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Living green is something that many of us want to do, but are not quite sure how to inject into our family's lifestyle. It can seem like a never ending battle of plastic, toxins and waste with the everday function of family life. So, how do we educate our kids about living green? Stephanie Ashworth of Olive Smart shared her point of view with us in the following insightful essay. Living Green by Stephanie Ashworth
For me, living green is really an attitude as much as a lifestyle. There are always more things we can do to be more thoughtful about our environment, but at the core, is our environment something that you consider when making decisions? I am trying to teach my kids (9, 7 and 4) that less is more. We live in a society of constant consumption…more toys, more games, more gadgets, more activities, more birthday parties, etc. When you walk into someone’s brand new oversized house do you think “wow” or do you think “what an unnecessarily huge footprint”? After reading Bill McDonough’s book, Cradle to Cradle, I really see products and design in a whole new way. He explains that when things are well designed, they should either return to the natural cycle (like leaves dropping off a tree) or the industrial cycle to be reused. As a people, we must stop this notion of throwing things away. As I tell my children, the earth is a closed system. There is no “away”.
A good friend of mine and I recently started a company, Olive Smart. Our mission is to create stylish, quality products which help people to live a more environmentally conscious lifestyle. Our first product, the Olive Smart Sack, is a small Sack which fits in the cup holder of your car. Inside the Sack, are 6 reusable shopping bags. One small Sack = 6 big bags. It’s a very practical and clever solution to shopping with reusable bags. You don’t forget them because you keep them in your cup holder and there are plenty of them – enough for a whole shopping trip. Check us out at www.olivesmart.com .
The best part about launching this company has been watching our children respond. Between the two of us, we have 5 kids and silly as it sounds, they are really proud of what we are doing. We always think about parents being proud of kids but it can work the other way as well. Our children are living a green attitude not just being told about it. They are constantly coming up with their own ideas of how we can improve our green-conscious lifestyle. Along the way, they are wanting less stuff and spending more time with the stuff they already have. That alone is a great gift for everybody.
To learn more about Stephanie Ashworth and her company Olive Smart, go to the www.olivesmart.com .
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Communication 
