How do I get my fiance onto the green "bandwagon"?

sarahtrg

My fiance and I are now living together and I live a greener lifestyle than he does. He doesn't feel it is very important to live green. What baby steps can I take to get him on board with a greener lifestyle now that we are going to be living together and eventually may buy a home together?  

HappyOrthoNurse

Many people hear the phrase "going green" and their minds turn off to it because it sounds like a fad or trend. They don't understand that it's a smart, logical, and ECONOMICAL choice. When they see that a lot of MONEY can be saved, that's usually the first wave of inclination toward change. 

Now this may sound like common sense, but don't overwhelm him. Weave it into the little every-day areas of life. "Green" is natural, so it shouldn't appear otherwise - it shouldn't appear like a lot of effort or stressful. One minute example is simply not buying paper towels, and using cloth towels instead. They need not be fancy cloth towels - just something to clean with. Paper towels are so expensive and of course between their manufacture, advertising, and bulk of waste, leaves a substantial environmental footprint. Cloth towels are sturdier to clean with anyway, and I think the cost of washing a load every now and then pales in comparison to the cost of buying paper towels. Demonstrate the SAVINGS. I use a laundry soap that washes 96 loads and you only have to use half an ounce of the stuff to wash a whole load, AND it's more affordable than most "detergents" out there, AND contains no phosphates or harmful chemicals, which leads me to my next point. Society has so woven the every-day use items into our households with crafty advertising that a lot of people are simply unaware of the health risks and disadvantages to chemicals, because "I've grown up with that", or "I've used that all my life". You could intermittently casually mention the harmful effects of the specific chemicals in certain things, such as phosphates, ammonia, bleach, fluoride, etc. I would like to say some more but I'm going to be late for work. I'll be back....

HappyOrthoNurse

So, weaving "greener" practices/habits/items into everyday life in a way that doesn't seem like a "bandwagon" sounds like the way to go, and if you demonstrate that each of these things is just logical, I think it would dawn on him in time.

Erikan73

Baby steps, like when shopping for cleaning products picking up the ones you like and telling him how you like that they don't have the chemicals and the chemical after smell. If he packs his lunch, make sure he has a lunch bag that he can reuse each day and containers he can put his food into instead of ziploc bags. Have recycling containers in convient spots. Let him know the recycling bin is there, but don't get on him if he doesn't recycle. But if you notice that he does, casually mention, hey did you happen to notice that since we are both recycling, we don't have to take the trash out as oftern?

Basically buy things that are greener and continue to practice it and allow him to be green within his comfort level. Any level of going green is better then not being green at all.