Perhaps by now our Biennial Report and grantee voices have piqued your interest. What we have learned from our grantees – from people like Bob Spiegel, Donna Drewes and Fletcher Harper – is that movement toward sustainability has to start small. As Bob said, “You can’t just go out and say, ‘Let’s talk about sustainability’ and try to spread the message or get people to believe, ‘We’ve all got to be sustainable starting right now.’ People will not react kindly to that; they’ll say, ‘Wait a minute. This is too big for me.’”
We hope you believe that it’s not too big for you. Sustainability starts with small changes, small actions. Sustainability starts with you. So where do you start? We asked our staff for some of their favorite recommendations, and they offered excellent examples of a few things you, or anyone, can do, starting today:
- Support your local businesses as much as possible.
- Find the nearest farmers market for fresh, locally-grown food; if possible, join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), a subscription to receive a weekly or monthly supply of locally-grown produce, and plant your own garden too.
- Consider borrowing more books from your local library, which supports your library and saves trees.
- If you have children in school, participate in your local PTO/PTA, volunteer in the classroom, and attend school board meetings.
- Volunteer your time with local nonprofit organizations.
- Sustain your favorite arts groups by buying subscriptions. Subscriptions make excellent gifts!
- Consume consciously – buy and use less “stuff,” and when you do buy products, please consider products with less packaging. Have a yard sale or “freecycle” the items you don’t need or want anymore.
For further reading and inspiration, we offer the following web links and book titles. To be sure, this is a tiny slice of the wealth of resources available. We encourage you to do your own Google search, and to check out the links and resources of websites you trust. And if you find a resource that you think everyone should know about, send us an email at info@grdodge.org.
Local Communities/Businesses
BALLE - Business Alliance for Local Living Economies
www.livingeconomies.org/
Smart Communities Network
www.smartcommunities.ncat.org/
Partners for Livable Communities
www.livable.com
America’s Most Livable Communities
www.mostlivable.org
Center for Whole Communities
www.wholecommunities.org
WorldChanging
http://www.worldchanging.com/
Food Systems
FoodRoutes
www.foodroutes.org
Local Harvest
www.localharvest.org
The Edible Schoolyard
http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/
Living Green
Co-op America’s Living Green
www.coopamerica.org/programs
/livinggreen/
Natural Resources Defense Council’s
Guide to Greener Living
www.nrdc.org/cities/living/gover.asp
Freecycle
www.freecycle.org
New American Dream
www.newdream.org
GreenHomeGuide
www.greenhomeguide.com/
GreenPeace’s Tips for Living Green
www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/green-living-guide
TerraCycle
www.terracycle.net
Climate Change/Global Warming
Clean Air, Cool Planet
http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/
Earthday Network
http://ww2.earthday.net/
US Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/
Real Climate
www.realclimate.org
Books
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life - Barbara Kingsolver
Blessed Unrest – Paul Hawken
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things - William McDonough and Michael Braungart
Collapse: Why Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed - Jared Diamond
Field Notes from a Catastrophe:
Man, Nature and Climate Change - Elizabeth Kolbert
The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan
Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day – Grist Magazine
Photograph above: Dismal Harmony by Barbara Beirne, 2008
