Five things I am doing for Blog Action Day – what are yours

What a great idea. Blog Action Day is a call to action for bloggers to make a noise and pledge some action in support of the environment and today is the day for the inaugural happening. If you are a blogger, participate, get involved, make your voice heard. Click here to find out more.

This is what I pledge.

Number 1: Spread the word
My first activity is to spread the word and encourage more participation. This is the great part about the internet and bloggers in particular. An idea can be taken up by many people at a blink of an eye. In this case, not quite that quickly, but then the results are already awesome. A fair amount of effort went into the first Blog Action Day. The numbers of bloggers who have signed up already are 15 000 blogs and 12 million readers and counting.

Number 2:  Educate myself
I’m going to spend more time learning about what else I can do to make my foot print less carbon intense and more environmentally efficient. Starting today, I will check some good reading material and read through what I have already. Besides recycling and using public transport rather than driving everywhere, what else I can add on that will make a difference. Lots of studying coming up.

Number 3. Help myself and others
I will spend one day a month writing something about the environment. This will include identifying tips and tricks to make it easier for my family and anybody else interested, in living more consciously. And I think a good day for this will be the fifteenth of every month. Watch this space.

Number 4: Create a Paperless Office
I will make a greater effort to make my office paperless. I print out far too much. It really means that my filing system on my computer has to be more user friendly and my back-up systems even more efficient.

Number 5: Contribute more
I have already made a note of carbon off-set organisations and bookmarked their sites. I will be flying to South Africa early next year, I will ensure that I will contribute to an organisation to compensate for this trip. I will also see whether I can get more involved in Greenpeace, which I have supported in the past, but feel not enough up to now.

That’s my pledge. Lots to do! When the blogging community sets its mind to something, big things are possible. Citizen journalists are powerful especially those contributing financial news. Let’s use that power to create awareness as well as contributing our bit towards our own environment.