Earth Day... the beginning

Today is Earth Day, the 38th Earth Day to be exact. And Earth Day gets me thinking about what I do for the environment. I consider myself an environmentalist, not a hard core one, but one none the less.

I work for an environmental nonprofit, the Minnesota Environmental Fund (www.mnenvirofund.org), and for the last few years we have been doing an annual fund raiser asking for money to off set our administrative costs so we can pass more money along to our 21 wonderful member groups. My workplace is like the United Way, except we raise money for environmental groups. The last few years I've sent out my standard emails saying, please give me money and I'll do a 3 mile walk in the fall and that's it. I try to remember to send out thank yous to those to give me money, but even sometimes in that I fail. So this year, I am going to make more of an effort for the environment for the money that you may or may not give to my organization. Either way it's time I step up and do more for Minnesota's environment, besides just asking for donations from all my friends and family.

So to start I am making a summer pledge. I will pledge to do 10 different things between now and September and I will blog about how each one goes here. Here are the 10 things I have decided to do between now and September 1.
1. Try not to collect any new plastic bags, by always remembering to bring my own bags when I shop... whether it be at a grocery store, shopping mall, farmer's market, etc.
2. Take the bus, bike, run or walk to and from work at least once a week (hopefully more now that the weather has turned nice).
3. Do at least one organized "run" that raises money for the environment.
4. Shop at farmer markets once a week for as much of our grocery shopping as possible.
5. Shop and eat as much "in season" food as possible.
6. Change all of the light bulbs in our apartment to the energy efficient type (compact fluorescent).
7. Compost all food scraps that can be composted.
8. Recycle anything and everything I can, including all the typical recyclables, as well as clothes, shoes, electronics, etc.
9. Shut off and unplug appliances when not in use.
10. Get out into nature to remind me to do all the above (visit 10 parks I have not been to in at least 10 years).

So I embark on this journey. Maybe no one cares about how it's going, except for me, but I will post weekly on how my pledge is going.