As I mentioned in my first green post I am not the poster child for going green. I don’t even recycle. I know, I deserve to be flogged.

But I can change. And if I can change, then you can change.

My first foray into “green” was replacing my BMW 750iL with a Honda Civic. Initially, I was motivated more by the cost of maintaining my BMW relative to how cheap it is to maintain a Civic. But that motivation isn’t any different than most business.

So here’s my personal list of projects to go green:

- Kindle. I love books. I read 50 books a year. I have around 1000 books in my house. They look good in my seven bookcases. But many (not all) of these books are available as a download to Kindle. That’s a lot of paper, space, and furniture saved.

- Replace disposable plastic with permanent water bottles. I drink from disposable water bottles. I use them for a few days (some times), and then throw the bottle a way. As a family, we use a case (35 bottles) of water every 2 weeks. That’s more than 900 plastic bottles disposed a year.

- Walk and bike more. We have a church that we go to each Sunday that is about a 20 minute walk away. But we drive. And we are there several times a week (scouts, meetings, church). We can walk more. The kids can ride their bikes. If weather is bad, we can carpool. I often visit friends in my neighborhood that are close enough to walk or bike.

- Paper. I don’t print a lot at home, but when I’m in the office I print more than I need. I can do less of that.

- Yard waste. We throw grass clippings and other yard waste out. But my wife and I have talked about, but not done anything, about a garden. We could use our grass clippings for mulch, along with other food waste. I think it’s time to start the garden too.

What I’m doing right:

- Energy. We keep our thermostat at 78 in the summer, and don’t use the heater much in the winter. Our windows are insulated and double paned.

- Water. We have a fountain, but don’t use it a lot. Mostly for when company shows up or if we want to hear the calming sound of the water splashing. We don’t own a pool (although sometimes we dread that in the summer). I try not to overwater the lawn. We could probably shorten shower times, but that’s the worst of it.

- Energy. We turn off lights and other appliances when not in use. I could power down my computer each night though.

Small changes, but a start. Notice I didn’t mention recycling. My city doesn’t have a recycling program, but it’s something I could research.

Any other ideas I should consider?