Read an Excerpt

Introduction

Many Americans agree with the goals of the environmental movement. Yet, nearly as many Americans admit to doing little more than recycling when it comes to acting on that disposition. Both the number of people expressing support for environmental protection and their acknowledged lack of more meaningful efforts to back it up got me thinking, "Why is their such a great divide between environmental sentiment in this country and individual actions?" Clues to the answer came from my own inadequacies in the area of meaningful environmental stewardship. I was consumed by a career, my sensibilities weren't tuned to recognize opportunities for improvement, and I was unaware of simple, practical suggestions on which I could follow through. If other people were anything like me, a busy lifestyle, some unknowingness as to their role in the problems and solutions of today and a lack of guidance on what to do and how to do it was rendering many other "eco-minded" people predominantly "un-eco."

Everyone is leading busy lives and is therefore, to some extent, wrestling with how to balance better environmental stewardship with modern pressures and reliances. I became convinced that the way to increase the ranks of practicing environmentalists was to take the difficulty and guesswork out of greener living by adjusting expectations, stressing learning as a motivator and enabler, and above all else, providing constructive tips and resources to prepare the eco-inclined for action on terms they could live with. It made sense that if busy people were going to start doing more, they would need a lot more help.