My wonderful mother, Terri Moore, is the first mom to join us on The Sustainable Living Bike Tour! Not only is she an avid biker and adventurer, she is also a sustainable living enthusiast. That enthusiasm has inspired my whole family: we share a common dream of living together in what we have dubbed the ‘eco village.’ It is a place where we will live communally, raising chickens and vegetables and having a lot of fun. (I am hoping to add a rollerskating rink/dance floor party pavillion to the mix).
Terri also invented her own sustainable living goal to use 10% less. She has dubbed it the ‘ten percent less program,’--using ten percent less of everything: soap, gas, clothes, electricity. You name it, she is trying to use ten percent less. While this may appear a small goal, it has great potential to make environmentally positive decisions. When you take the extra time to think to yourself, “Do I really need this? Is this going to put me in the ten percent less mark?” you end up making better choices for yourself and for the world.
If everyone replaced just 10% more of their commute with riding their bicycle, then America would save 37 million gallons of gasoline every single day. That’s more than 3 times the amount of oil spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Lets go right to the interview:
What are some of the biggest changes you have made yourself in your 10% less program?
The part I have enjoyed the most is riding my commuter bike 10% further for business appointments, errands and entertainment. I go slower on that bike, I look around from its upright handlebars, people enjoy my chartreuse skirt guard and flowery helmet. And when I go to the coat check and hang up my rain pants it usually starts up a conversation.
What are some of the biggest challenges?
Now that I have been doing this a few years, to build on what I have already done is getting harder. Last year it was getting rid of tea bags, this year I am going to try to make my own condiments.
What surprised you most?
That more people don't do it, that our government doesn't ask us to do it. I don't talk about it much, but honestly people are not that interested - there are generally not that many follow up questions when it comes up in conversation.
If you were to give the twenty-something population some advice for living sustainably, what would you tell them?
Just to think about it and not to get discouraged.
So you want to create the eco village, do you think that multigenerational living is going to be a common occurrence in the near future?
It's like the fountain of youth living with younger people. It makes you feel younger and more hopeful-- you remember who you were. Once the baby boom generation figures that out, there will be a stampede for the nearest eco village.
What do you think the benefits of this lifestyle are?
Someone to lift the heavy things.
--Claire Grizzle
