Contributing author Rebecca Goodstein is the Conservation Journeys Manager at The Nature Conservancy.

Your office can be much more than a place where you work 8 hours a day. It can be where you try to save the world, where you work for “the man,” or, in some workplaces, where you surf the Internet all day long! In my case, I recently realized it was a place where I was spending a ton of money (kinda defeats the purpose of a job) and producing a ton of waste at my job (kinda defeats the purpose of my job—I work at an environmental nonprofit).

So I did an audit of my workday to see how much I was spending and what my impact on the environment was.

Canada’s recent ban on plastic baby bottles containing BPA was one of those events that highlights the wisdom of keeping a green lifestyle. Unlike a statistic about climate change, this story was about the other endangered planet that each of us must protect: the human body. It reminded me of a Chris Jordan lecture I attended last year, where he revealed photographs of landfills clogged with all the plastic bottles disposed of each year; except in the case of BPA the trash is building up in human tissues.

In response to reader demand, we’re excited to announce the return of Living Green Below Your Means! This periodic column is back with new tips and anecdotes from New Dream staff and contributing guest bloggers. We’ll be offering first-person accounts of ways in which eco-minded individuals balance responsible living with a balanced budget. Check in regularly to read the experiences of conscious consumers committed to a fun, sustainable lifestyle that’s easy on both the wallet and the planet.