Have a Sweet and Green Rosh Hashanah

With the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) coming up this week, many of us are reflecting on the past year and making resolutions for the next.  These resolutions may include ways to treat ourselves better, ways to be better to those around us, and ways to make a more positive impact on our surroundings.

Making a green resolution is a way to do all of those things at once.  Need help thinking of one?  Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

Make your own… fill in the blank.  Make your own tomato sauce, grow your own vegetables, craft your own gifts, sew your own clothes and for those adventurous ones out there – make your own energy by building a solar oven.  Making your own saves precious fossil fuels and reduces waste, but you can also look at it as an opportunity to fuel your creativity.

Buy local, handmade and recycled.  If you must buy, buy something that is local, handmade, and that has been given a second (or third, or fourth, or fifth) life.  Local food is a given, and if it can be as local as your window sill or backyard then all the better.  But what about everything else?  Need some notebooks from school?  A new sweater?  A gift for someone?  Be conscious of your choices and of the impact that your consumerism makes.  If you need help finding things that fit these categories, try looking locally on Etsy or shopping Etsy’s ecoetsy category.  (The above pomegranates, handmade out of upcycled plastic yarn, were created by Israeli Etsy seller LIMITZ – stay tuned next week for a feature on her upcycled designs.)

Spend less time with gadgets and more time with people.  Power down and check in with those around you.  Sometimes the best activities are those that require no electrical gadgets whatsoever.

Have a great green new year’s resolution?  Please share and inspire others in the comments section below.

Plastic yarn pomegranates made by ECO by Limitz, Shana Tova greeting created by Junktion Studio.

Read more about Rosh Hashanah and the other Jewish Holidays coming up::

Start the Year Right with a Sustainable Rosh Hashanah

Holiday Recipes, Rosh Hashanah Edition: Pomegranate-Nut Salad

Yom Kippur, The Greenest Day of the Year in Israel

Green Holiday Celebrations Continue with a Green Sukkah

Author: Karen Chernick

Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.

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