On Being...Green!
How can a non-digital publishing company lighten its ecological footprint? The paper...the ink...the electricity...Ay, caramba!
Part of my “office work” as sole proprietor of Hassamarra Publishing is searching for earth-friendly printing products, and then assessing the real-world impact. For instance, if I can get 100% recycled paper that has to travel 500 miles as opposed to 10% recycled paper travelling 50, what is best for the planet?
(By the way, where are all those electric delivery trucks charged by windpower? Let’s get a move on! We need them NOW!)
The fact is, there’s only so much we can do to be green, using the resources and infrastructure available. We must never stop asking for more, though – always being the squeaky wheel clamoring for renewable energy and non-damaging products. We have one planet here, our little spot in the universe to keep in optimum condition for life as we know it!
DO NO HARM
Meanwhile, I do what I can to be green outside the office, too. I’ve allowed my side yard to become a shady patch of woods that collects CO2 and cools the house. The back yard grass has been free of weed-killing poison for a quarter of a century, offering patches of clover for the bees and occasional dandelions for salad. My mower is the old-fashioned kind that takes no gas or oil and, as a side benefit, offers weekly aerobic exercise for free!
Someone once pointed out that the pollution I avoid by using my little mower is blasted out a hundred times over in just seconds by each truck roaring past town on the highway.
Oh, how true! How fruitless my little effort seems in the face of pollution spewing from every corner! Yet, there’s this bit of encouragement to remember: anything any seven billion of us does is just a drop in the bucket. The thing is, you get to pick the bucket into which you place your drop. Will it be to add to pollution or add to preservation? To nurture or to ruin? To be or not to be?
