How Green Are You?

Sometimes it takes being asked the right questions to figure out if we're on the right track towards a sustainable lifestyle. The following quiz is a great starting point, of course Oceana offers us sailors some great tips on living blue too!

Answer the following 12 questions, keeping track of all your answers on a piece of paper (different letters get a different amount of points) and learn how eco-friendly you are using the link below.

1. You suck down a beverage and are left with the empty can. You:
a. Hold on to it until you find a recycling bin.
b. If there's no recycling bin nearby, you throw it out (then feel bad about it).
c. Toss it in the trash. You only recycle at home.

2. You're stopping off at the grocery store for dinner on the way home. You:
a. Grab your canvas shopping totes -- and use them.
b. Get to the checkout before you realize you left your reusable bags in the car. Oh, well. Next time.
c. Think: Reusable shopping bags -- that sounds like a good idea. I should do that.

3. Which best describes you?
a. You've seen "An Inconvenient Truth," maybe even more than once (because you insist your friends and family watch it).
b. You haven't seen it, but keep meaning to.
c. "An Inconvenient Truth"? Doesn't that star George Clooney?

4. Picking up some office supplies, you're most likely to:
a. Choose 100 percent post-consumer recycled goods to save our precious resources.
b. Opt for recycled, but only if it's on sale or comparable in price to conventional supplies.
c. Buy whatever's right in front of you, and if it's recycled, that's great, too.

5. Your ideal green transportation:
a. Your own two feet, when you're not biking, taking public transportation, or driving your hybrid.
b. Biking or taking public transportation when you can; driving when you can't.
c. Your car. (Maybe someday I'll get a hybrid, but they're so much more expensive.)

6. The term "climate change" is enough to:
a. Keep you awake at night.
b. Cause a mild, if remote, tremor at the periphery of your mental radar.
c. Make you turn the channel.

7. You've had it with the junk mail. You:
a. Register with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to have your name removed from direct mailing lists, stopping it at the source.
b. Recycle it, or shred it and use it for packing gifts.
c. Throw it in the garbage.

8. When spring rolls around and fresh fruits and veggies come in season, you:
a. Shop at a farmers' market, or look into buying shares at a CSA (community supported agriculture). Locally grown produce is important to you.
b. Opt for the organic produce at Whole Foods, unless they don't have what you want, in which case conventional will have to do for now.
c. Just go to the grocery store. They always have fresh greens there.

9. To keep your home clean, you:
a. Always opt for safe, nontoxic green cleaners, either ones you buy off the shelf or make yourself.
b. Have tried some of the greener brands, but are afraid they don't actually clean as well as traditional ones, so you go back and forth.
c. Stick to bleach, ammonia, and conventional cleaners. They're the only way to get things really clean.

10. When it comes to the eco lifestyle, you're:
a. Most likely the one teaching your friends and family about going green.
b. Definitely interested, and do what you can to take earth-friendly steps, if it makes sense.
c. Mildly interested, but really it tends to stress you out. It's one more thing to worry about.

11. You're more likely to buy from companies that:
a. Are completely committed to sound environmental practices, and use partially or all-organic/sustainable materials.
b. Generally offer a more natural or organic product or option, but it's not critical.
c. Provide real value; if they make donations to charity or to help the environment, all the better.

12. When you need your coffee fix, you're sure to:
a. Bring your reusable coffee thermos to work filled with a brew made from organic, shade-grown, fair-trade beans
b. Buy organic or fair-trade, whichever they have. If neither, you'll go green next time.
c. Get hazelnut -- and if they have it in fair-trade, great.

Get Your Scores!
First Published: April 2008 By Body and Soul Magazine