| Vol. 10 | No. 4 | Fall 2008 |
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Close to Home
Going Green with the Neighbors |
Erika Spanger-Siegfried, Northeast project manager in the UCS Climate Program, describes the efforts of a local "eco-team" she helped launch.
For many people, lifestyle changes are easier to make—and stick to—when you can lean on others for advice and support. Reducing your household's environmental impact is no different. Though I have been making environmentally conscious choices for years, I learned that joining with others in this effort, and having fun doing so, can actually deepen your commitment.
In 2005, a book club I had recently joined chose to watch some documentaries on environmental and energy issues. The films motivated us to take action, so we organized a meeting with our partners and a few additional friends to share our concerns, agree on a vision for this new group, and set some goals. We also named our eco-team the Sustainable Living Collaborative, or SLC.
Strength in Numbers
Over the past three years, the SLC has taken up a number of projects, including household energy efficiency and waste reduction, and lawn equipment and clothing swaps. But one of the group's most significant—and most successful—endeavors was finding ways to eat more healthful local and organic food without spending a lot of additional money or time. Our group first organized "milk runs" in which families took turns picking up organic milk from a local dairy; some families also collectively purchased sides of beef from a nearby farm.
We then convinced another local farmer to start a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program in which participating families would provide the farm with financial support at the beginning of the growing season and then take turns picking up a share of the farm's produce each week during the summer and fall. Two years later, the CSA is thriving and has expanded to include dozens of additional "shareholders."
Elements of Success
Community eco-teams vary widely in size and scope, but the successful ones share common traits. My experience suggests the following strategies are crucial:
• Set a group goal. Identifying our top priorities, and determining the role our group would play in addressing those priorities, helped focus our efforts.
• Start small. Tackling a modest project first (in our case, a babysitting "co-op") helped get us comfortable working with each other and gave us the confidence to tackle larger tasks.
• Create some structure—but not too much. Recognizing the fact that everyone has busy schedules, we agreed on ways to stay focused but flexible. For example, we organized topical working groups and identified a leader for each one, which allowed people to make the best use of their limited time. We also agreed on a meeting schedule that worked for everyone and communicated via email between meetings to keep projects moving forward.
• Keep it fun. Perhaps the most important ingredient in our group's success was making time to socialize outside of meetings.
Three years since our first meeting, our group meets much less regularly now. This feels natural to me, though, because much of what we set in motion is still humming along under its own power, and has taken hold in each of our homes in a far deeper way than we had imagined. We've also built a community among our households that will be strong for years to come.
Also in this issue of Earthwise:
Dialogue
Do the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated by a hybrid vehicle, with its electric motor and larger battery, pose a potential health risk?
