Book 3 of 52: The Green Year: 365 Small Things You Can Do to Make a Big Difference

I read The Green Year: 365 Small Things You Can Do to Make a Big Difference(Pub date Dec. 2) by Jodi Helmer because I interviewed her about “green” holidays and one very green lady for an article I’m writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer. I started flipping through the book about a half hour before the interview, and finished it later that night.

It’s an easy read, which is a good thing for this kind of book. I write quite a bit about green topics, and I run into a lot of people who think that it would cost way too much money and time to switch over to a green lifestyle.

That’s why Jodi’s book is a perfect way to get into a greener life, or give your own green ways a tune up. It’s 365 ways to be more planet friendly and, yes, you can do just about every one in one day. That’s also why it was a quick read — it’s one item per page, and they don’t walways fill the page.

Now, when I started in, I figured I was a green smarty pants and had already done at least 75 percent of the things she suggests on the book.

FAIL.

I started putting stickies on all those that I wanted to do and ended up filling who knows how many pages — at least three colors of my sticky pack, though I will say that I checked off a few dozen as “done.”

Some suggestions are those that I keep MEANING to do, like insulating my water heater (January 4) and switch to cloth dinner napkins (March 2). Others are bigger steps I would like to take plan a vegetable garden (April 28) and buy houseplants (May 17) — they may seem easy, but not for those if us born sans the green thumb. I even learned about www.greensingles.com. How cool!

But this did remind me that I do a lot even if I’m not perfect. I took PATCO to Rutgers-Camden where I teach instead of driving. I probably would have saved money driving, but not time, pollution and aggration. I shopped the Collingswood Farmer’s Market whenever I could so that I was eating local fresh produce and supporting local farmers (last weekend of the season is this year. Sniff, sniff). As I wrote for an upcoming issue of Edible Jersey magazine, I don’t have to take out the trash every week because of how much I compost. I’m going to probably get rid of my garbage disposal becauses I just don’t use it, and the extra storage space under the sink would be nice.

So do I recommend this book? Of course I do — a great holiday gift for the greenie or future-greenie in your life. Or for yourself, of course.

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Jen Miller

Jen Miller

Jen A. Miller is a an author and freelance writer. Her memoir, Running a Love Story, was a Philadelphia Inquirer best book of the year. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, SELF, Buzzfeed and the Guardian, among others.

Leave a Comment