That was the title of the article in the most recent BJ’s flier we received yesterday. Here is an excerpt that made me excited and happy:
BJ’s understands that, as a major retailer, it has a responsibility to look at how Club operations affect the communities it serves as well as the environment at large. BJ’s is concerned about global warming and its impact on our Members today and in the future. The company is committed to helping preserve the environment and has instituted an innovative energy management system that makes Clubs more energy efficient. To date, energy consumption has decreased an average of 100 million kilowatt-hours–enough electricity to power 11,000 residential homes for a year.
I have been wondering for a little while how BJ’s did environmentally. I was happy they discussed some of the information in this magazine. The Club began carrying more organic products over the past few months as well. The next article in the magazine was about teaching kids how to be environmentally friendly. Here is an excerpt from it:
‘Going green’ isn’t an all-or-none proposition. Where you overhaul your family’s habits all at once or you take it a step at a time, the efforts will accumulate to make a positive change in the environment–and will teach children important lessons in caring for the environment.
Of course, something the magazine doesn’t address, probably because BJ’s is a retailer, is the idea of consuming less to decrease one’s impact. Of course I feel somewhat hypocritical as I just bought a bunch of fabric this week, but I am making clothes rather than buying (trying to stay with the Refashion thing even though I didn’t do another formal pledge. Haven’t bought anything manufactured since mid-May. Scratch that, bought short and a fleece today at EMS for 40% off of sale prices. Sigh, I fell off the wagon!). I have to remind myself that clothing isn’t superfluous since it is illegal to go naked outside of one’s home! And when I have things that I wear from my 16th birthday (the t-shirt you gave me, TN, navy blue v-neck), I guess that my clothes last.
But now for my guilty non-green secret: I love disposable cleaning wipes. I know–horrible!! I do buy the Method brand wipes, but still. I have pledged that when the current batch is done, I won’t purchase any more of them. They are all about convenience, and Gaia is worth more than that to me. Do any of you have things you know you should give up but haven’t?
Finally, I am completely inspired by Katie’s holiday planning! Though I have some ideas for our parents, I haven’t made a list yet. We do gift exchanges with our siblings, but the parents have drawn names yet. Time to ask them to do it! Also, we’re planning on sending either a link to this post about toys to our relatives after all of the toy recalls recently. We tried to ask people not to get L3 toys when he was very little, but they ignored us. *sigh* The holidays could lead into another discussion about consumption. So many things to consider!
Reply to comment: Justin, you can get rid of junk mail for free, it just takes some effort. I did it a few months ago and have seen a dramatic decrease in junk mail. Here is the link for those who are interested. Other areas of this site have some great actions you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. Enjoy!
I found a site that helps the environment by reducing the amount of postal junk mail you have. It saves a lot of trees too! It only costs $2.95 a month for this service. You can cut down on the number of credit card offers, catalogs, flyers, sales promotions, and inserts. They will even plant a tree on your behalf when you sign up! Let’s all do our part to help the environment. Here’s the URL.
http://www.USJunkMail.com/default.htm?refer=JUSTINT8390
That is great about BJ’s, and I am glad you liked my holiday plan!! 🙂
Oh my, we have a birthday coming up here and I’m trying to figure out what the heck to do. I’m working on a post about this angst. I haven’t even gotten to Christmas thoughts yet. Shannon