Going Green... or Purple

Last weekend while in Huntsville, my Dad cleaned up the 'ol bike for me to take back to Nashville. We put some new road tires on it and I was on my way... to work. That's right, I'm riding my bike to work this summer. DOF has casual summers from Memorial Day to Labor Day, so we can wear jeans or whatever we want. I won't be continuing this when we change back to business casual, of course, but for now, I thought it would be a good time to be eco-friendly and get a little exercise too! I live about 0.8 miles from work and today was my first day of riding! It was not as easy as I thought since it's up hill, but that just makes me look forward to the ride home... coasting. I also have to be very conscious of the weather... I would HATE to be caught in the rain! Although my work friends, who are very amused that I'm riding my bike, say they'll take me home if it's raining. And to top it off since there is not a bike rack outside our building I'm taking it all the way up to the 8th floor with me!

Ways YOU can help the environment by Going Green:

This is from an article about Mayor Karl Dean’s Green Pledge. He is asking Nashvillians to take a five-step pledge to help the environment by saving electricity and water and cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions. See if you can fit even just a few into your lifestyle... they're really not that hard!

The Green Pledge includes five simple things:

ENERGY
I PLEDGE to replace 4 light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs.
I CAN eliminate 1 ton of carbon dioxide emissions over the life of the CFLs.
TOGETHER all Nashvillians can save enough kilowatt-hours to power 5,260 households.

WATER
I PLEDGE to turn off the water when brushing my teeth.
I CAN save 3.8 gallons of water a day.
TOGETHER all Nashvillians can conserve enough water in a year to fill L.P. Field four times.

AIR
I PLEDGE to replace at least one car trip a week with walking, bicycling, carpooling or public transit.
I CAN decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 1,000 pounds.
TOGETHER all Nashvillians can eliminate more than 290,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent to removing 5,800 cars from the road every year.

LAND
I PLEDGE to plant and care for at least one tree this year.
I CAN save at least 13 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually.
TOGETHER all Nashvillians can eliminate as much carbon dioxide as the trees on 4,652 acres of undeveloped land every year.

WASTE
I PLEDGE to reduce my use of plastic shopping bags, by substituting reusable bags instead.
I CAN save up to 208 plastic bags a year from being made.
TOGETHER all Nashvillians can eliminate 120,400,000 plastic bags and 2,257,000 pounds of waste every year.

What a difference we can make! Good luck everyone! I hope some of you will accept the challenge!