Earth Day-Taking Personal Responsibility for Our Planet

This sign hangs in the window of our office. It is not something that we take lightly here at Advanced DUI & Counseling. Appreciation and respect for the natural world around us is a part of my professional attitude and life since I was a little boy growing up here in Reno. Capture

My family was always going camping, fishing and doing outdoor stuff. My father would share with me various facts about the trees, plants and assorted animals we would encounter along the way. In Junior High School my Life Science teacher, Emily MacPherson, noticed my interest and suggested that I ask my parents if they would bring me to a meeting of the Lahontan Audubon Society. We went and I was hooked.

Very quickly I was stalking birds out in the woods or clinging to the rail of a fishing boat in Monterey Bay or visiting a wolf preserve deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson and anything by Emerson, Thoreau and Aldo Leopold. I wanted to grow up to be John Muir or Jacques Cousteau. I became involved with the Sierra Club and started Students To Oppose Pollution (STOP) at Wooster High School. I was on fire to change the world.

Well life happens and at UNR my Forestry Degree was soon swapped for a Business major. And along the way the bright lights and temptations of our fair city lead me on a much different journey. One that has resulted in the career and experiences that I have today.

Well not everything changed. My heart is still in the woods and I still watch the beautiful birds that gather around our bird feeder at home. I still wear flannel shirts and listen to the occasional John Denver song. My values from my early years are still quite intact and nothing gets me angrier that watching the planet take yet another hit in the name of greed.

So I do what I can. I cannot change the fact that ignorance of science is the new norm and simply denying the truth of pollution, climate change and species extinction is common. What I can do is change my little corner of the world.IMG_1387 (2)

Over the past few months Penny and I have started taking steps to make our office Green.

We encourage our clients to use the Recycle containers for plastic and aluminum beverage containers. All waste paper and shredded materials are also recycled. All our ink cartridges are recycled back to the office supply and the plastic grocery bags are taken back to the store. There are no Styrofoam items used in our office. We use real coffee mugs that get washed after they are used. We use non-bleached coffee filters buy copy paper with a high recycled content. We recently started using degradable plastic trash bags that have a high organic content that breaks down into carbon dioxide and water.

Each week we haul more material to the recycling bin that we put in the trash can. That makes me feel like we are at least doing something. And we are always looking for other innovative measure to implement here at Advanced DUI.

Now if I could do something about the lion-killing dentist…

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