenty of debate about how much attention should be focused on it, but most everyone agrees that it’s a good tool to quickly gauge the health of your finances.

For those not familiar with the calculation, it’s simply the value of all your money and belongings minus the value of any debts you owe.  Generally speaking, if your net worth is increasing on a monthly or yearly basis, then you have healthy personal finance habits.  If it’s decreasing, you might need to take a second look at how you’re managing your money or you eventually risk running out of it and digging a very deep hole of debt.

How can those of us living environmentally conscious lives apply this to our own situation? It seems there ought to be a way to quickly gauge our progress or regression in our pursuit of sustainability.  We need to be able to look at our “environmental net worth.”

What is Environmental Net Worth

What would an environmental net worth be?  Well, on a basic level, it would be just like any financial net worth calculation – the sum of your environmental contributions minus your grievances. By adding up everything you’re doing to make the world a better place and subtracting the things that could be perceived as damaging, you can get a quick look at your overall contribution to society.

You could track your environmental net worth over time and see how you’ve progressed. You’d be able to tell if you’re growing and developing by contributing more to a healthy planet. Or, you could identify dips or regressions and find what may have caused them and how to avoid them in the future.

Why is it important?

An environmental net worth calculation is important for the same reason that it’s important to personal finance – it can demystify a seemingly convoluted and confusing situation.

Many people go through life not knowing whether what they’re doing is actually working or not.  There’s usually an intuitive feeling of progress or regression, but for many, it’s just not accurate.  Just as with anything in this world, if it can be measured, it can be improved.

By establishing a way to concretely measure our contributions to the environment, we’ll be better prepared to leave a better world for ourselves and future generations.

How is it calculated?

So how can you calculate your environmental net worth?  This is, of course, the most difficult part.  In a traditional net worth calculation, there’s a really handy tool, we call it money, that’s universally used to measure the value and worth of an object for comparison sake.

In the new environmental economy, such a tool doesn’t really exist yet.  We need a common denominator that we can all use to convert the results of our environmental focus into for comparison’s sake.  Right now, we have a whole bunch of people doing what they think is best, but not a whole lot of data to suggest what really is or isn’t working. 

We need an environmental currency.

The closest thing we have is carbon.  It’s still a bit abstract and calculating your carbon output is not as tangible as, say, counting the dollars in your bank account, but for the time being it’s what we have to work with.

I found this calculator over at nature.org that you can use to get a baseline estimate of what your current carbon “footprint” is.  It may or may not be completely accurate for your situation, but the important thing to take away is the graph at the end comparing the different aspects to the national average.  This will give you an idea of where you can potentially improve.

Remember that,  unlike a traditional net worth calculation, we’re going for the lowest score possible.  Think golf, not basketball.

Where do I stand?

A quick run through revealed that I could really make some improvement in my housing situation.  That makes sense – I live in a big, old four bedroom home with two other people.  It’s too big for us and it’s very drafty since all of the windows are nearly 100 years old.  I kind of doubt there’s even any insulation in the exterior walls.

Since I don’t have any plans to move right now and this is a rental property, the best we can do is add weatherstripping and caulk at all the openings, add insulation in the attic space and, most importantly, get another roommate so that we’re not wasting a bedroom.  The additional body heat won’t hurt, either.

Do you keep track of your environmental net worth?  Where could you make the biggest improvements?

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Carbon Footprint image by Leonski