Earth Day 2022: What sustainable living choices have you made in the past year?

Question

Earth Day 2022 is today, Friday, April 22. Continuing the tradition we started last year, we're asking folks to share something they did during the past year that contributed to the goal of Sustainable Living.

In the past year, did you:

• Complete an energy efficiency or clean energy project for your home or business?
• Adopt a new habit that reduced your carbon footprint?
• Volunteer to help with environmental preservation?
• Learn a new skill that you can use to help yourself or others live more sustainably?
• Something else?

The goal is to share what we've done, so that we can inspire and encourage one another, and show our appreciation.

What have you done in the past year that contributes to Sustainable Living?

Answer 1

Pollinator garden restoration

The previous homeowners set up a pollinator garden in front of our house, but over the years it had been taken over by goldenrod (which is good for pollinators, but in our case was choking everything else out). We removed most of the goldenrod and worked with a local nursery to add native pollinators that are suited to the conditions in front of our house -- several varieties of grasses, clover, milkweed, coneflower, lobelia, and sedge.

Dog waste mini septic

I'm still working out the kinks on this one, but we built a mini septic system in our back yard to manage dog waste. The alternative would be waste in plastic bags sent to the landfill, where there is little chance it would ever biodegrade. With the mini septic we reduce the amount of plastic we use, and ensure that the waste is broken down and returned to the soil in a healthy way.