AmeriCorps going green

I sent an email to my supervisors:

I'm writing in response to a call for "going green tips" for our individual lives. Though I think these changes are necessary, and I appreciate the opportunity to share, I feel that they should also be paired with the larger changes we must all work toward.
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Our shorter showers, hybrid cars, and organic ranch dressing are far from useful if we don’t also work to change the larger systems of which they are a part. These important yet smaller changes are not nearly on the same magnitude of the problem they attempt to solve: shorter showers will not address the worlds’ water shortages, nor will driving a hybrid change a culture of car ownership, end greenhouse gas emissions, or prevent wars fought for oil security.

Now, if AmeriCorps committed to becoming a “greener” organization, we could enact real green business practices (read: sustainability!) to those (hundreds of?) thousands of non-profits we partner with. This would be change to get behind.

“Going green” doesn’t mean spending more money or expending a lot of effort; rather it is grounded in awareness of our use of resources and an acknowledgement of our relationship with the earth.

I see and appreciate the Forest Stewardship Council certification on the envelopes for the receipt of my direct deposits, but part of the reason I chose direct deposit was to reduce the amount of paper I get. We work for finding solutions to poverty but buy our AmeriCorps clothes from countries employing sweat-shop labor practices (read: exported American jobs).

If we as individuals commit to changing our lifestyles, part of that change should also be working toward “greening” the systems to which we belong, in which we work, and on which we depend.