One Green Day at a Time

On Earth Day, one Alberta couple will be celebrating 365 days of living green—and all the people they inspired along the way.

Sure, most of us have resolved to become a little greener, but few of us have done it as publicly as Craig and Layla Baird. Last year, on Earth Day, this husband-and-wife team of freelance writers resolved to reduce their carbon footprint by making one environmentally friendly lifestyle change per day for a year. And they launched a blog, Our Green Year, to document the process publicly from their home near Stony Plain, Alberta, outside of Edmonton.

Three-hundred and fifty-eight days later, there’s no disputing their success. Jointly, they’ve reduced their carbon footprint to 1.882 tonnes of CO2 from 10.332 tonnes, a drop of more than 80 percent. (The average Canadian has a carbon footprint of 5 tonnes per year.) But what’s fascinating is how they achieved it: One small change at a time. Craig, 28, and Layla, 23, cut their shower time down to five minutes, reduced (but didn’t eliminate) meaty meals, planned a “staycation,” switched to hanging their laundry out to dry—and they even built a solar barbeque (along with another 353 other acts of green, to date).

With just a few days to go until their ambitious experiment draws to end, on Earth Day 2009, Green Living checked in with the Craig Baird and asked him to take stock of the couple’s green year.

Green Living: Why did you set out on this journey?

Our Green Year: Well, last year we organized a big Earth Day celebration in Trail, B.C., and it was a big success. After the event, we decided we wanted to do something more to help show people the various ways that they could go green, and Layla suggested blogging. We had originally planned on blogging every week, but we thought that may be too easy. So we decided to go green with 365 things and do it for an entire year.

GL: What was the most challenging thing about your year?

OGY: By far the most challenging thing is finding ways to go green—hundreds of ways—that are easy and cheap for everyone. It’s ironic that it is often easier for us to make a change in our lives to go green than it is to actually find the green things to do. The hardest moment for us was when we were at Day 150 and realized we still had 215 days to go… we were wondering if we would have enough ideas to do it.

GL: What came more naturally than you expected?

OGY: Limiting our showers to five minutes and only showering every second day was easier than I thought it would be, as was switching to organic foods despite the added expense. Walking more and driving less was also easier than we thought it would be.

GL: What’s the biggest lesson you learned about sustainable living?

OGY: That there are many, many ways that we can all go green. If we can implement 365 things, than it should be easy for others to implement 10, 20 or 30 things in their lives. We also learned that sustainable living doesn't mean you have to live in a mud hut in the forest with no electricity or heat. You can enjoy your current level of living while helping the Earth. There’s no doubt that you have to make adjustments, but it’s possible to be green and not get completely away from civilization (although it would be nice at times!).

GL: What kept you going?

OGY: We wanted to show people that there were at least 365 things that we all could do to go green. If we stopped at Day 100, 150 or 200, then it would show our critics that it is not easy to go green beyond a few small actions.

GL: Was your grand experiment ever misunderstood or dismissed by others?

OGY: We did have one blogger who didn't believe we were actually doing these things, and did (and still is, I think) write blogs about us and his assumptions of what we were doing. The comments he left eventually got pretty rude and we had to ban them, which was not easy for us to do. It bothered us at first because we really wanted to have fun with this and show everyone that we can all help the Earth. Over time, though, we got over it (even though the blogs didn't stop) and we realized not everyone is going to agree with us, believe us or even want to know what we are doing. But it doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. We never did this for money, to be well known or to change the world, we just wanted to show those who wanted to know how they can help the Earth.

GL: How has this lengthy experiment changed your life?

OGY: We feel healthier because of our walking, organic food and completely transformed lifestyle. We don't have chemicals in our home anymore and we have noticed our bills have gone down an incredible amount because of the energy we save.

GL: What would you change if you had to do it over again?

OGY: Absolutely nothing. For us it was one of the coolest adventures we have ever had in our lives. Nearly everyone who has come to our site has been incredibly supportive, and we have met a lot of great people doing this.

GL: What next?

OGY: We are thinking of writing a book with 365 tips on how to go green and we will have our own experiences with tips peppered throughout. We want to find some way we can get the book out to people, while at the same time helping the Earth (e.g., via recycled paper, planting trees, donating money to environmental organizations). We will continue doing everything we agreed to in Our Green Year, and we will continue to update the blog as time goes on.

GL: What do you plan to do on Earth Day? How will you celebrate the anniversary?

OGY: We are going to be attending a Youth Center Green Fashion Show where we will be talking to the kids and will have a booth set up. We are also planning on attending the Earth Day event on April 26 in Edmonton. We will also probably celebrate by taking a breather from blogging for a few days. lol.