How to Help Your Family Go Green

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Going green as family isn't always smooth sailing because everyone will bring their own ideas about being green to the table. Instead of seeing that as a hurdle, though, why not try embracing it, and seeing where listening to their ideas and reaching compromises can lead?
Going green as a family is a great process for joint decision-making, facing the budget together as you find ways to reduce the cost of living, and committing to a future that you know will be sustainable for your family.

Steps

Talk about green issues as a family. Choose a time when you can all get together without distractions or absent family members. Ask every family member to explain what being green means to them and what they're already doing to be green at home, work, school, and in their leisure activities.
- It can be helpful to keep notes so that you can revisit the different ideas, comments, and complaints that different family members raise during the discussion. Allot one person to be "record-keeper".
Ask your family what they think you could be doing more of as a family to "be green". Avoid making final suggestions at this stage because your family will appreciate being heard and having their own ideas giving priority.
- It can be a good strategy to ask your family to help you with the green changes that you wish to make and to offer to help them in turn with the green changes that they wish to make.
- It might help to take a walk around the house (and garden) together to actually see the things that could be done differently.
Work through the different ideas together. At this stage, you might have come up with differing viewpoints about what matters most in going green. Talk through the ways in which you accommodate each other's preferences and reach compromises on the priorities for your household. Things affecting the priority will likely include cost, viability, utility, and level of interest. Try to come up with a simple list of things that your household can make changes to and that every family member can be a part of.
- Create a list of changes. Look around your house and make a list of all of the ways that your family could change to be more environmentally responsible. Pick a few small changes to start with.
- It can be helpful to create a poster, chart, or other visual format that everyone can follow when learning new habits or implementing the changes.
Do some research as a family. Visit the library and borrow books on such subjects as greening your home, green cleaning, green gardening, green living, etc. and allocate different reads to different members of the family. Have everyone come back a week or so later and report on what they've read and the things they think might work in your household. At this stage, the family will be able to discuss the merits, costs, desirability, etc., of the suggestions as a team, making this a joint decision-making process.
- Find out what other people have done and think about how your family could use those ideas.
Find activities in the house that everyone is able to do to "be green". Picking a small project to begin with is a good start, something that doesn't cost much (or anything) and that is more about habit-changing than anything too complicated. Some of these things might include:
- Getting into the habit of turning off lights and electronics whenever anybody leaves a room unoccupied.
- Starting a compost in the garden, or maybe a worm farm.
- Beginning or improving on an edible garden. Aiming to eat more homegrown food that is tasty, pesticide-free, and saves money.
- Game nights where all electronics are turned off. This is about bonding together as well as saving a little energy; it's a thoughtful gesture as well as a green one.
- Water conserving activities are a great family exercise: Turning off water when brushing teeth, fixing dripping faucets the moment they're noticed, washing the car on a lawn rather than on concrete, cleaning the pool regularly so that water doesn't have to be changed, etc.
- Minimizing waste. This is even better than recycling because recycling carries its own energy costs. However, still ensure that that household has a good recycling scheme in place, and that everyone is aware of how to repair and reuse household items, as well as not making a lot of waste in the first place. As an added bonus, recycling cans and scrap metal can earn extra money, and you might like to use this as an incentive for pocket money increases!
Talk about your family's food habits. Unless you're already a vegetarian family, this is probably not the time to ask everyone to go veggie but at least raise it as an option. The things to discuss include:
- Vegetarian meals could be made more frequent within the meal roster. Less meat consumption is healthy for everyone, and the environmental costs of producing milk, eggs, and meat includes increased land usage, high protein grain being fed to animals, and the production of methane. Again, borrow some books and DVDs from the library on this topic, including Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Rules, and In Defense of Food, and borrow Morgan Spurlock's DVD, Super Size Me.
- You might also like to check out websites on the Slow Food movement, and sites that are dedicated to locovore eating habits (eating locally produced food).
- If anyone in the family does want to go vegetarian, borrow some books on achieving optimal health as vegetarian or vegan, to reassure yourselves that you are going to be getting all needed nutrients.
- Don't forget about greening your pet care, greening your driving, and greening your boat care.
Talk about transportation. Ask everyone how they currently get around, to work, to school, to sports events, to shopping, to the local store, etc. As a team, work out how many of the trips taken need to be by car with a single person in it. Look at how many ways you can drop the car usage down by walking, carpooling, cycling, catching public transportation, or other solutions.
- Are you living in a walking-friendly area? It might even be time for a house shift. While it can be more expensive sometimes to live closer to your place or work or study, it might prove cheaper and less stressful to live closer than to be driving a long way every day.
- Arrange family outings where you all cycle or walk to a local park or other place and have fun together. Make sure you know how to dress for all sorts of weather, so that you don't let a little rain deter you.
- Ask the family to plan a shared timetable together in which one car trip can manage a whole lot of errands, drop-offs, and pick-ups at the one time rather than taking the car back and forth. This can be a fantastic way of working out how to save time too!
Have a regular craft afternoon spent together. During this time, learn how to reuse things and make new things from old. Everyone has a basic realization now that plastic shopping bags aren't the greatest addition to the planet, so one of your projects could be to make reusable ones. Borrow some books from the library on making crafts by reusing objects, and check out the many websites devoted to this activity. Some of the things you could try include:
Find ways to make use of things you don't need for their original purpose anymore. Develop a mindset as a family that items need to be reused as much as possible before being discarded for good. Some things you can reuse in many ways include:
Encourage the family to find ways to reduce heat and air-conditioning usage in the home. This will be harder because everyone tends to feel temperatures differently but reminding each other that adding a sweater to get warmer or opening a window when it gets hotter are good options before fiddling with the thermostat.
- Consider space heaters and fans for elderly or chronically ill family members who can't tolerate the temperature range the healthy young members can, or very small children. Everyone's needs are different but does it need the entire house to be brought to their temperature? Purchase Energy Star appliances for this purpose and if possible easily recyclable ones. New appliances can sometimes be a greener choice in the long run.
- At night, keep the bedroom temperature cooler and use blankets or layer up.
Be patient. Don't expect everyone in the family to change their ways overnight and do expect everyone to need gentle reminders to change long-held habits. For family members who feel less inclined to participate, try to offer incentives to get them to at least try a few small changes. Give the reluctant family member a small project and be generous with your praise when they complete it.
- Small projects include recycling bottles, cans, and paper, and turning off the water while brushing your teeth.
Consider costlier greening projects as part of your planning. If the budget doesn't stretch to these initially, start a savings plan. This might include retrofitting options such as insulation, solar heating, and gray water systems. Not being able to afford these straight away isn't a reason to avoid them; it's a good opportunity to agree that you do want them within the time it takes to be able to save for them.
- See How to achieve energy independence, How to heat water using solar, and Make your own electricity, for more ideas.
Be a good example. Incorporate green living into your life every day by showing how it is done; equally, make it clear how simple it is, and how fulfilling it is for you. Set the example and your family members will follow.

Video

Tips

Make a speech to your family, friends, your school or work and say, "I really think we should go green and help protect the environment by _________________." You'll be surprised by how many people agree with you and will help out in going green.
Energy Star appliances can save energy, use less water and ultimately save your family money, so look for these when changing appliances in your home.
Make every day Earth Day, pick up trash around your neighborhood, plant a tree.
Did you know? Americans recycle about 85 million tons of waste every year, producing a benefit comparable to removing the emissions from 35 million passenger cars.

Warnings

Many people switch off to "green messaging" because they think it means puritanism, hair shirts, and more griping. Keep the messaging upbeat, doable, and in line with your family values.
If you're trying to teach your parents to become green, do it gently. They won't appreciate any implications that they're wrecking the environment with their habits!

Things You'll Need

Recycling bins
Craft station and reusable goodies for turning into new things
Family meeting space (cozy, with snacks)
Paper and markers for recording the ideas and for making plans
Internet and library for research

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

Partial source of article, Howcast, http://www.howcast.com/videos/292096-How-To-Teach-Your-Parents-To-Be-Green – shared with permission.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Help Your Family Go Green. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

~It's all about me, Yusnie~

23 April 2011