The Big Green Purse One in a Million Challenge

Shift Your Spending to Protect the Planet…and Yourself

In the spirit of Earth Day’s 40^th anniversary coming up next week on April 22nd, we’d like to invite our readers to take a look at how we can protect the environment with our everyday actions.  When we heard of The Big Green Purse One in a Million Challenge, we knew it was a winner worth both joining and sharing. 

Please welcome today’s guest contributor, Diane MacEachern, Author of Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World, www.biggreenpurse.com.

The Big Green Purse One in a Million Challenge

One of the fastest, easiest, most effective ways to protect the environment is by shifting money you already spend to eco-friendly goods and services.

The Challenge is a project we started a couple of years ago to inspire people to shift their spending to the most environmentally-friendly products and services available. Many people worried that going green would send them to the poor house. What they’ve found by taking the Challenge is that switching to greener goods actually saves them a lot of money.

Just ask Erin Peters. This budget-conscious mother of three young boys is so concerned about saving money and spending wisely that she writes a blog called The Conscious Shopper.

"For a long time, I had a misconception that living green was expensive and therefore out of reach for my family," she says. "Then one day, I got frustrated with the feeling that I was buying inferior and unhealthy products and that I wasn't spending my money in accordance with my values. I decided just to go for it and see if I could buy organic, non-toxic, and fair trade products without blowing my family's budget.

"I found that by living more frugally and doing the green things that save money, I was able to shift our savings to our food and clothing budget. Without affecting our overall budget at all, I was able to go green!"

The changes may not be obvious, but they do make sense. For example, a $.49 sponge lasts as long as ten rolls of paper towels, each of which cost $.99. So over the lifetime of that sponge, you save almost $10 in paper towels, and throw away about 1/10 as much trash.  
 
But there’s an added benefit. The more money you shift to green products, the more you encourage manufacturers to reduce pollution, save energy and water, use less packaging and protect natural areas. Many companies resist regulations and legislation with a vengeance. But consumer dollars are their lifeblood.  When you choose greener goods, you’re dangling a bright green carrot in front of the industries that produce them, providing a powerful incentive to do more.

Taking the challenge is also a great way to magnify your impact. The shifts you make will save you money and benefit your family. If a million consumers intentionally shift at least $1,000 of their existing budget to environmentally-friendly products, we will have a noticeable ONE BILLION DOLLAR IMPACT in the marketplace.

Where to start?

You can have the biggest impact by picking one commodity and shifting all $1,000 to it. Some of the most important options (and ones that should be readily available in your neighborhood as well as online) include:

• Organic, locally grown food (reduce pesticides)
• Energy-efficient appliances (stop global warming)
• Phthalate-free cosmetics (protect your health)
• Fuel-efficient car (save energy, clear the air)
• Fair trade, shade grown coffee (protect rainforests)
• Non-toxic cleansers (protect your health, reduce toxins)

Alternatively, you can spread what you shift to a variety of eco-friendly products and services that you need to manage your household. You'll probably find that you'll end up shifting far more than the initial $1,000 you pledge.

That would be great because the key to getting literally the biggest bang for your buck is this: the more money you shift, the bigger impact you'll have.

Ready to sign up? You can get a Free Balance Sheet to help you get started when you take the Big Green Purse One in a Million Challenge.

Sign up here.

To learn more about the One and a Million Challenge and for tips and ideas on saving the planet everyday, please join author Diane MacEachern at BigGreenPurse.com. 

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Our Thanks to Diane for her Earth-friendly insights! Take a look at these helpful hints for Earth Day and on. Remember that we can help our Earth with some simple steps, one person at a time!

   

Comments

[Diane MacEachern]

Thanks so much for the opportunity to blog for Volunteer Spot. I invite all your volunteers to take the free One in a Million challenge, and put some of that great volunteer energy into protecting the planet! Thanks again. Diane MacEachern, Founder, BigGreenPurse.com and One in a Million challenge.