Sustainable Living

Previously posted Sociology of Sheena

During the past year I have been taking classes through the Chicago Center for Green Technology for a track in Green Business. A little while ago I finally received it...my certificate in Green Business. I tell you..honestly...I was more proud of that than my bachelors from Wheaton College. Perhaps a Masters in Theater History and Criticism from Catholic University will be the only way to match that excitement.

I just love learning new things. Things I had absolutely no idea about and all of a sudden, its ingrained in me with a thirst for even more.

At my job it started with my team lead requesting a switch from plastic disposable cups to "corn" cups. From there started a project so big that I have 5+ binders, a blog (through work), a gazillion articles, way too many feeds on google reader and a thirst for MORE. Seriously, this is one of my favorite projects at work. Associates are now telling friends that their job "does green things," "has a sustainable program," "does things for the enviroment,"......ARE YOU SERIOUS. It started with me googling a "corn cup." Aaaahhh! I love my job.

In college I had granola friends. They were sociology majors, lived in thrift store, rinsed out their sandwich bags, were vegans or vegetarians and grew up on farms....there were other things too....but many of my friends were granola's because my other field of study was sociology. Therefore, I was fairly familiar with this type of lifestyle. One in which we try to live in harmony with the earth, live in simplistic, sustainable ways and grow our own basil.

(I actually do grow many of my own herbs on the windowsill of my city apartment. Basil. Spearmint. Cilantro. Lavendar. and a few others)
As the years have progressed since leaving Wheaton..."green" became even more prominant in the world as well as climate change/global warming, sustainablity,....the list goes on!

Even in my manifesto written in February of 2007, I wrote

4. I will live in harmony with the earth.

Sustainability. Renewable resources. Fair Trade. Eco-Friendly lifestyle. I will attempt to have a granola way of life.


A "granola" search on my old blog will show some of my tendencies or observations. There was even a Mr. Granola.

Point is...through work, my own convicitons, research, the Chicago Center for Green Technology and my granola friends.... I have become an advocate for this. It is my lifestyle now. Even in my apartment...I shop are Farmer's Markets, I buy organic or natural products, I practic yoga, i buy used books...seriously the list is exhaustive of the ways you can live natural, organic, sustainable and green...even if you don't recycle.

But what I have to add to that is the professional language and research to do a bit more than buy Seventh Generation's natural dish soap. Now I'm being asked to speak before conferences, vendors are asking for my research binders, and my green blog at work is one of the most fun things to spend time on! Its crazy.

Taken during my trip to Hudson, WI with SJ