Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Men and carbon footprint reduction

Well, since we were focusing on men yesterday I figure we should do another "all things man" today. As it was clear from many of the answers given, women hold a certain influence over what the man in their life uses from shampoo to soap and beyond.

But, what kind of influence do you have over them when it comes to other things? Have you been able to help them reduce their carbon footprint or are they the one instigating it? And, if you are one of my male readers, are you the one leading the climate saving efforts at home?

Here are some more questions for you (if you are "the guy" answer for yourself):

1. Does your guy help with cooking/food purchase choices? Is he on board for buying local, sustainable, organic or less meat?
2. Is he interested in sustainable yard care - using an electric or push mower, no pesticides/fertilizers, or do you do it all?
3. Does he help if you grow some of your food at home?
4. Does he help with adaptations to your home to make it more energy efficient or environmentally friendly (low flow showerhead, use recycled paper products)?
5. Is he willing to take public transportation, walk/bike, telecommute or otherwise reduce his mileage?
6. Does he help with recycling, food composting and generally reducing waste?
7. Is he willing to turn off the lights when not in use, turn off the water when shaving or brushing teeth, keep the heat low and other conservation techniques?
8. Is he game for more "fringe" things like no poo, cloth wipes and the like?
9. Do you fight with him over these things or is he on board? If so, is he on board just to appease you or because he believes it's the right thing to do?

I'm always curious how people's partners react when their significant other makes lifestyle changes. Do they follow along or just ignore it and hope it goes away on its own? How much grief and/or marital strife does this cause? (I think Greenpa has a thing or two to contribute on this one :)

36 comments:

Unknown said...

My bf thinks some of the stuff is silly since it makes so little impact compared to the stuff industry could be doing. BF did research on biofuel for his masters and drives a hybrid and is in to renewable energy, so we are on the same page about most environmental stuff.

We don't argue about it though even when we don't always see eye to eye- a few paper towels used won't kill anyone, nor will leaving the computers plugged in (and I am not perfect about unplugging mine either). I am vegetarian, he eats meat. We are both addicted to coffee and some other non local foods.

mudnessa said...

1. We only have 1 car and only i have a license so we do all the shopping together for the most part. I might run out for a single purchase of something here or there but that's just because it got forgotten. He definitely isn't up for lessening his meat consumption.

2. We live in an apartment so no real yard care to do, we do have a container garden but that is all mine, I'm pretty sure if we did have a yard he would be up for natural/organic things.

3. The container gardening has mostly herbs although I am growing peppers right now and like I said that is all my job and idea. Mostly because our patio is TINY and with the pots and things it's even tighter and he wouldn't really fit out there.

4. He refuses to use recycled content tp, I have switched to cloth for #1. We have a shower head with a shut off valve that lowers the flow not actually shuts it off but he doesn't use that function. I have recently gotten him to start collecting warm up water for garden use.

5. Our apartment complex is right behind his work so he walks to and from work most days, although there is a large irrigation ditch between the two so he has to walk all the way around the block and we live at the top end of the complex and his work is at the back. As I said we do only have one car and only one driver, don't see the point in insurance for two when we only have 1 car and he can walk to and from work.

6. Food composting he refuses to help with, he will put scraps in kitchen container but refuses to take it out. I have worn him down on recycling to the point he brings things home from work now too.

7. He is all about turning things off mostly for the savings in the bills.

8. He has gone no poo and is pretty happy with it but that more came about because we didn't have money when he used all his shampoo so he tried my no poo routine. Most other things he is not up for.

9. He is pretty much on board for it all and agrees with the good that it does but he still tells me I have gone off the deep end with a lot of it. It is actually one thing we have never really fought about and we fight about a lot of stuff.

Kristijoy said...

1. Yes we are both health nut crunchy granola hippie foodies.

2. Is he interested in sustainable yard care - using an electric or push mower, no pesticides/fertilizers, or do you do it all? I do most of the yard work but yes.

3. Right now we are ion the process of leaving our current rental so *gasp( I had to turn all the vegie beds back into lawn via landlords instructions=P but yes, he does when we could grow our food and will when we can again.

4. Yes, green hammer to the rescue. and he is handier than i am which is handy.
5. We're bikeaholics. we are also car free.
6. Yes. both of us are pretty nutty about recycling. and he is willing to do hazardous waste stuff. yay.
7. The man is a polar bear I swear, I can't stand the cold he can stand, but then he can't stand the heat I can so we're even but we use little heat and no AC so it's all good. He is a bit of a water hog though.

8. most if not all the things I do he does or more, nither of us are cloth wipers so. I don't think he'd go for it, maybe a low flow bidet. All for humanure someday when we have our own place.

9. I initially dated this man because he was MORE hardcore than me. Good choice I think. someday we may be raising our 2 or less wee bairns in our cob house on some acreage off grid somewhere who knows. One can dream.=)

knutty knitter said...

1. Can cook but prefers to help me - joint effort mostly. We both buy local, eat some meat (local) and whatever organic isn't too expensive.

2. Yard care??? Nope. A quick cut of the grass is about it. Our grass is mostly shortish weeds :)

3. Only if it is heavy - I have damaged wrists (permanent unfortunately).

4. Definitely - I start stuff but he is always along for the ride.

5. When necessary. Works from home so not much of an issue at present.

6. yes.

7. If I remind him. Does look after the hens (hens = food recycling)

8. Cloth wipes for #1. Baking soda for hair. All natural deodorant. etc

9. He gets it :)

Unknown said...

1. Yes to both. I do the main bulk of both, but he sometimes goes on a cooking streak and will purchase ingredients and cook them. We are vegetarian mostly, so no meat.
2. We have a 12 by 8 yard (boo!) so no mowing. He'd have a tractor mower if it were at all humanly possible, but would never use pesticides - we share care of the hankerchief lawn.
3. Yes
4. Yes, but I'm the instigator
5. No, he works in another state, must drive. Rides bike sometimes.
6. Yes
7. Yeah, but sometimes it feels more like a budget thing than an earth thing.
8. NO!
9. I think he is mostly on board, but refuses to say so. We both grew up in very hippie communities, and neither of us wants to be perceived that way. The difference is that I don't view being sustainable etc. as being "hippiesh" anymore, and he still thinks everyone else does and will think he is an unwashed tree-hugger.

Billie said...

1. My husband does almost no cooking and no grocery shopping. He would be willing to grocery shop but I can do it faster without him and the kids. He doesn't care what I buy as long as he has food to make (most of his cooking is done by his ex so I have little influence). He doesn't care about local, sustainable, less meat or anything else.

2. We don't have a yard but the small garden on our balcony is mine. He will water it if he feels I am neglecting it.


4. He hasn't complained about the recycled products but takes no initiative and doesn't care.

5. He makes enough money to buy a car so why would he inconvenience himself with walking or public transportation? His words - not mine.

6. He doesn't care about reducing waste nor recycling. The most he will do for me is put the recyclables in the sink. Seriously, he can't even open the door under the sink and put it in the container.

7. He will turn off lights for the savings. We keep the temperature low in the winter but he likes it cold so not really taking one for the environment.

8. Fringe stuff? Ummm... NO

9. We don't fight over this because I don't try to implement anything that requires him to do something differently. It is clear that he has no interest so I don't even try.

kidk4m said...

1. Yes-we eat local organic as much as we can. Poultry about once/week.

2. This year we purchased a battery powered electric mower-which does the majority of the yard (2hrs worth). Dog pen still needs self-propelled gas mower because of the steepness-but that only takes about 30min to mow. He built me 12 4'x8'cedar raised bed boxes so that I could have a garden..and to reduce the size of the lawn. Every time I suggest that we increase the size of the wildflower gardens-he's all for it.

3. yes-see #2.

4. Yes-considering that we invested "mega bucks" into solar panels and a solar hot water pre-heat system-I'd say he's totally on board with energy efficiency. When we built our home we also built it to the energy efficiency specs that were available at the time.

5.When I was employed, I biked to work year round. He worked at the same place-and would always drive.
He will however bike to the store after work to pick up items.

6. yes

7. definitely yes

8. not really-because I've never
suggested it..because I'm not "there" yet.

9. He's on board because he believes it's the right thing to do.

It's great having a hubby who is a participant in this area. Currently I do most of the gardening/yard work because I'm the one at home now-but when I was working-he did most of the yard work and I did most of the gardening.

Eco Yogini said...

1. yep :) often he does the grocery shopping and I'll come home to find chicken with no antibiotics. we usually do the markets and locally sourced stuff together, I do produce, he does the meats.
2. we don't have a yard... but we often talk about how disgusting pesticides are, how wasteful grass lawns are. I know that we'll have a garden and sustainable landscape when we have our own house- and I won,T have to push for it.
3. oh my goodness, if it weren't for him we wouldn't have an urban garden. He waters them most of the time (with nitrate rich fish water!). he's the one who encouraged me to go out and get the supplies with him!
4. yup- unplugs the toaster/microwave, moved the TV to storage, installed CFL's.
5. He doesn't own a car, buses and walks to work. he also gave me one of his bikes and bugged me for WEEKS to buy a helmet.
6. we compost and recycle (it's the law here in Nova Scotia). we trade off on who takes out the compost. He'll even keep recycling with him until he gets home (like plastic coffee cups).
7. yep- does all that.
8. oh.... well the cloth wipes and no poo shampoo i know for a fact weirds him out (I'm not ready for that either!). I have suggested that his fish tanks create a lot of energy drain... to get a dirty look hah. BUT we were talking about aquaponics and growing our own fish someday (to eat). so yes and no. depends.
9. we actually have never fought (weird I know). he is completely on board and believes in being as eco-friendly as possible as much as I do. :)

Farmer's Daughter said...

1. In terms of food, my husband is more into the meat aspect while I'm into the garden. He raises pigs and turkeys, finds out about buying half a cow, etc.

2. He uses a gas mower, but has started mowing higher to keep the moisture in. He also leaves clover so it will add nitrogen back to the soil and we won't have to fertilize.

3. He helps majorly in the garden. He built the fence, brings home manure, rotatils, weeds, etc. I plant and pick. He also did most of the work planting our apple trees and raspberries, but don't tell him I admitted that.

4. Since we built our house and made choices as we went along that reflected our values, there's not a lot of "improvement" to be done right now, but since we built it ourselves, I'll say yes. He also put in a wood chute so we don't have to carry firewood and stack it in the basement.

5. These are not available in our area. He is a homebody, so he doesn't go anywhere but work pretty much.

6. He loves to recycle and compost, after some prodding from me.

7. Due to our financial situation, YES!

8. I think I'm the one holding us back there.

9. We were both raised similarly so we have similar values and thoughts. He looks at it more as a "back to the land" thing and I look at it more as a conservation thing.

CoCargoRider said...

Man here
1. Does your guy help with cooking/food purchase choices? Is he on board for buying local, sustainable, organic or less meat? - We are equal in this
2. Is he interested in sustainable yard care - using an electric or push mower, no pesticides/fertilizers, or do you do it all? - I started the expansion of our garden to take over the entire yard minus paths
3. Does he help if you grow some of your food at home? Yep
4. Does he help with adaptations to your home to make it more energy efficient or environmentally friendly (low flow showerhead, use recycled paper products)? - To an obsessive point
5. Is he willing to take public transportation, walk/bike, telecommute or otherwise reduce his mileage? - 5000 miles a year riding and pushed to go to 1 car
6. Does he help with recycling, food composting and generally reducing waste? Again to an obsessive point
7. Is he willing to turn off the lights when not in use, turn off the water when shaving or brushing teeth, keep the heat low and other conservation techniques? Obsessive
8. Is he game for more "fringe" things like no poo, cloth wipes and the like? - Yep
9. Do you fight with him over these things or is he on board? If so, is he on board just to appease you or because he believes it's the right thing to do? Nope, other than some of the extreme things I want to do like move to an old Amish farm.

CoCargoRider said...

The other funny thing is I am not many if any men post up here so come on green many types :) post up and get in touch with your crunchy side.

Q said...

1. I do most of the shopping because the kitchen is mostly mine, once and a while he gets energetic and make me dinner which entails him buying the stuff to make it.


2. We don't have a yard, but we've talked about if we had one how we would rather have a garden.


3. He wants to. We are thinking about starting a square foot garden on our deck.


4. I'd like to think he would if we had the money to make changes.


5. He can't drive and I'm the only one with a car. I used to pick him up from work before we moved sometimes.


6. Yes.


7. He's better and keeping the lights turned off than I am.


8. Yes. He's trying washing his hair with baking soda now actually.


9. He's all for helping in any way that he can. Which is great!

Karine said...

1. He does most of the purchase and tries to follow my wishes of local and/or organic. We eat more meat in the summer because of the bbq.
2. He uses a push mower, no pesticide. We are not that much into yard care anyway.
3. I am the one in charge of the garden. 4. He doesn't make a fuss.
5. We decided not to own a car. Even now with the baby.
6. Yes, he recycles and composts.
7. I sometimes have to go after him to shut down things, but he is mostly willing and good at saving energy.
8. Not yet, but I only do the cloth wipes for number 1.
9. His biggest problem with "these things" is that I always take ages to take a decision, which annoys him. Sometimes he will just take the best bet and that's it instead of thinking about it and trying to find THE best solution/product... That's why he is the one doing the grocery now ;)

Tara said...

I can answer "yes" to everything - although my husband's idea of "sustainable yard care" is not doing any. ;-)

He's game for all of it, of his own free will, and we are a pretty unified front on these things. No strife here.

Elisabeth said...

1. Help with cooking/food purchase choices? Yes, he helps but I manage. Is he on board for buying local, sustainable, organic or less meat? Yes, yes, mostly, only just recently.

2. Interested in sustainable yard care - using an electric or push mower: We don't have a yard, but if we did, then yes
No pesticides/fertilizers: No way!
Or do you do it all?: I typically take care of the plants/flowers at home and he does most of the work at our community garden

3. Does he help if you grow some of your food at home? Oh yes

4. Adaptations to your home to make it more energy efficient or environmentally friendly? Not really

5. Is he willing to reduce his mileage? Currently, we share a car. He's better at this than I am. Public transportation in our city is a joke (I tried it in college). He's gone through biking to work phases. He would telecommute in a heartbeat if he could (in his dreams!).

6. Does he help with recycling, food composting and generally reducing waste? We are terrible at recycling; I've been wanting to start a worm bin and he's excited

7. Is he willing to turn off the lights when not in use, turn off the water when shaving or brushing teeth:
Yes, yes (Doesn't everyone do this? I can't still hear my parents scolding me about these things!)
Keep the heat low and other conservation techniques?:
He likes to be cold, so yes to low heat, no to low ac (it's been 107)

8. Is he game for more "fringe" things like no poo, cloth wipes and the like? No poo, maybe. Cloth wipes, he thinks you're crazy (He introduced me to your blog with these two things, saying "she's weird like you!")

9. Fight? No, I don't think we've fought over anything but the ac/fans. Generally, he's on board for the right reasons. We both have our pet issues, though. His is ag and mine is health. Some of the health stuff is done just to appease me.

The biggest cause of marital strife for us is always financial. One of us wants to pinch pennies and the other doesn't.

Sam said...

Mr. Beany's attitude it that he doesn't want to be hassled or nagged. So he does everything and more 'cause he hates being nagged.
1. Does your guy help with cooking/food purchase choices? Is he on board for buying local, sustainable, organic or less meat? - He has been cooking nearly all meals since we decided for him to be the stay at home spouse. He makes menu plans, and comes up with really neat ways of using up veggies. We go shopping to the market and the coop together. He is 100% on board.

2. Is he interested in sustainable yard care - using an electric or push mower, no pesticides/fertilizers, or do you do it all? - No yard. But he has voluntarily decided to volunteer at an urban farm and loves it more than surfing which was shocking for me to learn. He takes primary care of our worm bin.

3. Does he help if you grow some of your food at home? - I told him to stay out of my pots, but he has grown stuff in the past - potatoes, and attempted to grow a pineapple in Philadelphia.

4. Does he help with adaptations to your home to make it more energy efficient or environmentally friendly (low flow showerhead, use recycled paper products)? - He isn't too excited about using cloth napkins over paper towels (especially for cleaning grease off of our bicycles as the cloth is hard to clean), but he goes along with it.

5. Is he willing to take public transportation, walk/bike, telecommute or otherwise reduce his mileage? - He got rid of his car way before I met him and has used his bicycle as his sole method of transportation for well over a decade.

6. Does he help with recycling, food composting and generally reducing waste? - We're not big on recycling because of the problem with lack of demand for many recycled things downstream. But we focus more on reducing waste. And he is 100% on board with that.

7. Is he willing to turn off the lights when not in use, turn off the water when shaving or brushing teeth, keep the heat low and other conservation techniques? - We both are terrible with leaving lights on all the time. But yes to everything else - he is willing and able.

8. Is he game for more "fringe" things like no poo, cloth wipes and the like? - He is bald, so never did use poo, but he uses my shampoo for his beard as I like the smell. He is game for cloth wipes - we just haven't transitioned into it. Although we practiced leave no trace when camping while on our cross country bike trip.

9. Do you fight with him over these things or is he on board? If so, is he on board just to appease you or because he believes it's the right thing to do? - No fighting. He is surprisingly easy to live with and convince him to do these things. He thinks it is logical so I don't think I really did get static from him on anything.

Anonymous said...

We're making progress: He does most of the shopping and cooking and we use almost no pre-packaged foods; he has reduced the amount of meat he cooks; he bought me a great little stainless steel kitchen compost container and uses it too, though it's my job to empty it into the big composter in the yard; he likes the organic veggies I bring home from the CSA - though everything to do with it is my job; he's on board with recycling, except for breaking down cardboard boxes; he's really good about turning lights off and not running water when he shaves or brushes teeth; he doesn't turn the heat on during day even when he's home and it gets cold; he does all the laundry in cold water, but isn't big on hanging things to dry; he won't buy free trade coffee because it's more expensive; when we had just one car he walked to the store - but now he's working again and doesn't have the time; he mostly uses rags instead of paper towels; he usually uses a market bag when he goes shopping.

Rosa said...

My partner caused way less carbon output than me to start with - he doesn't like to travel and he bikes year-round and didn't own a car when we got together.

On the other hand, he's really cheap - whenever the green option is more expensive, he tries to choose the cheap one instead.

He isn't onboard with grassfed meat and likes to use plastic bags at the grocery store. Our deal is, whoever does the shopping, gets to choose what we're getting. I do 75% of the shopping.

I do all the laundry so that's moot - he did the work of putting up my indoor laundry lines, though, which is sweet. He manfully wrestles the reel mower every week, but he is talking about trading it in for an electric (but that's spendy so he probably won't do it.)

We're remodeling and he gripes about the cost of low-VOC paint, natural linoleum, etc - but the other eco thing we're doing is salvaging most of what's already there, which is way cheap, so that makes him happy.

My no-flying vow is inconvenient for planning vacations and he doesn't grumble much about that -a sharp contrast to everyone else it affects.

Rosa said...

Oh! I should have followed the numbers, i forgot about electricity.

My boy thought the turning off lights/computers thing was stupid...til we got a KilAWatt (He got it for me, for my birthday.) Being able to see actual numbers has a lot of sway with him.

Correne said...

In general, my hubby is on board and fully supportive of everything that doesn't affect him.

I do all the cooking, so as long as food appears on a regular basis, he doesn't care much where it came from.

I do 90% of yard work and gardening, so I decided to purchase a push-reel mower rather than gas. He thinks it's slightly lame, but doesn't really care.

He is proud of the things I'm doing and offers plenty of moral support, but he personally has no interest in driving his new sports car less, eating less meat, drinking less coffee or using the computers less.

For a lot of changes, the proper word is probably "tolerant" - like when I stopped buying conditioner, switched to bars of natural soap, stopped flushing toilets, and insisted on fair-trade coffee as a BARE minimum.

Anonymous said...

This is a very interesting topic, indeed! I think my boy is greener than me in certain regards (he clings onto the same clothes for as long as 15 years, and I once found a lip balm from '92 in his drawer; he'll always try to repair something before getting a new thing; and he's way better about turning lights off), but for the most part, I have to convince him or even force him to be green.

I've gotten him a bike, which he rides a lot more now and really enjoys; he's sort of into the gardening thing but also doesn't trust the food we grow ourselves for some reason (?); and he's plain frightened when it comes to grocery shopping because he'll see organic tomatoes in a plastic box next to regular tomatoes without any packaging and will panic at which ones to buy. He also thinks I place far too many restrictions on food (there are a lot of fish I won't eat due to mercury/endangered species issues; I'm not a big meat eater; don't like olives or eggplant or mushrooms or green peppers; etc.). And product-wise, he will agree to eco-friendly face wash and soap and moisturizer, but hates the Dr. Bronner's shaving soap I got him and refuses to give up his Head & Shoulders shampoo (I tell him he doesn't have dandruff and he says, "EXACTLY!"). Oy.

It's good, though -- I'd rather have someone I can debate and compromise with than a boy who's as green as me; keeps me sane.

Anonymous said...

1. My husband helps with the cooking, but I do most of the shopping. He's neutral when it comes to buying organic and avoiding meat, but he does seem to like buying local. He likes supporting the local economy and fresher food tastes better.

2. My husband mows the lawn, and we have an electric mower. Beyond that he's not really interested.

3. He will help with watering and weeding, especially if I can't. Last summer I had a baby and he took care of the garden for me.

4. He does help to make our home more energy efficient - this is the sort of thing he's most interested in.

5. He won't take the bus or ride a bike, but he does telecommute if he has the chance. And when he was renting office space he specifically chose it to reduce his commute.

6. Yes.

7. Yes.

8. No way.

9. We occasionally bicker about certain things, like what kind of bottle our ketchup comes in. Or if we buy ketchup. In the end we find compromises we both live with. I would say he does a lot of what he does to make me happy.

Laura said...

1. yup, he is great about this.
2. We have a push mower and both of us are lazy about using it. I am usually the one that ends up mowing with the landlords gas mower after the grass (read: weeds) has reached past knee height. :D
3. Totally. This is mostly my task but he loves planting things and helping a bit to tend them.
4. We rent so this is mostly on the landlords but, yes, he is on board.
5. We are both bus riders almost exclusively. He was my bus mentor when we first started dating. One of his nicknames is Bus Geek.
6. He is a stickler about this. Much more careful than I am.
7. Totally willing.
8. He is up for trying most anything. He is still using cloth wipes while I have fallen off the bandwagon.
9. He totally believes it is the right thing to do. :)

Robj98168 said...

Thank you for assuming everyone who reads you is straight. Now I will attempt to answer using my ISO (InSignificant Other) as my Guinea Pig.
1. Does your guy help with cooking/food purchase choices? Is he on board for buying local, sustainable, organic or less meat?No way.
2. Is he interested in sustainable yard care - using an electric or push mower, no pesticides/fertilizers, or do you do it all? I do it all
3. Does he help if you grow some of your food at home?RU Kidding?
4. Does he help with adaptations to your home to make it more energy efficient or environmentally friendly (low flow showerhead, use recycled paper products)?Read the answer to #4
5. Is he willing to take public transportation, walk/bike, telecommute or otherwise reduce his mileage? Oh hell No.
6. Does he help with recycling, food composting and generally reducing waste? Recycling Yes composting No.
7. Is he willing to turn off the lights when not in use, turn off the water when shaving or brushing teeth, keep the heat low and other conservation techniques? Yes
8. Is he game for more "fringe" things like no poo, cloth wipes and the like? To woute Martin Hell No
9. Do you fight with him over these things or is he on board? If so, is he on board just to appease you or because he believes it's the right thing to do? Nope don't fight it. Rather not have ulcers.

Aimee said...

1. When my husband buys food he buys rotisserie chicken and sugar pops.
2. my husband is responsible for repairing the mower, which means we havent mowed the lawn since April.
3. He rototilled a fifty-by-fifty foot garden patch this year, which I said was rediculously gigantic and which he said he was going to maintain. We have a fifty-by-fifty foot weed garden. Some of the weeds are edible.
4. He is trying to brew biodiesel. So far he has gotten a free water heater of Craigslist and spent $400 at Home Depot. We'll see.
5. Not feasible where we live.
6. No. He refuses to learn what is recyclable and what isn't, even though I have posted a list on the fridge.
7. yes.
8. no poo? How do you go "no poo?" No food?
9. He is a lot like me, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Unknown said...

1. Help? Yes On board? Somewhat

2. not applicable

3. not applicable

4. Yes

5. Yes

6. Recycling- yes, reducing waste - no

7. Yes

8. Haven't done much fringe stuff yet.

9. Depends on the item. He generally thinks things are good ideas, but doesn't want to put forth the effort to make anything he perceives as a "big" change to his habits.

Robj98168 said...

Aimee- whats wrong with Sugar pops?
LOL the word verification for this is "MEATI"

Anonymous said...

It's the other way round in this house CC, I (male) am the environmentalist here.

1. Yes and I put non local or non country stuff back on the shelves or, when I am shopping, don't buy them.

2. Totally green here.

3. I grow the food

4,5,6,7,8, I do the lot

9. My behaviour is now being accepted, but the fact that I have actually been proved to be correct over all the years re my environmental concerns is still a source of wonder and amazement... Me right in something... well, it had to happen some time!

PS. And I am still going to be anonymous.

Wendy said...

The more radical changes I've tried to implement have been met with a great deal of resistance by my husband. When we replaced our septic system in 2004, I wanted a composting toilet and grey-water system (because they were cheaper than a septic system, and because they used less, overall, energy to operate). He wouldn't even entertain my thoughts on the matter. When I suggested cloth toilet wipes as opposed to paper ... uh, yeah ... it wasn't pretty.

Smaller changes, like localizing our diet (which is now 75% local and 10% of which is home-grown on our quarter acre :), were met with resistance initially, but he came around - mostly. He doesn't want to reduce his meat consumption, but I do all of the cooking, and so he has little choice, but he will complain about a meatless meal.

As for the other things, we've been using an electric mower or push mower, recycling, composting, and trying to make our house more efficient for almost as many years as we've owned our house - more than a decade.

As long as I don't go overboard with the changes I want to make, he's okay with the things I want to do, but it's when I get totally radical, that he balks.

Lisa said...

Great topic!

1. Does your guy help with cooking/food purchase choices? Is he on board for buying local, sustainable, organic or less meat?
He and I shop together but I do all the cooking other than grilling and holidays he helps.

He is all for organic food, local (when we can get it) but he is not good about less meat. He loves his meat. He does a good job of picking more sustainable meat though.

2. Is he interested in sustainable yard care - using an electric or push mower, no pesticides/fertilizers, or do you do it all?
He bought an electric lawn mower and all his other lawn stuff is battery powered. He also uses all natural and organic bug sprays and grass sprays.

3. Does he help if you grow some of your food at home?
He built my raised bed for me. :)

4. Does he help with adaptations to your home to make it more energy efficient or environmentally friendly (low flow showerhead, use recycled paper products)?
He put in our low flow showerhead, has just made the 100% switch to recycled tp, is always working to make the house more energy efficient. :)

5. Is he willing to take public transportation, walk/bike, telecommute or otherwise reduce his mileage?
Doesn't really apply in this town

6. Does he help with recycling, food composting and generally reducing waste?
He recycles and will set out stuff for the compost

7. Is he willing to turn off the lights when not in use, turn off the water when shaving or brushing teeth, keep the heat low and other conservation techniques?
He leaves the lights off most of the day even some at night. He has gotten much better about leaving water running. He is great at keeping the heat low, he likes being cold lol. He has even worked on running the a/c less, that has been harder for him because he is always hot and hates being hot.

8. Is he game for more "fringe" things like no poo, cloth wipes and the like?
He would be more than happy to pee in the garden but I don't think I could ever get him to do cloth wipes or no poo. He will do some crazy things though.

9. Do you fight with him over these things or is he on board? If so, is he on board just to appease you or because he believes it's the right thing to do?
We don't fight. He is fine with me doing whatever I want and he joins in if he wants to and is willing.

So far he has been on board with everything. :)

Samantha said...

1. he helps with cooking/purchasing. we haven't completely switched to organic/local, etc. but we try
2. we don't have a yard b/c we live on a boat
3. i have a knack for killing plants but he can grow anything. when we lived on land, he designed aeroponic systems for growing veggies, etc without wasting water
4. we live off solar and he's the one who built our system
5. absolutely, and when he does drive, he drives a motorcycle
6. sure
7. we always turn everything off when not in use since we live on solar alone
8. i think the object in sailing is to use reusable everything because you can't replenish disposables when your out to sea, so i'll say yes.
9. life's too short to fight. ;)

House Sparrows Academy said...

I think I'm darn lucky. My husband and I agree with all of our efforts at footprint reduction and we have a balance of power in who takes care of what. For example:

1. I do most of the cooking and food purchasing but he'll bike 30 miles round trip to pick up our CSA from the farm. He also nudged us into a vegetarian diet.

2. He is all for zero lawn maintenance. We're slowly getting rid of the yard and we never water. It's a team effort.

3. I'm mostly responsible for the garden but we talk about what we're going to plant and he's more than willing to pull weeds and water.

4.He is very handy and anything to promote energy efficiency is on the top of his list. He replaced all of our windows with low-e ones himself, put all of our electronics on power strips, and will always go for recycled products. He also tries to use reclaimed materials in any building project.

5. We heart our bikes.

6. Yes. But I generally manage the compost.

7.Yes.

8. He's more than game for fringe. We already recycle all of our greywater (it involves lots of buckets), are into cloth wipes and would love to have a composting toilet.

9.He believes it's the right thing to do, one of the many reasons why I married him!

mama said...

my partner is on board----ish. he goes along with my choices for food, except won't comprimise on Smartfood, frozen pizzas and chocolate (all wrapped in plastic, all non-organic, and no, we can't try make it from home popcorn or organic homemade pizzas....)

he doesn't drive and is willing to take transit, bike, walk etc, but would like a car, cause it's "easier".

He is not into conservation methods, as of yet, though he is into creating alternative energy out of urine, for example, and revamping our house in all sorts of wind power/solar power, rainwater catchment etc.

as far as the "fringe" goes, we don't use TP (we have a small, handheld cold water bidet which we both love), he's willing to turn our fridge off for a month (but not the chest freezer with his pizzas...) and see if we want to go longer, and he doesn't really use shampoo.

All-in-all he's very... hit-or-miss. Some things he totally gets and he's right on board with, some things there's no comprimise and some things I just wear him down enough that he does it.
It doesn't affect our relationship negatively. sometimes we get into arguements about semi-trivial things: "why must you keep the water running during teeth brushing?" "the way it's sounds is important to my happiness..." but for the most part he's pretty agreeable to changing.
Interesting to hear all the other responses too.
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

1. My guy doesn't cook (except to call for pizza) so ... yes, he's on board - if he knows what I'd buy. Otherwise he'll default to store displays and random choice.

2. Yes. (I've convinced him it is "lazy landscaping" and he's all for it.) He's digging the asparagus bed next weekend.

3. Where did his farmer genes come from? Total surprise. Absolutely yes. And into it. And helps with preserving too. (I'm all wtf?? but grateful and pleased.)

4. Yes.


5. Yes.

6. I've made this easy for him so its not anything he's aware of/does habitually.

7. Lights - in theory, yes. In practice, not so much. A/C and/or heat: not so much.

However, if he sees me putting on socks because the AC is too low, he immediately ups it.

8. Yes.

9. He believes it is the right thing to do - he just isn't going out of his way to figure it out - if it is day to day living stuff. If I point it out and make it easy (give clear directions), he's great.

Larger items (car purchase !, solar panels, flooring etc) he's willing to research and figure out and do all the work

gina said...

1. My guy prefers the meat from the animals my dad raises on the farm in PA. He chooses organic as second choice. I am vegetarian and he can cook a mean veg empanada.
2. I don't think we've thought of it much. We have a small yard and I garden in part of it. When we get a farm for my horses it will be a whole 'nother story. I would consider picking up a manual mower and I mow the lawn a lot. Not sure how the roommates would feel though. We do not do any pesticides on the lawn or garden.
3. I wish he helped more with the garden- particularly in the spring during "set-up". However, the growing is my thing.
4. Yeah, he often chooses environmentally friendly products, but he and my roommate are toilet paper snobs.
5. He does better with this then me. I grew up in the country where if you didn't have a car you didn't get off your own property. He grew up in the bronx and is very familiar with public transportation. Now that his car is dead he is biking around until he can afford another one, which will have to get him to school and back.
6. He recycles, but he doesn't go out of his way to do so.
7. Yep good in this area. Except when it comes to his computer.
8. He would probably just go along with it unless he found it really offensive after trying it.
9. He is on board for the most part and he is learning about how important it is to take care of ourselves and mother earth. He downloads a lot of documentaries for us to watch and often makes changes that are eco-friendly.

Marissa said...

My boyfriend and I do not live together, and if we did I am sure that our styles would eba little more in line.

He does compost his food scraps at his place, he is a vegetarian, and prefers not to use paper towels. I am in fact a pescetarian (though 99% of the time I am veg as well). I do use paper towels for some things, but I recycle and then compost them.

I bought him dr. bronner's for his birthday but won't use it in the shower, only as hand soap. I just found that his beloved shampoo and body soap tests on animals, so there is a good chance I can get him to something *more green* but he won't go no-poo. I haven't gone completely no-poo myself, but I do use A combo of the Morocco Method, apple cider vinegar, and Alaffia products.

He has taken to my "only pastured or backyard" egg routine as he doesn't support the torture of animals.

Ultimately he does not go out of his way for green though. He always takes in re0usable bags, but he buys a lot of packaged foods as he isn't one to cook for himself.

He does at least think about the impact when it is actually brought to his attention, but he doesn't search out the information for himself.