Having been raised by my particular parents, and growing up in the 70’s America where many a social message (example, example)was born, I have been pretty environmentally aware most of my life. That is not to say that I have always done the best for the environment, just to say that I have been aware that I should do right by it.

Now that the green movement has become somewhat mainstream, I am happy to try to take advantage of the greater availability of green products.

My wife and I try to use environmentally safe products when we can find them and afford them. It’s not always easy as information can tend to be too much on the sales pitch side of things and limited on the actual details.

Some things I have tried:

• non-chlorine bleach
  • no one in the house would believe for a second that it would work so it was relegated to removing some mildew on the patio.
• rubber mulch
  • year two and still looking good!
• Replacing all of our lights with compact fluorescent lights
  • they seem to burn out way faster than advertised (could be the brand we bought though)
• composter
  • still waiting for the dirt magic to happen (only had it a few months), but I know that it will as I have experienced it before in 90’s.
• natural bug repellents

Things I want to try:

• Solar panels for the house
• Electric motor for my car
• rain barrel
• solar oven
• bamboo

I am always interested to learn about alternative or new green measures I can take and attended a show to learn more this year. I encourage everyone to do what they can.