Are You ECO-friendly?

What it takes to be an eco-friendly? How much does it cost?

An open ended questions which many can answer with 100 pages books.
My approach to those is if the end product is eco-friendly than you are. For example, if one build a house from natural and recyclable materials, which has 0-carbon foot print (no direct or indirect emission of CO2), it is self-sustainable, collects and recycles water, uses minimal amount of energy from own renewable sources and cost you nothing to run, than I call this product eco-friendly.

Lets draw a line between process of building and all activities involved in such process and the end product to give the starting point for discussion of what is and what is not an eco-friendly. I heard people saying that ‘there is no such thing as an eco-friendly house because the manufacturing of most its parts of it is not ecological, the transport of those cause pollution and erecting a building leaves a lots of non-recyclable waste’.

I can agree with what those people saying partly. This is because most manufacturing processes becomes more eco-friendly and there is much less waste; the materials becomes better and more business are aware of eco issues. Of course, there still is a humongous amount of CO2 emission on the way to the end product, at least some of its parts.

But, drawing such line can establish a benchmark and new ways of seeing our living environment. The process which today produces CO2 tomorrow can be free of it.

The 3% rule implemented by John Bird is my favorite. It is another expression for taking small steps, devising big projects into small and manageable tasks. This is how I see the eco-friendliness can become a reality – by the end product being 3% milestone towards global change.

For the cost, I think you should answer this your self and think of what has the real value to you in life.

What do you think?