A Group Effort

It was very interesting to read the ideas and challenges that other members if my group were faced with.  It seems as though we all have some common issues.  Based on everyone’s responses it seemed as though we all had a little difficulty remembering to act in ways we wanted.  Whether it was forgetting to unplug a computer or a phone charger we all seemed to be faced with the same issue.  Another common issue the people in my group seemed to be faced with was the fact that our biggest adversaries were originally our friends.  Whether it was because our friends simply didn’t want to change their habits, or just wanted to mess around with us, a majority of the people in our group faced some kind of barrier in dealing with their friends on the way to leading a more sustainable lifestyle.  It was comforting to know that my friends weren’t the only, shall I say “jerks”, who decided to put up a fight in this regard.  Interestingly enough it seems as though all of our friends who originally gave us some difficulty, ended up being active participants in this challenge.  It was pretty cool to see that our actions as sustainable citizens positively affected the people around us.

Another positive aspect of forming our groups was that I was able to see what other people were doing in order to fulfill the challenge more successfully.  My eyes were opened to some great ideas, like using public spaces more so that the energy used in those areas could be maximized.  Before reading the posts of my group members the thought of going to the library as an act to use electricity more efficiently never really crossed my mind.  It made me think of a lot more little things like this that I could do to maximize my energy efficiency.  Overall, to be able to read the ways we as a group were able to change our living habits to positively influence our planet was very fulfilling.  We all feel as though we our doing our part in making the world a better place to live.  Granted it is on a very small scale, but nonetheless it feels great to see that my actions and the actions of the people around me are the beginning steps in making our world more sustainable.  It makes me wonder, what kind of impact would it have on the world if not just us but millions, even billions of people took these small steps in making the world more sustainable?