I was just recently asked about living ‘green’ on a budget. Or, “more specifically, how to live modestly with rising costs for food, clothing, etc.” I guess it’s a good question, since it really got me thinking!
What’s interesting about this question to begin with is that it indicates the bizarre mentality around ‘green’ living. That is, that it’s expensive.
People tend be weary of the current environmental direction because it’s perceived as being costly. However, when you compare the short and long term costs of ‘business as usual’ versus ‘action to curb climate change’, the long term costs of the former are way more. To me, the longer-term savings of living ‘green’ in the financial, personal and environmental senses are undeniable.
While it does seem hard to live green on a budget if you’re thinking that you need to retrofit your house or buy a hybrid car. However, if you don’t have the money to begin with, those are out of the question. If you are looking for immediate savings with environmental benefit, it’s totally possible, and simple.
Living green to me means so many things. Invest in your local economy; encourage green, sustainable, ethical businesses; minimize unnecessary consumption of goods that have a limited life span (look up planned obsolescence); consume less goods generally; purchase used goods when possible; avoid creating excess waste; cut down on energy use and switch over to renewable energies; eat less meat and eat locally grown food; walk, bus or bike more; etc. etc.
To put it bluntly, the key factor here seems to be about buying and producing less crap.
All of these things also involve saving money and spending money wisely. There are so many things that facilitate this, like thrift stores, health food and bulk stores, eco-quartiers, websites like craigslist.org, public transit, etc.
These resources exist, you just have to know they are there. In places that aren’t as eco-minded as parts of Montreal are, maybe these resources are harder to find. In such cases, people must be innovative and create them together, or demand them from the local government. (I see a future blog post here… hmm.)
There are also tonnes of little ways to be eco-friendly around your home, work and school that involve simply being creative and resourceful. This includes things like reusing your plastic bags, having shorter showers, not leaving your fridge empty, printing less documents, turning unused lights and appliances off completely, etc. I could go on and on (I guess that’ll be another blog post too)!
But really, if you are smart enough to recognize that things need to change, you are certainly smart enough to figure out what you can do. And don’t just think about it. Do it. Your wallet, your health, your community and your earth will thank you.
