Jay's Slice of the Blogosphere

Who am I kidding? This has already turned out to be harder than I had thought. Sure, living green for four weeks after spending sometime with the CEO of TS Designs of Burlington seemed like the natural thing to do. They were inspirational, and very smart, but actually trying to make the jump to "green" really does take baby steps.

The challenge became apparant as I was contemplating going "cold turkey" driving my gas guzzling internal combustion engine car while drinking coffee from a Styrofoam cup in the cool comfort of a CFC air conditioner. First, comes the guilt. TS Designs’ CEO Tom Sineath drives a biodiesel VW Jetta. I drive a 4 cylinder 2000 model Honda Accord. OK, not too bad right? But I also own a 1998 Ford Expedition SUV that my wife uses to get to and from work and haul the kids and their gear. The MPG on SUV vehicle is just about what you’d expect. It’s on par for a full-sized SUV with a Triton V-8 engine. Not so good. I’m planning to profile my family carbon footprint this weekend. I’m hoping that might take the edge from the guilt, but I have my doubts. I mean, I have teenagers at home who think the light switch is a fungal growth on the wall and are terrified to touch it. The coal fired power plant down the way is happily chugging out the megawatts for them, and those carbon atoms keep adding up.

Was there a bad omen regarding my green conversion? Consider the WFMY breakroom coffee machine. Normally, we keep a pot of coffee brewing in the studio for the Good Morning Show, but there are times when we have to use the ol' "auto-brew". Push a button, and a Styrofoam cup will drop into a slot to be filled with coffee. If you use your own coffee cup, the machine is supposed to notice this, and just fill your cup. Being of green mind, and wanting to avoid dumping more petrochemical-based trash in the landfill, I put my ceramic mug into the slot.