What you do matters.
It’s just that some of it matters more than others.
We know--sometimes it’s hard to figure out just what to do. The marketplace offers a dizzying array of choices, and when it comes to environmentally and socially responsible products, we often have to make comparisons based on incomplete information. A generation of conscious consumers have been stalled at the checkout lane over the simple question, “Paper or plastic?”
The best answer to this question is simple: don't sweat the small stuff. Sweat the big stuff instead. There are two important things you can do that pack a much heftier environmental wallop than the choice between a petroleum- or pine-based grocery carrier.
First, focus on a small number of actions you take in your daily life that truly matter. Check out our Turn the Tide program to see what some of these actions are, why they are important, and the impact you have by taking them. Turn the Tide's nine actions are what environmental scientists and conservation experts agree have the most profound, calculable benefits for the the health of our planet. Rather than feeling the weight of the grocery bag dilemma, take that burden off your shoulders by doing things that most effectively reduce global warming, conserve water and energy, and protect wildlife.
 Second, pay special attention to life's bigger decisions - the consumer choices you probably don't have to make every day. As the Union of Concerned Scientists attests, in a grocery store check out line, what matters more than your bag choice is what you fill those bags up with at the store. And what sort of transport you use to get yourself and your bags home. And then there's the home itself. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) published The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, by Warren Leon and Michael Brower, to make it even more clear what decisions have the biggest impact. Along with some very concrete advice, the book told consumers to spend less time agonizing over the relative merits of paper versus plastic and start focusing in the big ticket items. Those items fell into three broad categories: transportation, food, and household operations.
Transportation
According to UCS, making and using vehicles cause more environmental damage—especially air pollution and global warming—than any other single consumer spending category. What you can do to reduce your impact in this area will go a long way to reducing your overall environmental impact.
UCS advice:
1. Choose a place to live that reduces the need to drive.
2. Think twice before purchasing an additional car.
3. Choose a fuel efficient, low polluting car.
4. Set concrete goals for reducing your travel.
5. Whenever practical, walk, bicycle, or take public transportation.
Food
 Food production will always be resource-intensive. But there are ways to reduce the environmental burden. Cutting the average household’s consumption of red meat and poultry in half and replacing it with the nutritional equivalent of grains would cut food-related land use and common water pollution—two of the three most serious environmental consequences of food production [the third is water consumption]—by 30 percent and 24 percent, respectively.
That doesn’t mean vegetarians are off the hook. Even if you dine primarily on plants, the plants you choose make a difference. Conventional farming practices rely heavily on pesticides, fertilizers and precious water resources. Organic farming is much kinder to the land.
UCS advice:
1. Eat less meat.
2. Buy certified organic produce.
 We’d like to add a third, which we are sure UCS would agree with:
3. Buy local. A lot of energy is expended freezing, refrigerating, and trucking food around. Eating locally grown food means less fossil fuel burned in preparation and transport. Get to know the farmer next door at your local farmers’ market.
 Household Operations
Land and wood used to build new homes are responsible for about a quarter of consumers' impact on wildlife and natural ecosystems. What happens inside the home has big impacts, too. Appliances and lighting areresponsible for 15 percent of the greenhouse-gas emissions related to consumer expenditures and 14 percent of consumer-related common air pollution. Cooling and heating have similar impacts.
UCS advice:
1. Choose your home carefully. Building a home?
2. Reduce the environmental costs of heating and hot water.
3. Install efficient lighting and appliances.
4. Choose an electricity supplier offering renewable energy.
More tips on home resource efficiency, courtesy of the Rocky Mountain Institute
By now, we hope you aren’t feeling overwhelmed. If you can’t take all of these transportation, food, and home improvement steps, don’t give up in frustration! It’s not about being perfect. It’s about finding areas where you can do better and feel good about it. If there are one or more of the steps you could do, then do that.
And just for the record, we don’t believe you should abandon the small stuff. Doing little things that are socially or environmentally responsible can be its own reward—and can serve as a foundation for the bigger decisions. So yes, bring that reusable bag to the grocery so you can avoid the paper/plastic conundrum (UCS says paper versus plastic is a wash, anyway). And don’t forget your travel mug when you head for the coffee shop for that cup of fair trade, organic shade grown java. If you can, take the bus.
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