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pdf  Sustainable Lifestyle Assessment – Garbage

A tool enabling municipal decision-makers and citizens to evaluate how sustainably the community is using its natural resources. For more information click here.

Households play an essential role in the creation of more environmentally sustainable communities. Between 50 and 90 percent of a community’s natural resources are used at the household level with up to 75 percent of these resources wasted through inefficiency and lack of awareness. Households are also a major source of a community’s environmental pollution through auto emissions and toxic chemicals entering the groundwater. In most communities, the financial burden of this inefficiency and environmental pollution falls on municipalities as the primary accountable party responsible for providing services such as water, water treatment, landfills, roads and environmental quality.

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"The Green Living Program has demonstrated results and can make a real difference. In our work with communities across America this is exactly the sort of tool for which they are searching.”
– Molly Olson, Executive Director President’s Council on Sustainable Development

"We are all optimistic here. You have the entire household involved in a voluntary way instead of having a program that is mandated by the government. This is at the most grassroots level possible, and that makes it more effective."
– Mike Lindberg, Commissioner of Public Utilities, City of Portland, OR

"The potential resource savings are tremendous and what's truly exciting about the Green Living Program is that it can serve as a catalyst to creating a more sustainable community."
– Ava Frisinger, Mayor, City of Issaquah, WA

"The Environmental Services Department has researched multiple programs and approaches to provide the desired proactive waste prevention education. EcoTeams were the only program that successfully produced measurable resource savings and sustained behavior change."
– Alisa Wade, Environmental Services Department, City of San Jose, CA

"The Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign is a highly effective new tool for environmental protection. We see it as a significant opportunity to achieve citizen behavior change which has been one of our most difficult challenges in advancing environmental protection.”
– Lang Marsh, Director, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

"One of the most enlightening and useful programs that I have had the privilege to encounter. It provides a starting point for America's citizens and communities to begin the journey of becoming more sustainable."
– Michele Perrault, President The Sierra Club

"A movement... of unquestionable zeal is challenging consumption at the grass roots...local support groups called EcoTeams are methodically helping members reduce the amount and kind of material that flows in and out of homes."
– The New York Times

"This program is the first step-by-step plan for turning environmental concern into action."
– The Chicago Tribune

"I had thought about all the things I should do and talked about doing them before the Green Living Program; but it took the workbook and group support to turn my thinking and talking into specific and concrete actions. And the changes were relatively easy."
– Pat Spindel, EcoTeam Member, St. Louis, MO

"I feel this program is superb, not only because of what it has done for me, but because it has the potential to do so much for the community."
– Krista M. Schauer, EcoTeam Member, Portland, OR

"This is no frivolous undertaking. It's not just a matter of getting new information. A lot of citizens already know things they could do to reduce the toll they take on the environment, but EcoTeams structured group meetings help people put that knowledge to work and actually change their lifestyles."
– The Chattanooga Times

"I've lived in the neighborhood for 21 years, but getting to know my neighbors started three years ago with an EcoTeam. We knew a lot of people by sight, but now we know them much better. There is a lot more friendliness on the streets now. It's given us the feeling of being embedded in the community and having roots. I highly recommend the neighborhood EcoTeam process."
– Sarah Conn, EcoTeam member, West Newton, MA

"The program offers a common sense approach to environmentalism. [One participant says] ‘I love our neighborhood and this is an opportunity for us to make it an even nicer place to live together’."
– The Boston Globe

"The process works even for those who consider themselves hard-core environmentalists...[A senior sales executive and an EcoTeam member says] ‘As a result of the awareness the group has brought us, we all have changed our consumption habits and our lifestyles, in the products we purchase, [and] the utilities we use’."
– The Philadelphia Inquirer

"The Green Living Program is the most practical and well implemented program to help people create environmentally sustainable lifestyles."
– Daphne Gemmill, Executive Director, Project Earthlink, NOAA, U.S. Dept. of Commerce

"When you put things in small, workable chunks as the Green Living Program has done here, it’s easier for people to accomplish things and follow through."
– Maria Sichel, EcoTeam member, Medway, MA

"EcoTeams provides a unique approach to help citizens deal with environmental issues. We have to change the attitudes and behaviors of every citizen, in every aspect of their lives, to the point where they automatically act sustainably."
– David Crockett, City Councillor, City of Chattanooga, TN

"Unique and effective... Empowerment Institute is a model organization in its agenda and its leadership... responsible and enlightened."
– Honorable Maurice Hinchey, Committee on Natural Resources, Congress of the United States