[Oliveshoots]

Adding to the list, not sure if I'm duplicating as I have not read the whole thread

As mentioned in the "inconvenient truth thread", here is what our family is doing/planning to do:

*Wait as long as possible to turn the A/C on
*Run the A/C 5 degrees warmer than we did last summer
*Container gardening on our balcony: strawberries, tomatoes, herbs, garlic
*Try to buy less packaged food (especially double-packaged, ie: plastic bag inside of a cardboard box)
*Make some grocery totes out of scrap fabric (I can never have too many totes to carry stuff around )
*We want to buy a hybrid (used probably) in the next couple of years
*We still recycle our plastic and glass, and I"m going to start recycling paper at work and at home
*TRY to cut back on paper towels/paper wipes. I'm going to try using scrap flannel fabric cut into small squares to use for the kids' napkins, as well as wipes (my quandary is, will it take *more* energy to wash all those wipes each week than it would harm the earth to put the paper towels/wipes into landfills? )
* I would REALLY like to cut my mileage back about 50 miles a week. I think if I would plan my errands better, I could do this. As the weather gets warmer, dh might start riding his bike/using public transportation to get to school/work.

Eventually, when we build our own home, dh has all these awesome ideas to make our home "green". He calls it a "living" house. Ideas such as a green roof (ornamentals IMO), rainwater collection system, water heated by sun, heated water circulated through walls and under floor for heating purposes, 100% solar power (he wants to be "off the grid"), bamboo instead of hardwoods floors, or cork floors.