Small steps to living 'green'

Friday, April 06, 2007

From a story by Keith Ulhig in the Wausau Daily Herald:

Buy locally grown food. Ease away from a stop sign in a car, instead of jamming on the accelerator. Weather strip a home.

They're not exactly radical actions, but an environmentalist scheduled to speak next week at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County says that little things like these go a long way toward living a green life.

And, said environmentalist Steve Sandstrom, these steps can help people keep cash in their wallets, too.

"Green is also the color of money," said Sandstrom, an environmental education outreach coordinator for the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute of Northland College in Ashland.

Sandstrom, 56, and his wife own the Pinehurst Inn, a bed and breakfast just south of Bayfield, and they've operated it for years making environmentally sensitive choices. There are solar panels. There's locally grown food served on the tables. There is the use of nontoxic, biodegradable cleaners. There is the efficient furnace.