Here's My Great Green Idea!

Our family has been recycling, conserving water and energy, and has been environmentally conscious for many years now.

When we moved from Los Angeles to Orange County, we specifically chose the Ladera Ranch area because the community actively promotes and exercises green practices. It was important to us that our daughter, Audrey (3 years old), would grow up environmentally conscious and responsible.

We bought an energy efficient home and went further to replace the few left over incandescent bulbs with fluorescent ones. We bought extra fluorescent bulbs for our daughter's grandma's home, too, because we enjoy sharing ways to save (in money and the environment) with our family and friends!

Conserving water is very important to us, especially since we live in California where water has been a precious resource for as long as we can remember. So our family goes the extra step beyond having low-flow (1.6 gal) toilets. Everyday we make it a point to use the "potty" as a family activity. If one person needs to pee, then that person does not flush the toilet after a single use. The next family member uses the "potty" and doesn't flush until everyone has used the same "potty." The last member of the family to use the "potty" to pee is responsible for flushing the toilet. This way, we get three uses for a single flush for only 1.6 gallons!

We also love to carry big eco-friendly reusable bags to the grocery store. This way, we are not carrying home 10 or so plastic bags. Occasionally, we will get plastic bags from friends and family who use the bags to carry gifts and foods for us. We continue to reuse those bags by using them to carry lunches or other things until they are unusable, after which we recycle them.

Our family is especially proud to drive 2 cars that are hybrids. We hope that our next car will be an electric car or a plug-in hybrid when they become more widely available to consumers. Until then, we love our hybrids and cruise as much as we can when we drive instead of riding the gas pedal all of the time.

Being environmentally responsible and conscious is a way of life for us. We are always looking for new ways to make a difference. For example, we have recently adopted the practice of using NiHM rechargeable batteries. The old alkaline batteries we replace along with empty inkjet cartridges are dropped off for proper recycling at the local library during our usual visits, and broken appliances are always taken to the local electronic waste collection point.

Every little change to improve the way we live counts. We not only share this world with each other, but we share it with our children and generations to come! When we think in terms of this, it truly makes changing our lifestyle for the better even easier.