Low Impact Week Goals

Crunchy Chicken posted some great ideas over on the main Low Impact Week section of her blog. Many of these we already do around our home, I won't go into them in much detail because I see this challenge as being about what new things we can do to conserve and reduce our impact; suffice it to say that we do at least some of the ideas in all of her suggestion sections. I personally have come up with what I think are reasonable next steps for myself, and that I will be focusing on for that week. They are as follows:

1. Unplugging appliances when not in use. TVs, Computer, Radios, Printer.
2. I will decide to not watch television for that week. I certainly have enough reading to catch up on.
3. Turn off water when brushing teeth, and/or shaving.
4. No take out food, and no restaurants.
5. I will eat as much as possible from my home grown foods, and choose locally produced foods whenever available.
6. I will use a washable towel for hand washing and cleaning both at home and at work.
7. I will not drive to work. (This is my biggie.) I will instead use pedal power.
8. I have a compost bin, but I will make a bigger one from recyled materials, and will compost as much of my household waste as possible.
9. I will use organic and/or homemade cleaners to do all of my household cleaning and washing. (This is a change that our household plans to make on a permanent basis.)

This is the list I have come up with. I think it includes a fairly well rounded grouping of tasks from all areas. I will commit to these for the duration of the Low Impact Week and will keep you updated on my progress and impressions of each of them. In the coming weeks I will prepare for these actions by assesing what needs I will have during that time to make sure that I am successful. Some actions like number 9 I will begin to phase into as our current cleaners are expended so I may actually begin prior to the Low Impact Week start.

If anyone reading this plans to participate in this challenge, I encourage you to either post your action items in the comments here or at Crunchy Chickens blog, and look forward to participating with you.