How to "Go Green"?

We are beginning to take baby steps so that our lifestyle becomes more sustainable and fair to people, as well as animals. We've been convicted by our wasteful and polute-ful living, saddened by how our gain is another's loss, and disgusted by all of the cruel animal testing gone into our shampoos and make-up.

It looks overwhelming when you examine your lifestyle and see all of the areas that need to change to meet our new goals. Here are a few ways we've started to "go green".

• Only buying fair trade coffee, tea, sugar, chocolate, & bananas
• Making sure we buy organic or free-range meat, dairy, and eggs from animals who have been humanely treated
• Not purchasing any items from companies that do testing on animals. This means that we do some research before we research for that hair gel, toothpaste, or baking soda.
• Using cloth shopping bags and mesh produce bags that we can reuse
• Re-stocking with biodegradable garbage bags, recycling, and composting
• Buying clothes and fabric that are made in the U.S.A., are certified fair trade, or that are second-hand.
• Making a lot of homemade stuff. More posts to come!
• Monitoring our electricity and water use (turning off lights when not needed and taking fewer baths).

Those are just some of the ways we are starting to put more thought into our purchases and putting our buck where our vote is. Our goal isn't to push this agenda onto our friends or families, we just feel like our own consciences are burdened with our way of living.

What ways are you choosing to live more ethically?