The first step might be as simple as recycling your trash or buying an organic apple or plugging the cracks around your windows with a $3 tube of silicon caulk.

It is clear to even the casual observer that making things better requires constructive action. Millions of motivated people want todo something. We want to live more sustainable lives. That’s what being "green" is all about. We want to leave the planet in livable shape for our kids and grandkids. We want to act on our good intentions.

Many of us just don’t know where to start. As the Chinese say, “A journey of one thousand miles starts with a single step.” Soanyaction you take, no matter how tiny it might seem, has a cascading effect.

Step 5: Think Lifestyle

We Americans, representing 5 percent of the world’s population, consume 25 percent of the world’s resources. Much of this overconsumption ends up discarded as needless waste in landfills or incinerated, with devastating long-term health and environmental consequences.

Each person living in our country puts an average of more than 24 tons of carbon, the major greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere each year just from the activities of our modern lifestyle. The human cost is high even now with diet, and pollution-related ailments are on the rise. The long-term stakes are even higher as we use up irreplaceable natural resources while making the planet less hospitable to life. Something has to change and simple lifestyle changes can reap big changes.

In a single year, we send 500 million tons of solid hazardous waste to landfills and pump 3 million tons of toxic chemicals into the air and water.

Here are some simple things to think about to help simplify your lifestyle:

• Buy organic foods as much as possible.
• Filter your water.
• Look for organic fiber clothing, safe children’s clothing, green dry cleaning and use natural personal care products.
• Think green when you clean. Ditch toxic cleaning products.
• Recycle.
• Say “no” to disposables.(ie. single use plates, cups, bottled water, etc.)
• Consider natural lawn and garden care.
• If you’re planning on building, think green building materials, carpets, cabinets and home furnishings.
• Save transportation fuel.
• Offset your carbon footprint.

There is a great abundance of information available on sustainable lifestyles. We’ll link you to some of the best sites and the best information available here.

Step 6: Encourage “green” office environmentsand do business with companies that do the same.

As a company, Garden of Life is one of the greenest around, yet we’re constantly looking for new ways to do better. In addition to our commitment to renewable energy and offsetting our corporate carbon footprint, we implemented the following business lifestyle changes in 2006:

• Installed motion sensors that automatically turn off lights in unused rooms.
• Through the purchase of recycled paper, saved the equivalent of 133 trees.
• Recycling programs for printer cartridges, cell phones and cell phone batteries.
• Purchased 100% organic janitorial supplies.
• Recycling bins located at each employees desk
• Offer organic coffee, paper cups and wooden stir sticks in company cafes.
• Changed to recycled paper goods and organic soaps in restrooms.

So much theoretical information is available on sustainable living that it’s sometimes hard to define actions that are do-able and sustainable.

Here are a few places to look for the most up-to-date information on sustainable living:

www.mercola.com: Dr. Joseph Mercola has a wealth of health and food and supplement information on his website.

www.nontoxic.com:
Daliya Robson’s website for nontoxic household furnishings

www.organic.org

www.organiclinks.com
Tom Foresell’s websites for organic products.

www.underthecanopy.com: Marci Zaroff’s site for ecofashion.

www.seventhgeneration.com:For sustainably harvested household products.

www.naturalhomeandgarden.com:Natural Home and Gardenmagazine. Subscription information and some articles are available at the website.

www.eere.gov:U.S. Department of Energy’s division of energy efficiency and renewable energy for information on renewable energy technologies and alternative fuel vehicles.