Green Soul Searching

It's been 3 months... I know, I apologize. In my absence though I have been gathering material about the green happenings around Grand Rapids.

I have also been thinking alot about sustainability and Grand Rapids. Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Shelley Irwin about Grand Rapids sustainability efforts on her WGVU morning radio show. We spoke about the recent "Most Sustainable Community Award" and what it meant for Grand Rapids.

I knew this question was going to come and I gave it alot of thought and here is what I came up with.

Great but what's next?

Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled that Grand Rapids won for the mid size category. My question is where do we go from here?

What more can Grand Rapids do to become sustainable? When I ask this I'm not only speaking to companies, I'm speaking to the individuals too. Are we doing enough? Is there more we can do?

While reading about Recycling a few days ago I read the phrase I'm sure we have all read a million gazillion times "Reduce Reuse Recycle".

Sure we all more than likely recycling but what about the other two R's? Are we reusing (re-filling that water bottle, using that plastic bag more than once, using the backside of that paper)? Are we even reducing (carpooling, rethink printing, using a reusable tote instead of paper or plastic)?

I think it is convenient for us to recycle and be done with it but I lay out the challenge (to both you and myself) to follow up on the other R's.

That's all the soul-searching questions I have for you today. :)