ProLogis is full speed ahead on the road to sustainability. It’s been a fun venture so far from a corporate point of view – yeah, we care about the environment, yeah, we support the communities in which we work, and yeah, we are financially secure…
However, Mark and I are from small cow towns where recycling and caring about the environment is only for hippies and earth muffins and the concern for water conservation is only for irrigating crops. The more I work on sustainability for ProLogis, the more I feel a responsibility to incorporate these sustainable practices into my personal life.
Mark is still sceptical about it and says I’m being brain washed, but the longer I live in Colorado in this beautiful natural environment, the more I feel a need to protect it.
SO – Here I go…get ready for Eco-Judi. The following are my goals in my personal life for the next 3 months (did I mention that all of these practices will also save us MONEY!?!?!
- Reduce my energy consumption by: replacing halogen lights in my house with high-efficiency lights, using eco-buttons on our computers, turning off any electronic device or light if it’s not in use. I will also get an eco-button for any friend or family member who is willing to use it.
- Reduce my water consumption in my house by: fix leaks and “running” toilets, only do laundry and dishes when a there is a full load
- Incorporate recycling for our trash.
- Purchase home items that are made from recycled materials.
One thing Mark and I have alreday done is stopped using water bottles completely. We use a water purifier at home for water and we carry reusable water bottles.
I hope you all can keep me accountable for these goals.
Have no illusions; most if not all “green” programs, particularly recycling programs, cost far more in energy and other resources than any benefit that comes from them. They may make someone feel good. They may put focus on our responsibility to be good stewards of our environment and to use it well. They just may cost more, be more harmful to the environment, and be less effective than whatever supposed problem they were designed to correct.
That said. Welcome to the blog world, we have been waiting!
Mark, I have listened to many points about the flaws of recycling programs – I agree with most, but the other points are actually easy, cost effective and undeniably better for the environment. You could make counter points to green programs all day long, but I learned that “less bad is still good”. You can’t throw the baby out with the bath water because one point may be flawed. I’m looking forward to saving hard earned money and also reducing my energy and water consumption.
Sean,
Dude WTF, did you seriously just call my wife a cow?
Doesn’t matter how you meant it, it’s not cool.
Judi, I meant to say you hippie kitten. I’m very sorry for the mistake.
I think that being responsible with the beautiful planet that God created for us is pretty damned important! I know there are a lot of criticisms of the way “green” issues are currently handled, but that doesn’t discount the fact that we need to have a mindset where we respect this planet. The fact is we use a lot of non-renewable energy resources. Logic tells us that we will use those resources up if we don’t make adjustments to our lifestyles and/or where we gather the energy.
you know, i’ve been thinking about this blog alot. i am an avid recycler. i’ve been recycling since the mid 90′s. i lived in MN for 4 years and the state made it really easy to recycle. they gave you bins for everything for trash collectioni. and in the workplace, every desk had a box for recycling paper. here in CO it took more effort, but we pay the extra money to use a trash collector that has the recycling option. for me, recycling was more about doing my part to keep from putting items that are not bio-degradable in landfills. we are an incredibly wasteful society that has so much trash output, if i can take my paper, plastic and aluminum and give towards being used again for other uses, i feel as if i’m doing my part. does it make me feel better? yes. but this is my home for however long the Lord has me here. i like to live in a somewhat tidy home. call me a commie liberal hippie cow, but that’s how i see it.
Love it!