Greener Lifestyle With Baby

2007-07-23-lotteklaver We conducted an honest assessment of our own lifestyle this past weekend to determine how green we really are.

No impact man, we are not. But as it turns out, we've made significant lifestyle changes that have a greening effect because of baby.

So much of the discourse focuses on how having a child can negatively impact the environment (e.g., disposable diapers and wipes), but the story doesn't just end there.

We came up with some lifestyle decisions we made because of baby that turned out to be green as well. For instance...

We moved closer in to the city and our respective offices, cutting down on our commute time so we can spend more time with baby, but it also means less driving.

We got rid of one car.

We walk everywhere - work, coffee, groceries, gym. The stroller is a great vehicle to haul watermelons home.

We eat seasonally and locally more with baby in our lives.

We use air conditioning less. Instead, we throw open windows when the DC-heat is not too oppressive to get fresh air in the house.

We use less chemicals and clean green.

We've unplugged lots of gadgets and appliances that we don't use regularly in order to babyproof, but we're saving energy too!

So what about you? Did you pass on your maternity clothes? Are you more eco-conscious about the foods, products and services you purchase? Please share greener changes, both conscious and unintended, you've made in your lifestyle since having baby.

(image by Lotte Klaver)

We now consider ourselves fortunate to be the last of our friends to decide to have children so we have already started inheriting incredible baby equipment - bumbo seat, high end swing, bouncer, stroller, car seat, plastic play houses and wagons! I have been amazed how quickly babies go through these things - maybe only using them for a few months! What a waste! Imagine all of the packaging, shipping and plastic involved if everyone had to buy these things! It also saves us from having to assemble these things which is very convenient! We also bought a beautiful used crib, mattress (from someone we knew!) and glider for much, much less than buying them new! Hopefully this will help offset the diapers we will use! PS - in exchange we are on call to babysit anytime!

posted by schetss on July 25th 2007 at 4:57am
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like schetss, we got a lot of our baby stuff hand-me-down from friends and family. it's been really nice to reuse a lot of things. we already live in the city and don't even have ONE car (though i'm considering getting a hand-me-down car from my grandfather) so all of our out-and-about activities are in the stroller. we use seventh generation everything in this apartment! :) i love using products that aren't petroleum-based. the one thing that i wish we could cut down on is A/C. we're home a lot and the heat's been oppressive this year. my allergies are bad (the baby sneezes a lot too!) so we keep it on low pretty much all the time. it's also hard to swaddle a baby in this heat without A/C. oh well. we do what we can!

posted by gleek on July 25th 2007 at 5:34am
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