Journey

Do you need it?

This should be the first question you ask yourself before buying anything, “Do I actually need this?” Whether it is a surfboard habit or a t-shirt collection or a deep love of carnitas tacos, we all have our issues with over consumption. It is the unfortunate calling card of the late 20th and early 21st century, an age that has seen quantity far out pace quality on the free market while the natural world around us fills with the resulting pollution and manmade toxicity. Simply put, this dire and destructive cycle of excess cannot end until we, both individually and collectively, learn to honestly answer the questions, “do I need this?” and “how long will this last me?" You will be amazed how often the answer is either no, or not that long.

Demand Transparency

If you are spending your hard earned money on something you have the right to know where it is coming from, who made it, and how. If you are putting something on your body you have the right to know where it is coming from, who made it, and how. Most importantly, if you are putting something in your body, you absolutely have the right to know who grew it, what’s in it, and where it came from. Asking clothing companies, restaurants, farmers, food providers, oil producers, and manufacturing outfits of all ilk to better account for their supply chain is the best way to understand the real cost of the things we so often consume without a second thought. More to the point, it creates accountability and that is something we could all stand to be a bit better at.

Water, Water, Water

For us here in California, as we careen ever deeper into a 5th year of historic drought, water resource awareness needs to become a way of life– and fast. Simply put, we need to think about the way we use water each and every time we use it and we need to think about making it last longer. Things like permeable paving, rain harvesting barrels, keyline design, native plants, low flow toilets, plastic beach buckets in the sink, and 5-minute showers are all fantastic and powerful conservation tactics but none of them start without first getting your mind around the fact that clean drinking water is anything but an infinite resource.

Don’t Get Green Washed

Consumer beware, there are no legally binding definitions of marketing buzz words like “natural” and “green” and “organic”. This means that there are also no shortage of companies out there purposely misrepresenting their products and angling to capitalize on the general public’s growing desire to be more eco-savvy with their spending habits. This is especially true with cosmetics and beauty products. Flip the script on this untoward marketing ploy and check for certified organic ingredients and use the SKIN DEEP data base provided by the Environmental Working Group to get the low down before you buy.

Speaking of Washing

When you clean yourself and when you clean your clothes are both excellent times to make some relatively easy change for greater planetary good. With the former, the trick is to conserve, conserve, conserve. Never let the water run in order to “warm up”, keep a plastic beach pail or 5-gallon Home Depot orange bucket in the tub to catch the extra H2O, and, above all, keep it short. Have an outdoor shower? Consider turning the drain into a French drain that waters a lawn or small garden.

As for the latter, washing your clothes offers as much opportunity to earn Earth Day street cred as any other chore in your home. Make the switch to organic/biodegradable soap and divert your machine’s grey water outside to fruit trees or a garden (instead of the septic system or sewer line it is currently flowing into) and voila! Every load of laundry will be a whole lot more than just washing what you wear. As an added bonus, find a sunny spot outside and hang a line for drying clothes. Your electricity bill will thank you.

There was a time in life when the thrift store was good for little more than a dorm room couch or an outfit for some seedy disco party. However, when taken from a more earth-minded, consumption conscious perspective, second hand stores become absolutely brilliant in helping keep things out of the landfill. Have a closet you need to purge? Give those threads a new lease on life and drop them at your local thrift or Salvation Army.

The second hand store is similarly excellent when you find yourself at the other end of the consumption cycle and are looking for a new (to you) certain something. Everything from cell phones and laptops to designer suits, couture, and kitchen appliances can be found surprisingly inexpensive when going the used route.

Nothing Single

The single-use, disposable, throw-it-in-the-gutter-and-go-buy-another mentality that has been part and parcel of American culture since the Industrial Revolution must end. The days of plastic shopping bags and disposable coffee mugs and store-bought plastic bottles of water must become a thing of the past and that begins with you. Until you, the consumer, embody the change and send a message to the markets, these nasty single-use habits will continue to plague us and leave an Earth-damning legacy for generations to come. The solution is simple; stop buying one and done products. Just don’t do it. Prioritize quality and send this message with each dollar you spend. You can even lobby your local government like other communities around the work to ban things like plastic bags. In time, long-lasting, high quality, environmentally conscious products will become the new normal.