Notes from our first meeting

Last night we had our first going green family meeting! We started out by getting to know each other and talking about our efforts to go green. Different areas we're working on:

shifts in attitudes/education :
- learning how to let go of keeping up with the neighbors
- let go of fashion trends
- teaching our kids to think about their consumption choices by modeling them ourselves
- figuring out how to go green without "sucking the fun out of life"

transportation:
- carpooling for kids' activities
- walking or biking to school, errands
- learning how to use the bus with kids

holidays:
- fighting the impulse to over-consume
- reuse paper and gifts

house:
- green cleaning supplies
- learning how to refinish and reupholster old furniture

waste:
- getting clear about what we can recycle
- fighting the urge to buy the latest gadget or product
- buying a ceramic compost bin (amazon.com)

food:
- choose less packaging, buy in bulk
- eat healthier, more local food
- butter bell
- co2 bubble water attachments

clothes:
- good consignment shops/thrift stores
- get leather shoes cleaned every year
- buy one new dress for the holiday season
- get old shoes resoled

other areas to think about:
- green shopping list
- eating out, coffee shops
- identifying green companies you can feel good about supporting
- ways to offset your bad habits that are hard to change
- learn more about being an activist in our everyday lives

Our next big project is creating a community website. We want to make it a positive, encouraging and supportive site with lots of manageable ways to go green. Some ideas include setting up a place for people to post things they no longer need and tools to keep track of our individual and collective green efforts. We're also thinking about creating tiers of things people can do, with beginners starting at the first tier. As we move forward, we can challenge ourselves to go greener with the next established set of clear objectives.

I'd love your thoughts and suggestions for the website - any idea is welcome and possible! I'd also love your ideas for manageable things people can do at each tier of going green. As a starting point, I'll just call these tiers Level 1 (beginning) and Level Two (next steps for people who have been doing this for a long time).

Thanks for all your great ideas and suggestions!