Borrowing a page from Inhabitat, we at 2nd Green Revolution thought it was time to put our money where our collective mouth is. With that in mind, here are our “green” resolutions for the new year.
Since I started my doctorate last summer, I began taking public transportation more often because of the mass transit pass that is part of my student fees. Like so many “green initiatives” this one saves me money and reduces my energy expenditure. I resolve to continue (and increase) this trend in the new year. While the winters make the 1km walk in the morning to the bus stop a bit chilly, the early morning exercise and afternoon return are a nice warm-up – pardon the pun – and cool down to the day. In addition, this summer I will ride my bike more often to commute over shorter distances, exercise, and reduce expenses. Campus is an eight minute bike ride, but a 10 minute drive from our front door.
While my wife and I rarely turn on the heat, a nice benefit of living in a 30 unit condo building, I will redouble my efforts to shut off extraneous appliances, saving even more money. In addition, we now have three ceiling fans in our condo to help circulate the air in the summer, instead of turning on the air-conditioning. Furthermore, when buying new products, we aim to purchase organic, post-consumer recycled goods. Recently we even put in bamboo floors.
In perhaps our boldest move to date, my wife and I are going with cloth diapers for our newborn (coming next month). According to CottonBabies.com, the average newborn will go through $1500-2000 worth of diapers. We are looking at spending $300 on reusable ones. With a high efficiency washing machine, we will reduce our water, detergent, and energy consumption for laundering them. Calculators like this one can help parents decide for themselves.
- Eric Wilson
While I mentioned that giving up my car was motivated more by financial reasons than by environmental reasons, it is nice to know I will be polluting less and using public transportation more. This is one sure fire way to make sure resolutions do not die out: change your environment. Without a car, I have no choice but to use public transportation or walk.
- Justin Manger
What will you do in 2010 to improve your efficiency? Let us know.

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One of my 2010 resolutions is to more frequently visit the 2nd Green Revolution website in order to learn more about green efforts I can implement