You can’t do much today without seeing, hearing or reading about being “green.” We are all learning about our “carbon footprint” what it is and how we can reduce it. Never before has being “green” or being environmentally more friendly been more prevalent then it is in today’s world.
There are lots of simple things that each and everyone of us can do to be more earth friendly as we live our lives. Personally I feel there really isn’t any reason to not be doing these things. Then things get a little harder to be green more effort and thought is required on your part. So depending on your commitment and desire to live a more “green life” you may or may not choose to do more.
As our economy struggles to find a direction to head for an extended period of time we hear a lot about living in excess and saving money everywhere you can. When many people sit back and examine their lives I think they will find areas where they would agree that they live or have lived a little excessively.
Another prominent theme in today’s media is ways to save money on everything. You see ads on television, read articles on the internet and in the paper, books are written on the subject.
You may wonder what being green and saving money have in common and why am I writing about these two things. It is my viewpoint that we have become a disposable society in so many ways. We use things a few times maybe only once and then we throw them away. Maybe it is because we are done with them or they have outlived their useful life. In today’s world it is likely that the item has broken and it can’t be repaired, or it is cheaper to simply replace it then it is to repair it. Many times it is less hassle for us to simply replace it them to go through the trouble to fix it.
In my daily life I struggle to find items of quality to use. A recent outing to find some new jeans comes to mind. As I went from store to store to find some jeans that I liked I began to notice some interesting trends. The same jeans fit differently, were made from different fabrics and in many cases made in different countries. So a pair of Levi 505’s in a 36/30 were really not the same and each fit differently. I had to shop among stores for the better quality and the right fit. Or you had to sacrifice quality for fit. Not a very fun consumer experience. I imagine in the race to get the price down Levi just continually bid out the production runs of the jeans. My father in law also noticed this on a shopping trip for pants for himself.
To me it seems the general quality of the things we use are a lot worse than they have been in the past. When I talk to people about this almost everyone has a story of a product of poor quality or durability they have recently experienced.
I find it very interesting that two of the bigger subjects in our news seem to be in direct contradiction of each other. Being “green” and buying everything at the cheapest price possible.
If we as consumers want everything at the cheapest price possible then we have to sacrifice certain things. Quality and service come to mind. When we sacrifice quality for price we are consuming items that aren’t durable and increase our carbon footprint in the world because they won’t last as long as we need them for.
In order for manufacturers to keep creating and producing things at the lowest prices they need to seek out manufacturing facilities that can do it cheaper then the next guy. These factories are in countries with fewer regulations on their environmental impact. I’ll save for another discussion the impact that goes on in transporting these goods to areas where they can be purchased by the consumer.
What I am urging you to do is to seek out items of quality that will last you the life you need the item to last. Purchasing items that won’t have a short life and then end up in the local landfill. Preferably purchasing items that can be passed on to other users when you are done with the item. One of my wife’s and my favorite things is an antique dining room table that we purchased. We managed to find a table that was of better quality construction then most of today’s tables that we saw and considerably less expensive. This table is serving us well and we look forward to many, many more years of use before we pass it down to the next user.
In many ways what I am asking might be the greatest challenge in today’s world and your daily life. Finding items that are durable and useable for generations to come is not an easy task.
When we purchase items for the store we look at the quality of the item to make sure that it will last for the intended life of the item and hopefully for other people to use. This philosophy is one of the reasons we started our youth trade in program. This program takes perfectly good used bikes and gets them in the hands of others that can enjoy them for years to come.
This philosophy is one of the reasons I love to sell quality bikes. We see bikes that have been around for years being enjoyed by their owners. These bikes aren’t clogging up the landfills because they work the way the consumer wanted them to. If the owner can’t find a new owner when they are done with them there are programs that take these bikes and get them into the hands of people who can use them.
Please consider quality and durability when you make purchases. The world will be a better place and you will be a happier person from using an item that works they way it should with fewer hassles. You’ll have more time to do the fun things in life like ride your bike instead of dealing with something that isn’t working the way it should.
