Book review: Picture Yourself Going Green
If you’re reading my blog, you probably are inclined to green up your life a little, maybe a lot. I was sent a new book that could help you along with that, Picture Yourself Going Green: Step-by-Step Instruction for Living a Budget-Conscious, Earth-Friendly Lifestyle in Eight Weeks or Less by Erinn Morgan.
Eight weeks or less! I’ve been working on this for two years and still can’t figure out exactly what goes in the recycle bin.
The book starts with an introduction on why it’s important to go green and follows the introduction with 10 simple steps to start you out. Use reusable water bottles, reusable tote bags, recycle… all the basics for those who haven’t started going green yet. The one simple step she suggests that I find not so simple is to buy carbon offsets. That’s a fairly complicated process. So newbies should skip that step.
The next chapters are dedicated to greening all aspects of your life – one area at a time, one week at a time. In order they are: green your home, green your energy, green your appetite, green your yard, green your wardrobe, green is beautiful (personal care), green your transportation, and green your travel. There are two additional bonus chapters – Eco Kids and Green Pets and Five Way to Go UberGreen.
I was especially interested in the Green Your Energy Chapter because it’s an area that I don’t fully have a handle on yet. There are easy to understand explanations on the effects of coal, natural gas, nuclear, oil, solar power, wind power, and hydroelectricity. There is also a lot of information on how to purchase greener forms of power (you don’t necessarily need to put solar panels on your roof to green your power).
For this chapter alone, Picture Yourself Going Green is a book that is teaching me something. If you’re just at the beginning of changing things up so that your habits are friendlier to the planet and you want to know what steps to take next or you want to give someone a guide to help them get started, Picture Yourself Going Green is a good option.
A helpful aspect of the book is that it deals with the expense of going green. Some green changes are very inexpensive or can even save you money. Other green changes can cost a bit. The book has a “going green cost meter” – a dollar sign key that gives you an idea of the cost of various ideas. One dollar sign next to an idea means it costs $0-$25. Four dollar signs means it will cost you $100 and up. Really short on cash right now (who isn’t)? Skim through the book for the one dollar sign ideas.
One last thing, I’d like to firmly state that you don’t have to do everything the book suggests in eight week or less. That’s just crazy. I’d suggest that you read one chapter a week, taking the time to soak it all in and making changes gradually so that you don’t overwhelm yourself. If there are easy things you can do immediately, like unplugging electronics when not in use, then by all means do them now. But some of the other things take research and planning and blocks of time. Do them at a pace that will ensure you don’t get discouraged and give up your goals.
Along with the book, I was sent an envirosax – a stylish reusable shopping bag. Tune in tomorrow for more information on that.
This sounds like a very helpful book. I especially like the idea of a green cost meter. I often get derailed at the point of figuring out which changes are most important to make. Thanks for the review.
Thanks, you’ve added another book to my reading list. It is very important for people to realize that even simple changes can add up to large impacts for the environment. It can be kind of overwhelming to realize that there is so much to do, and so many ways to do it, and then just give up thinking you can’t possible learn to do it all.
This book sounds like a great review of the one step at a time approach, which makes the greening of one’s life much easier. Just pick an idea that you know you can commit to and act on that. The other stuff can come later.
When I get free time (hah, what’s free time?) I want to read this book. I think that your suggestion of a chapter at a time is great. I know that when I try to talk to people about “going green” – I talk about greener choices, doing things a step at a time, finding what works for them now and what they should hold off on. I love that the book categorizes items by their financial output – very important given today’s economic times.