Going green and local gets easier

Vowing to be greener can easily fall into that easy-to-talk-about-hard-to-implement category right alongside losing weight, quitting smoking, and managing money better. Nice to contemplate but a bitch to execute.

And even some of the attempts we do make don’t always pan out so well. For instance, I really wonder about all those reusable bags people are buying. Do they remember to actually bring them back to the store and reuse them? And when they do finally wear out, will they just get tossed out with everything else? Landfills of the future — packed to the gills with environmentally friendly bags!

Sometimes, when we’re lucky, green comes right to our doorstep, making the goal to be planet friendly a little more attainable. Case in point — those new blue recycle-just-about-everything monster rolling trashcans the City of Austin is distributing. I am SO in love with mine. Every time I get to recycle something else and just plop it in, without sorting it or trying to read the tiny number on the bottom of a plastic container, I’m like a little kid heading off to an ice cream party.

Well AlterNet is reporting another new, super-easy-to-access tool you can use to go greener. In Finding the Best, Local Food Near You Just Got Easier, Tara Lohan gives the scoop on the Eat Well Guide. Eat Well is a way you can, without even getting up from your beloved computer, tap directly into local food sources that offer smart, healthy food options that are good for you and the environment. They even provide maps to nearby locations.

I popped over to Eat Well, punched in my zip code (78722) and requested results within ten miles of my home. In seconds, a page came up indicating I had the following choices:

5 Bakers
1 Community Garden
7 Farmers
12 Stores
7 Caterers
8 Farmers’ Markets
2 Personal Chefs
1 Co-op
7 Restaurants

And there were some other options, too, like CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and educational centers.

To check for accuracy, I drilled down a little. First, I clicked on co-op and, as I suspected, got a link to Wheatsville. One more click and I got a Google Map to the store. (Not necessary since I could find it in the dark, blindfolded, but still, handy for newcomers.)

The dozen stores listed as places to buy locally grown and produced food were all accurate, too, ranging from the PeoplesRx to Whole Foods and Central Market locations and even to the storefront of our beloved Austin Soup-er hero, The Soup Peddler aka David Ansel.

It’s a great site, easy to navigate, with fast, good results. Cool way to get green without having to install a worm farm in your backyard or rig some homemade solar panels because you can’t afford the real deal. And you have to eat, anyway, so might as well take the time to eat right and shop local while you’re at it.

Speaking of which — what are your favorite local green-friedly establishments?