Green Blogging…Is It Possible?

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By Jael Strong

It’s hip! It’s socially responsible! It’s green! Everybody, every company, seems to be going green, making choices and taking stands so as to limit their negative impact on the environment. I heard a piece on National Public Radio about businesses becoming more environmentally aware and I started to think: Is it possible for bloggers to go green?

I immediately felt silly for asking the question. After all, it seems to me that blogging by nature is a green activity. So many bloggers write from home. We can’t really cut back on our commute. We do our work on the computer, so paper waste isn’t an issue. Aside from the choices that all of us can make, choosing locally grown foods, avoiding gas guzzlers, recycling, we don’t seem to be left with environmental options specific to blogging.

For those who really want to decrease their environmental impact, that answer might not be sufficient. Isn’t there something that bloggers can do to go green? I did actually come up with three ways: decrease paper use, blog at night and promote environmentally friendly activities on their blog.

We already established that bloggers don’t use a ton of paper, especially in comparison with other fields, but there are places that could take a cut back. For example, if you are a note taker, which I am, you could choose an alternative to the old pen and paper. A voice recorder may be a way to keep track of burgeoning ideas or a PDA might be a good fit. Those tiny notebooks and sticky notes could add up over time if that is your currently preferred avenue for note taking.

Another way to cut back on paper use is to not insist on printing a hard copy of all of your writing. Now, I know that most of you do not print hard copies every time you post, but I also know for a fact that someone used to be very attached to having a paper version for all of her writing (me, of course). This was a bad idea, especially as my writing became more prolific. I also know that some are very paranoid that they will need hard copies of everything when all of the computers in the world decide to crash. I think if that day ever comes, our writing might not be foremost in our minds. So, cut back on hard copies equals less harm to the environment.

Now on to blogging at night. Well, we put less strain on the energy supply if we use electricity at night, so I thought we could start doing our writing at night. Besides, running electricity during non-peak hours is often better for our budgets. Okay, I know this is a stretch, but I was brainstorming! Plenty of us already do our writing at night anyhow, but it’s a thought.

And finally, can more writers promote going green on their blogs? If everybody did this all of the time, every blog would become a platform for ecological change. That sounds like a bad idea to me, but if the opportunity presents itself I suppose there is nothing wrong with plugging good citizenship.

It all feels like a stretch to me. The piece that I heard on the radio was inspiring; I really wanted to employ some great green practices, but the more I think about, it just doesn’t seem like there’s much a blogger can do. Do you have any thoughts on how a blogger can lessen their environmental impact?

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Jael Strong writes for TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written both fiction and non-fiction pieces for print and online publications.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas .

Thanks, Jael

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