HR=Humans Represent: Your Green Genealogy

It’s my fourth week now since I was asked to be Monday’s featured blogger, and the last three weeks my blog HR: Humans Represent has focused on representing employment related information. This week, the focus is on representing the greening of our society.

Chances are your granny had the right idea about living a green life. In fact, you could in a way, argue that previous generations were greener than we are. As humans, it’s time to get back to our green roots while we branch out further expanding our greenness. Think about it for a moment…..we (people in general) have become excessive in our daily lives – so many choices, everything is quick, easy, convenient, and disposable – this leads to the excess I’m talking about. Those advertising and marketing individuals have got us demanding this lifestyle, and who doesn’t want the latest and greatest!? I’m sure our ancestors would be appalled (and amazed) at how things have changed over the decades!

It’s time to consider getting back to our roots. What green lessons should we have learned from our relatives? I think we have already learned them, but conveniently forgotten them. It’s time to relearn those lessons, and their definitely worth revisiting to save the environment. Here’s a quick list:

• Minimal products – Do we really need a bottle of this and a package of that for every task on the to-do list? I’m sure many of us could fill multiple cabinets with everything we’re enticed to buy and try when, the minimal would do!
• Grow your own food (or if you buy it, don’t throw it away) – Many grandparents and great-grand parents had gardens for growing their own food. Yes, grow your own food, and make it organic – chemical free. What they did grow with only soil, water and sun also never went to waste! You know the saying – someone somewhere could benefit from that dinner you didn’t finish – but it ends up in the trash. Don’t forget about leftovers!
• Tap water is okay – I’m sure our ancestors would be shocked to see the amount of money we spend on bottled water. Not to mention the amount of plastic water bottles that ends up in landfills.
• Reusing at its finest – Everything back in the day had a secondary use, and rarely was thrown away. I still remember my grandfather’s garage filled with cans, jars and boxes that found a second life as storage containers for nails and bolts, birdseed, fishing equipment, etc.
• Hand me downs are perfectly fine– You name it – clothing, furniture, books, pans… it was passed around from family member to family member. Nothing was thrown away before its time.
• Mass transit & foot power – While some of them certainly had their own cars, they also made great use of mass transit, or walked that seven miles in five feet of snow just to get to school.
• If it’s not broken, don’t replace it! – I can almost hear some of my relatives. I can also imagine their reaction to the suggestion that they replace something that still worked just because we wanted to “upgrade”…
• The world was their playground – If you were indoors, it meant you were grounded, sick, or had chores to do inside. The outdoors was everyone’s playground from dawn until dusk!

Any other great green lessons you think are worth revisiting these days?