Friday, October 19th, 2007...2:14 pm
Environmental Awareness = Action.
In recent months (nearly a year) I have grown increasingly interested in environmental issues. Funny, I have found this topic to be a hot bed for some, and others I have talked with have no interest at all.
Anyway, I have found some organizations that really make sense to me. Check them out for yourself.
41pounds.org
41pounds.org is a community of people working to eliminate a big personal nuisance and environmental hazard – junk mail. Our name comes from the amount of junk mail the average person receives each year (credit card applications, catalogs, coupon books, etc.) which for the most part goes directly into the trash can or recycling bin. Even with recycling programs all over the country, the majority of household waste is junk mail, and paper takes up about 40% of landfill space! (learn more)
Carbonfund.org
Reduce What You Can, Offset What You Can’t™
We encourage everyone to continually strive to reduce your carbon footprint through sensible energy reductions combined with cost-effective carbon offsets to eliminate your overall carbon footprint. (learn more)
EnergyStar.gov (change a light change the world)
Designed to demonstrate how important our lighting choices are as a first step toward saving energy and helping to fight global climate change. Visitors will be invited to commit to change at least one light at home via the online ENERGY STAR Change a Light Pledge. (learn more)
Awareness for us has turned into action. I will go on record and say that Robin does think I am a little nuts most of the time, but I am used to that. Here are just a few things that we have done over the past few months, and a few things we are considering.
* Built an Energy Star home.
* Tankless water heater
* Recycle
* Pledged to change to energy star lights. (pledge here)
* Changed out over 60 light bulbs.
* Signed up at 41pounds.org
* Became Carbon Netural at Carbonfund.org
* Replaced small gas lawn equipment with cordless electric
* Considering replacing gas mower with manuel or electric
* Considering next vehicle to be high MPG or Hybrid
How about you…do you care about this stuff at all? If so, what are you doing? I would enjoy hearing from you.
UPDATE: Bobby has a great post over at Swerve on this topic as well.
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10 Comments
October 19th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
My wife an I have been on a “green” journey for the past year or so. She’s a much better blogger than I am and you can about much of what we do there. She just wrote a post the other day summarizing everything that’s changed in the past year. Overall it’s been great and I would never go back. It’s forced us to slow down a bit and enjoy life more.
October 19th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
[...] of energy, the environment, and other resources that we are entrusted with. Terry Storch also has a post today that mentions a few other websites that you can visit to research [...]
October 19th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
It’s definitely time that the Christian community begins to see this as a stewardship issue. For us, opportunities for the more dramatic decisions come along less frequently, but we definitely take the “green factor” into account when we do - electric mower, not driving gas-hogs, water- and energy-saving appliances, etc. But the small day-to-day decisions really add up - CFL light bulbs, lowering or upping the thermostat a few degrees, donating used items instead of sending them to the landfill, etc. There’s always more we can do, but we find that by making small, progressive steps, the changes are sustainable and don’t end up in the family archives as, “Oh, yeah, remember when we went all eco-crazy?”
October 19th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Dave, great post by your wife. I think I will subscribe…good stuff.
Lori, AMEN! It is our desire to not be that eco-crazy burn out types as well. It is my desire to jump start our life, and keep making steps towards a lifestyle of true stewardship! This area in our family is just one area we need to really be good stewards and become follwers of Jesus, and not just typical Christians. But that is another topic and blog post…or 2.
October 20th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Hey Terry! Great post on a subject that I’ve been thinking about a lot myself. This is the kind of thing that’s a little daunting to even figure out where to start. So many messages coming in about everything from the environmental impact of plastic water bottles to the potential cost savings of CFL lightbulbs. Thanks for pointing to a few places that can be a start.
mark
October 21st, 2007 at 8:32 pm
[...] in the “room”. Fortunately, this time I can start with Terry Storch’s blog post; Environmental Awareness = Action. OK, he works for LifeChurch.tv, so I still wind up staring at gorilla fur. Oh well. There’s [...]
October 21st, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Two posts on my blog back in August on my quest to save some energy.
http://www.deanlisenby.com/2007/08/more-energy-saving-ideas.html
http://www.deanlisenby.com/2007/08/quest-has-begun.html
October 21st, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Terry - I am with you on this. It would be great to see the Church take the lead. Unfortunately it looks like the trend is to build a huge building that uses tons of energy.
We should be the best stewards of the environment. Taking the lead in reducing our impact through recycling and responsible building.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
[...] Terry Storch on Greening Up his place [...]
October 24th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
I just made a long post on craig’s blog I will try and keep this one shorter by saying check out the links at http://swerve.lifechurch.tv/2007/10/19/save-energy-and-money/
One of the ways that God reveals himself to me is through the earth. from mountains to streams and flowers. I sometimes forget the beauty of the earth until I go the the mountains in Colorado. It is there that I am reminded of the beauty of Gods Creation.
That is one reason that I like to call “environmental stewardship” “creation care”. One of the first things that God created right after the Heavens was the earth. the Bible starts in a perfect garden. So it is obvious that God places great importance on the earth. It is what sustains us physically.
Taking care of Gods creation is very important to me. Although I admit that I have figured out that I can’t do everything right. but I can try.
Encourage your friends and family to start recycling. And to buy recycled products. Just recycling cans and such only is half of the process. The reality is that most places only recycle because there is some profit to be made. If people don’t buy recycled products them people will stop buying recyclable goods and then people will stop recycling. So make sure you buy Recycled when possible. and Encourage your churches and businesses to do the same.
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