A Path Towards Sustainability, part 4

Sustainability does not follow the one and done philosophy, rather the principles of constant renewal; one building upon another.

Our lifestyle habits reflect our commitment to the environment also. One of our favorite things to do is to spend the day Goodwill hunting. Being in the construction trades I am notoriously hard on my clothing. By shopping at Goodwill, I can purchase second-hand clothing, which helps the environment, support local business with job training, which helps advance people to a better living condition, and reap the benefit of lower costs, which helps keep my wallet and my wife happy. Our excursions have netted some great discoveries over the years too. We purchased a like-new Norwalk Furniture couch for $80 once that retailed for over $1600. We have bought many items to decorate out home at a fraction of the retail store cost that I would dare anyone to try and figure which ones they are. And we donate regularly to the store once we are finished with an item. Our view is that the money we have saved shopping there far outweighs the financial gains we could realize from having a garage sale.

What we are now concentrating our efforts on are the items we had not considered. Using organic materials is the primary focus for us. With plans to begin organic garden already in motion, being organic is other areas throughout the house is increasing in importance. Detergents, soaps, and cleaners all play an intrinsic part of daily life and these have viable option are much more environmental friendly. But moving beyond that, ensuring that our clothing and linens are produced using organic materials is becoming important. We are committed to shopping local for more of our food resources utilizing the Farmer’s Market here in South Bend, and have made some commitments to local businesses to purchase more building materials even when costs are a bit higher. The concrete plan is to have over 50% of our household purchases, whether it is food, clothing, or other daily use items, come from local sources by the end of 2013.