There are many benefits to going green. Planet Green has an excellent article, Why Go Green?, talking about the big picture, including Top 10 Tips and By the Numbers for those of you who like statistics. Below is my top five list of the benefits of going green. I find that at least one, and usually all, of these are true of every green thing I do.
- reduce impact on the environment - this is the main benefit of going green. Everything we do affects our planet and we're slowly using up all our natural resources. The Story of Stuff is a great look at this.
- incidental exercise - biking to work or walking to the store not only saves you money on gas and helps reduce pollution caused from car emissions (such as carbon dioxide) they are a great workout!
- reduce waste - recycling, or better yet reusing, keeps excess waste out of landfills. Sadly, not everything we recycle stays out of landfills so being mindful of the packaging and reusability of the things we purchase goes a long way.
- eat healthier - eating green is healthier for us because they are natural and unprocessed, keeping more of their nutrients, which also means they require less resources and money to produce and transport them. e.g. most processed foods have extra sodium to help preserve the food longer; restaurants also use a lot of added sodium and fat (e.g. butter) to make things taste better even if they are not of the best quality from the start.
- save money - most things that we do to conserve the earth's resources also help us save money, e.g. tap water vs bottled water; biking vs driving; opening windows vs light bulbs or A/C; cooking vs eating at a restaurant.
How about you? Why do you go green?
