Participate in ‘No Impact Week’ to lighten your carbon footprint
October 13, 2009 at 10:07 am by Katie M.
I’m sure many of us have all tried in one form or fashion to become more eco-conscious and tread a little lighter on this planet. Most of you have heard about the concept of the carbon footprint (greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product) and probably practice recycling, conserving water and energy in your home, etc., to try to reduce your carbon footprint. But we can always do more.
Take, for instance, No Impact Man, Colin Beavan, and his No Impact Project where he and his family tried to live with no environmental impact for one year in New York City. Think: making no trash, only eating food grown within 250 miles, using no carbon producing transportation (cars, subway) and finally, and using no electricity in their home. Of course, they didn’t go cold turkey and omit all of these things from their lives all at once, they did so through phases – and so can you.
Huffington Post is hosting No Impact Week, starting Sunday, October 18, to “give people the opportunity to examine and reduce their ecological footprint by taking part in a short and intense period of conscious consumption supported by local and online communities”. They’ve even created a day-by-day guide to help you go greener gradually and learn practices that make less of an impact on the environment. Each day will focus on a different theme (i.e.: trash, energy, food, transportation) and give you tips on simple practices you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. This doesn’t mean you have to stop driving your car or turn off your electricity – it gives simple, achievable goals for each day.
So go ahead and sign up to participate in No Impact Week and download the guide (don’t print). Throughout the week they’ll have their bloggers track their own progress and online participants can send in comments, photos, and videos to show theirs as well. Huffington Post has set up a Facebook page for the event and a Twitter stream for the event (use hashtag: #nipweek) for people to connect as they take this challenge.
Why do this alone? Get your family, friends, and co-workers in on it, too, so you can all go green together and share experiences. I encourage CL Green readers to do the same and share their experiences with us as well (use ‘cl_green’ on Twitter to send messages to our feed).
No Impact Man trailer
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