This won't be my usual Denver real estate post – but it is in its own way. I live here and I work here and this is my Earth Day post.
I have to admit in the now distant past I haven't been the most aware when it comes to "green" & environmentally friendly. And I am not by any means claiming to be the be-all know-all on this. In fact I do have much room for improvement in both my business & my family life. But I am trying. Some of the things that I have done in the past few years include – being an avid recycle-er at home. We have become quite good at recycling everything we can – and eliminating the waste to begin with. We have also started making the switch to florescent bulbs. I don't have them plugged in every light yet, but we are getting there. We also have the programmable thermostats and other gadgets to help with heating in the house. We also participated last month in Earth Hour.
As far as work goes – blogging & updating this web site alone for much of my marketing has allowed me to significantly cut down on the amount of print marketing materials. I still have a ways to go. I don't think anyone can change what they have been doing all this time over night. But we all need to do what we can and raise awareness.
Family wise – we have decided to step it up. If you are reading this out of the area, I have to say that grocery bags are still pretty much in full use here. I only stop in the grocery stores from time to time and I have to say I rarely see anyone bring their own bags. My wife however reports that is slowly starting to change and its about to change for the Scheer's. She found some stylish reusable grocery bags online that she liked and has ordered some to try out. She figured that if she was going to really make the switch with this, she wanted some nice bags. Sounds fair. There are plenty of places you can get reusable bags at all different styles and prices. The grocery stores seems to be selling them inexpensively now too with their logos on them. We also will be supplementing the bags she ordered with some others bags you can buy in bulk at Costco. So there will be one less family in Highlands Ranch using plastic or paper bags at the grocery store. I also heard that Whole Foods as of today is no longer providing plastic bags. Apparently its paper only or bring your own reusables. I am guessing they sell something there too though.
In addition, one area where we have not been good as a family is the use of bottled water. Those recycle bins I mentioned are full of water bottles each week. Yes, its great we are recycling them but we need to just not use them. That will be changing in the very near future as well.
Work wise – I am now beginning to print the real estate paper materials that I do need to print with recycled paper. There are a few things I may not be able to do, but for the most part, it shouldn't be very complicated. I have a few packs of paper previously purchased, but the switch will be made in every area I can.
Another thing is my wife & I are really opening up our minds to the ideas of our children on this topic. Truth be told, their creative little minds come up with brilliant ideas and they are also being taught well about conservation and recycling at school. They are the future, they have some good ideas, and I will be listening and watching them.
Here is a website with some other ideas for you to implement at your own home and business.
I searched for a video to share with you today. There sure is a lot out there – but this one struck a chord with me.
