Weekly Wish - the green challenge

My friend Kim Vallée of the wonderful home decor and entertaining blog called At Home with Kim Vallee, invited me to participate in The Green Challenge on Blog Action Day. The challenge is for me to let you know what I’m doing to introduce environmental sustainability in my daily life.

Here’s what I’ve been doing lately to reduce, reuse and recycle:

• I’ve always reused plastic bags but now I take reusable bags with me when I grocery shop. I've also skip the bag when my purchases are small enough to fit in my purse.

• When I edit (that’s a fancy way for saying clean out) my closet, I donate clothes I no longer want to charity.

• I often shop at stores withing walking distance or on the subway line and leave the car at home.

• I traded in two old jackets for one new one at West 49 as part of their Coats for Kids initiative. As my son outgrows his winter jackets, it’s a great way to recycle while helping kids who otherwise may not have one.

• Recently, my son needed a semi-formal wear for a party. I bought his suit and accessories at a consignment shop. A little altering and dry cleaning made the outfit look as good as new. When it no longer fits him (believe me, it won’t be long the way he’s growning), I’ll return to shop and get some cash back when they sell it to another boy. Not only is this an example of reuse and recycle but it saved me a ton of money. A brand new comparable outfit sells for about $400 while I paid $139 ($89 outfit + $25 for alterations and +$15 for dry cleaning).

So you see, you can help save the environment while saving money.

As for my wish this week, I want to learn new ways to be green. I’m even thinking about starting a regular “green” column like Kim did! What about you? What are you doing to introduce environmental sustainability in your daily life?

Tags: At Home With Kim Vallee, Blog Action Day, Coats for Kids, environmental sustainability, Kim Vallée, recycle, reduce, resale, reuse, The Green Challenge, West 49