Me? An Environmentalist?

Sometimes people ask me how I became
the way that I did with regards to the environment. It is a good
question because I have been this way for a very long time. I was
“into” the environment long before it became the hip thing to do. Long
before Al Gore documentaries, Earth Hour and green blogs. Back when
cloth diapering was cool (before it became uncool then cool again) and
we didn’t know the dangers of plastics and GMO’s.

What I mean is that I have
always been an environmentalist. As a child it was just part of my
upbringing. As an adult I chose to make it a bigger part of my
life…my career…my passion.

My parents are probably the
biggest factor that made me who I am today. As kids we spent a lot of
time outdoors. We spent practically the whole summer camping somewhere
up north. When we weren’t camping we were hiking or learning about
nature through Girl Guides. My
dad made his own solar panels and put them on our roof over 25 years
ago to heat the pool (correct me if my timing is wrong Mom). I don’t
think he did it for environmental reasons but because it just made
sense when you consider the economics of trying to heat a pool vs your
3 children screaming because the water is too cold.  But regardless
they had a positive environmental impact!

We were never very wasteful. My
mom made a lot of our clothes and if we got a rip in our jeans she
would sew the coolest patch over it. We went to the library instead of
buying books new, painted yellow fishes beside storm drains all over town, picked up garbage, planted trees.

When I was in highschool I took
several envrironmental classes and fell in love with being in the
“field”. I always loved classes with a lab component but being out
there in nature and running tests was a whole other level of awesome.
When I got into an environmental program at University I was thrilled.
I spent the next 4 years of my life surrounded by like minded people
who wanted to make the world a better place. It was a combination of my
junior thesis, senior thesis and a Green Business class that led me
down the path towards my career. I could have gone into government,
ENGO’s, consulting but nope I decided that for me the best way to make
change was within industry. And 10 years later here I am still doing
what I love and still trying to make change from within industry
instead of fighting against it.

What makes you an environmentalist? Have you always been this way or did something cause you to change your lifestyle?

Go Green