I wouldn’t call my sister Teresa an activist, but I’m starting to change my thinking. She believes and supports many causes, but I don’t usually hear of her doing something about it (I think most of us are like that). So, when I got an e-mail from her earlier this week about her mission to implement two of the three R’s in the eco-friendly creed “reduce, reuse, recycle,” I was pleasantly surprised.
Teresa has been taking canvas bags to carry home her groceries in so that she doesn’t have to use the plastic ones (reduce, reuse — see?) On a recent trip, the cashier was obviously irritated by this, which in turn irritated Teresa. “I don’t think she liked messing with my bags. Pfft!” she wrote.
Irritable cashiers aside, I definitely believe it IS a good thing, and it was a small anecdote that jibed with my mental state here in the magazine department. My head was filled with thoughts of green this and that as I had just finished the update of Angie’s List magazine’s website, magazine.angieslist.com.
April’s content is our second-annual “green” issue. Last year, we dived into the topic of green living and talked about recycling programs, building materials going to good re-use and emission-reducing automobiles, just to name a few. For 2008, we’ve investigated the green building movement. Online now are stories ranging from the state of green building and how to find contractors who are informed on sustainable construction, to implementing energy efficiency in your home and which products are the most environmentally sound. There’s even a glossary of green lingo so you’ll know what the heck we’re talking about.
To view the online editions of 2007’s and 2008’s green issues, click here.
Also on our website, THE Angie of Angie’s List talks about some of our members who are living green to do their part in lessening their impact on the environment (read “Small actions add up quickly”). Although the members Angie discusses have been on a long and involved haul to “green up” their lives and surroundings — people I would definitely call activists — there are many more who get green in the ways they can, like my sister . Every little bit does help the greater cause, and I guess by merely taking action for a cause — big or small — it qualifies someone as “activist.” Imagine if we all did a little something …
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