A Beginner's Guide to Going Green

Overview:
Why should you care about going green? How can you go green? This guide attempts to address these questions. It is intended to be a starting point for people interested in carrying out more environmentally responsible behaviors. The guide is designed for people with little or no experience implementing green concepts into their daily lives. Ease of access and use are crucial concepts of this guide because it is aimed at the novice or beginner. Therefore, the main resources are websites. However, there are also two books included in the guide, in case anyone wants to devote more time to exploring the different ways to go green.

These sources are meant to be explored in chronological order. With that in mind, the first resource explores the science behind climate change. For people already comfortable with the science, the next resource offers some steps to take to go green. Resource 3 provides more in-depth suggestions across several spheres of one's personal life. Resource 4 builds on the in-depth approach by offering suggestions with different levels of depth based on the required time. The last resource specifically focuses on the work sphere, which may be more appropriate after focusing on one's personal sphere. Of the additional sources, the first book is more of an extension of the suggestions listed by the websites, making it a good place to continue learning. The second book focuses more on trendy aspects of going green, as well as the companies involved, making it best for exploring last.

The Resources:

1. GreenFacts Digests

About this resource: This website is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in learning more about the science involved in climate change and other environmental issues. It's great for anyone new to the environmental movement, since its digests have scalable levels of detail, which are drawn from highly-regarded scientific reports. For people with little scientific knowledge, the first level is appropriate, but the source level is perfect for anyone with more scientific understanding. This makes the digests suitable for everyone, regardless of their scientific knowledge.

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2.Climate Change: What You Can Do

About this resource: This website provides nine tips for reducing one's carbon emissions in a variety of settings, from the home to the office to traveling. The tips also include statistics about the impact of instituting the suggestions. The suggestions are authored by a scientist from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the organization that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

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3. How You Can Help the Environment

About this resource: This resource provides a more extensive list of suggestions for helping the environment, making it great to continue learning. The tips fall under three broad categories: at home, while shopping, and in the garden. In keeping with the overall theme of the guide, the suggestions are pretty easy to implement. The major benefit of this resource is the wide variety of tips.

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4. Simple Steps

About this resource: As its name implies, this website focuses on actions people may take to change their environmental impact. The most useful feature is the Simple Steps section, which names environmental categories and then offers suggestions based on the amount of time it takes to implement the suggestion. The time frames are a minute, a morning, and a month. The website also lists a variety of environmental and health facts designed to encourage a change in behavior. Due to the length of time involved in implementing some suggestions, this website is more appropriate as an intermediate resource.

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5. Sierra Club: Ten Ways to Go Green at Work Blog

About this resource: As its title states, this resource focuses on ways to go green in the workplace. The work sphere is the next area to consider after steps have been taken in one's personal sphere, as going green is not limited to one's personal life. Rather it extends to all aspects of one's life, including the workplace. This resource offers some easy tips to implement at work, which are suitable for "green" novices. The suggestions apply to employees as well as managers in charge of purchasing decisions.

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Additional Sources:

1.It's Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living

About this resource: This book offers a more extensive list of tips for going green than the websites found in this guide, making it a great choice to continue to learn about going green. As the book's title suggests, the tips may be easily implemented.

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2. The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living

About this resource: This book provides an overview of a wide variety of green topics without sacrificing one's style. It also includes the organizations and companies involved in those fields. It may be worth exploring for those people looking for even more green suggestions.

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Related Categories: General Resources

Compiled by: rcasper

shakmatt	Latest page update: made by shakmatt , Dec 15 2007, 10:46 PM EST (about this update About This Update Edited by shakmatt 2 words added 1 word deleted view changes - complete history)
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