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My green month

Submitted by David Beach  |  Last edited June 24, 2008 - 11:46am
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Editor's note: The following online journal comes from Cleveland resident Chuck Ackerman. GreenCityBlueLake invites others to share their experiences with green living.

Chjuck and his push lawnmowerSo for the next month or so I am going to live as “green” as I can and write about it here. Why? I am hoping to learn, inspire (myself and others) and challenge myself. Mostly to see how hard it all is. I am not interested in being a purist. I’m interested in how one negotiates day to day activities while trying to limit your impact (negative) on the planet. I hope you will throw your two cents in on your green ideas, what you’re up to, disagree, and add and subtract.

I hope this becomes a forum that will lead to action. If I sound self-righteous or that this is all about me, I apologize ahead of time, I don’t mean to. To those of you who’ve been doing this stuff forever, thank you.

Without being too much of a talking head, I’ll throw out some thoughts about how the things I do (or more likely the things I don’t do) affect those I love and live with, my son Robbie and “min sambo” Catherine.

Some context: I have lived in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood in a too-big house for almost 20 years, own a 2001 Honda Civic, work at the Cleveland Housing Network at E.30th and Payne (about 4 miles from my house).

This idea grew from Gang Green—that's actually a group of neighbors and friends that get together once a month or so to share information, learn, and support each other on living more green lifestyles.
 
There's about 30 folks who're "members", and get-togethers are informal and deliberately non-meeting like. We usually focus on specific topics and have someone do a presentation. We've done recycling (speaker from the city), worm composting, "Greening you Home", food preservation speaker from the County Extension), and local food (speaker from city fresh and a woman who has a CSA farm in Cuyahoga Valley). If you want to come to a Gang Green thing, add a comment to this page.

I have a head start on some things, so let’s start there (see my entries below).


‹ Green and local gift guideupBuilding a rain garden at home ›
July 4, 2007 - 2:24pm

Thanks Mandy

Chuck Ackerman Says:

Thanks Mandy, I hadn't thought of these activities as "public" but they are.   I don't usually say why I don't want the plastic bags, but I will now make a point of it.  Maybe the cashier/bagger/next customer in line will be inspired.


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