10 Ways to Get Involved and Inspire Change
This section is taken directly from the book Easy Green Cleaning but includes some helpful links to make it easier to get involved and inspire change!
#1 Spread the Message!
The first and most important thing you can do, besides taking action on these items in the book, is to spread the message!
Encourage others to read this book and look more into the impact that conventional cleaners have on themselves and the environment. Post recipes, cleaning tips, and other things you learned in the book and found to be valuable in your social media posts. Take pictures of the products you make and post them online using #EASYGREENCLEANING. If you make online videos, consider doing videos showing how you make some of the green cleaners and/or how you use them.
Per the copyright notice in the front of the book, you have permission to use up to 5% of this book content for your own use if you credit the book and place a link to the book in the post.
Comment to your favorite social media influences telling them about the importance of Green Cleaning!
#2 Shop Consciously!
Make a list of all the products in your home that you purchase on a regular basis. Place a star next to the items you are most interested in switching first. Do some research on what you would like to purchase or make to replace the product when you run out. Look at the ingredients and the company that makes the product. Make sure these products and companies align with your values and what you want to start bringing into your life. Repeat until you replace all the products that you have starred on the list and see if there are any more you would like to add.
Do some additional research on what it takes to shop ethically and responsibly so it can carry over to more areas of your life as well.
To learn how to shop consciously here is the 5 Step Guide to Becoming a More Conscious Consumer.
#3 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
REDUCE: Start being more conscious about the things that you bring into your home and donate things you no longer use. Cut down on the things that come into your home that are wasteful, like reducing junk mail.
REUSE: Start replacing disposable items with things like reusable stainless steel or glass water bottles. Start taking your own reusable coffee cup to your coffee shop to have them refill it. If you get food on the go a lot, carry your own reusable cutlery, start using cloth napkins instead of paper at home, and do your best to remember to take your reusable shopping bags when you go into the store.
RECYCLE: A lot more things can be recycled than you think; you just need to know how and where. Look into what and where you can recycle in your local city. Create containers in your house to store different recyclable items until you can take them to the recycling facility or have them picked up by your garbage service. Do your best to purchase more items in bulk with recyclable containers in efforts to cut down on waste. If you have the ability, start composting in your yard or research if there is a way to start one in your area.
#4 Get your Community Involved
Now that you know how and where you can recycle, why not make flyers that you can pass around to your neighbors and community to let them know that information as well. You can also post it at your local grocery stores and other community groups or places you attend if they have bulletin boards for flyers. You can even include your favorite recipes and tips from the book on the flyer as well.
Contact your local schools, day care centers, churches, and other organizations to inquire about the cleaning products they use. See if you can get whoever is in charge a copy of the book. See if they are willing to be gathering places for smaller, harder to recycle items so people have a more central place they can go before it is distributed out to different recycling facilities. You can also see if they are interested in holding workshops or seminars for people that are interested in learning more about green cleaning.
#5 Make Products for Friends and Family
Consider gifting people you are close to that you would like to see make these changes copies of the book. To give them the extra incentive and make sure they, at least, try it out, consider making them a couple of your favorite recipes to give along with some reusable cleaning cloths so they have no excuse to not try it.
When people you know first move out on their own or move into a new home, consider making them welcome baskets that contain a copy of the book along with tools and ingredients that would help them start green cleaning right away. These baskets also make great holiday gifts.
To find a list of recommend products visit the cleaning resources page.
Have a Green Cleaning Party at your house with your friends where they can learn and make the recipes in the book while having some food, drinks, and a good time. You could have everyone pitch in potluck style by each bringing a food item and an ingredient.
#6 Get Involved with Organizations that Support the Cause
Donate or volunteer with consumer rights groups and other organizations that support the cause of informing us and helping us lobby for environmental and safety changes in the government.
Environmental Working Group (EWG)
Center for Environmental Health (CEH)
Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
#7 Know What is Going On
I am very careful of how and where I get my information. It is much easier to avoid many topics rather than face them head-on, but when it comes to things that could impact you and your family, it is important to know what is going on.
Keep yourself abreast of what the current laws are on chemical regulation and reform. Know what is going on regarding lobby groups and new laws passing on what people want to regulate or deregulate in the chemical and food industry. Learn more about what is in all the products you buy, not just your cleaning supplies, and how they can impact you and your family.
Signing up for the newsletters of the above mentioned groups can be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with chemicals in the marketplace!
#8 Speak Out
Contact city officials, sign petitions, write your congress representatives, contact the companies, go to town hall meetings, and tell manufacturers that you demand to know what is in the products you purchase. If there is a chemical or chemicals you are particularly passionate about them removing, give them pressure to remove those chemicals and overhaul the approval process of letting these chemicals into our products in the first place.
Find your representative so you can call, email or write a letter about the issues.
Find town hall meeting events to attend.
Visit change.org for tons of chemical related petition options.
While you are doing all of that, tell them to get the fluoride out of our water!
Watch this short and very well done 20 minute documentary about Fluoride being added to our drinking water called Our Daily Dose by Jeremy Seifert and/or read this article on 50 Reasons to Oppose Water Fluoridation. Make sure you pass them along!
#9 Start or Join a Group
Start or join a meetup or other group in your area of like-minded people with the intention of saving the world! Or, at least, play your role in a group of people who are inspired to make a difference. When a group of like-minded people come together with the intention to impact change, profound things can happen!
Make it your group mission to bring different issues to light and brainstorm on ways to make a difference!
Meetup.com can be a great place to start a group or join one.
#10 Join the Revolution!
Become part of TheRevolutionBlog.com community by signing up for our newsletter on the right hand side and be kept up to date on more ways to live a cleaner, greener life, new book releases, additional resources, and get information on other causes and issues that impact us and what we can do about them!
If not you, then who? If not now, then when?
“Be the change you wish to see in the
world.” – Gandhi