10,000 Seeds of Change
Posted on September 12th, 2011 in seeds of change |
It’s a big day! We reached our first mega-milestone and now have 10,000 fans on our Facebook page. To us, that’s 10,000 seeds of change — each fan is someone who has taken at least one small step towards a more sustainable lifestyle.
Imagine how that all adds up! Over a year, think of how many fewer plastic bags you toss out or bring home. How many water bottles you don’t buy or how many paper towels you save. No matter what your green steps are, they all add up to a better planet for us and our children.
To celebrate our first giant step, we are giving away a gift bag full of Dandelion products and a $500 savings bond for your child. We believe that education is the key to planting seeds of change, and our actions every day teach our kids what we think is most important.
To enter to win, leave us a comment and tell us what seed of change has made the most difference for your family. We’ll pick a winner at random.
Comments
This is small, but we don’t buy detergent, only make our own
We also use cloth diapers
And our toddler & preschooler use Dandelion’s corn bowl and plate sets for their meals!
After five kids in disposables, we decided to cloth diaper Kinsley. What a difference that makes! We also are stocking up on reusable bags, both shopping and sandwich/snack sizes. We are slowly moving over to natural cleaning products and have started regularly recycling. Most of this has happened in the last year.
How has this seed grown? My oldest is a new mom and is now breastfeeding and using cloth diapers because of my change.
I only regret is not starting sooner!
So hard to choose just one! But the biggest change has probably been cutting out paper towels. And we use cloth diapers, but that’s always been the case for us, so that doesn’t feel like a “change” that we made.
We use cloth diapers and wipes, earth friendly detergents and cleaning supplies, and are teaching our 2 year old the importance of not being wasteful, so that it’s a way of life for her, and so that she may carry it on to her generation.
By breastfeeding, using cloth diapers and hand me downs!
We are all cloth for our newest son, his clothes are upcycled from friends kids that have outgrown them, we give and get items on Freecycle, if we buy things I do my best to buy items made from sustainable materials, grow our own veggies & fruits, have switched to organic non-chemical pest control, make our own cleaning products.
We eat organic, we bought energy star appliances and a gas effecient car. We reduce, reuse and recycle. We use energy efficient lightbulbs , use organic fertilizer on our lawn, do not use pesticides and only use green cleaning products. Most of all, we teach our children WHY this is so important. So they will grow up healthy, cherish the earth and all its creatures and do the same with their families some day. We hope to start something that will continue to make the world better for generations to come.
First we reduce, if we don’t need it we don’t get it. Then we reuse, anything that doesn’t need to be disposed of isn’t. We recycle everything after that. The small amount of garbage left is gathered up in a single bag so we aren’t tossing any more plastic than we have to. We use reusable shopping bags. We use cloth diapers and wipes and mostly hand me down clothes. We buy all natural dog food / use whatever is left of a chicken to make it better, no canned food. We try to support companies that support the planet by researching products well and not buying anything that isn’t good for us, the planet, animals and those who made it. Everything we Buy for our baby is organic. I don’t eat meat or processed food, and we don’t use chemicals when cleaning us or our home. We run all our errands when we are out so we don’t use a lot of gas. We buy glass over plastic (even straws) And we are big fans of spending $ on something that will last forever over getting things that will end up in the trash.
Once we really started to recycle it was just a snowball effect from there! Our children are learning how to recycle and they are brimming with ideas on how to reuse items we would commonly throw away.
We don’t use paper towels at all. We started composting our food waste as well! We use wood heat, get our water from a cistern and rain barrels, and we grow most of our own food.
We’ve made the decision to cloth diaper our soon to arrive baby. I’m excited for this small change in our routine, and for less trash heading out the door!
We always use reusable bags at the store, or carry out items without a bag. Also, we try to buy fresh food whenever possible, and support our local farmers through a CSA. When we have a baby, we’ll be using cloth diapers and wipes as well.
2 babies oj cloth diapers, resuable bags, composting, and bio bags for pet waste
For us it is baby steps. More recycling, more carpooling, less paper goods, better cleaning products around the house, more organic food for the whole family. I think it is all the little things that add up to a lifestyle that just feels better for my family!
What’s really helped my family is finding ways to better our environment and better our budget. We recycle a lot more than we used to, we use coupons, we use reusable products, and find ways to save a little each week. With a family of 9, it’s very important to us that we do little things each week that will make a huge impact in the long run.
The adoption of our baby boy in January. My, what a life-style change. I went from working 40-60 hours a week and traveling regularly, to being a stay-at-home-mom. I was already into doing things as naturally as possible (reusable bags at the grocery store, gardening, no chemical cleaners in the house, phosphorus free soaps and detergents, etc.) and have extended that to parenting. We cloth diaper and hang them on the line to dry as often as possible (weather permitting), we’re practicing EC (he goes on the potty about half the time, so even less diapers), he’s on donated breastmilk and I’ve tried inducing lactation (with minimal success), as we experiment with food, I’m making his baby food (he loves pears), we received a lot of hand-me-down clothes and have passed many of them on, are purchasing a few toys (trying to keep it at a minimum) and books (tons of those already) at second-hand shops and have recently started participating in a FB toy swap (great for the wallet and environment)
Discovering the quality and earth friendliness of organic cotton and bamboo clothing and toy products was a revelation for me! So much so, that my husband and I are launching a baby and toddler gift business that specialises in goods made from eco-friendly and natural fibres.
Our earth is precious, and so our our children. We are creating beautiful gift options that are gentle on newborns and the world that we will leave for them.