Being good isn’t always easy. It requires maintaining multiple trash receptacles even on the days when you’re just in the mood for one. It requires riding your bike even though you’re deathly afraid – and can’t make turn signals because you’d have to let go of a handlebar. It requires admitting that you have an impact on the world when it wasn’t exactly your idea to be in it in the first place.
But there are some people who make being good a little easier for the rest of us. They start car-share programs, hold our legislators accountable, and ensure our ever-easier access to yummy local foods. They inspire us to change our lightbulbs and start compost piles. When we think of these people, we blush, and we doodle their names in soy-based inks.
Yet we brought ourselves to talk to a few of them so that we might share their stories with you. And what we found is that they’re really not so different from the rest of us. They’ve just managed to craft eco-conscious lives in unexpected ways that elegantly fit their own unique personalities and talents – which makes us think that maybe the rest of us schmoes could do the same. So take a look at our not-at-all-comprehensive list of some of Austin’s gods and goddesses of greendom.
This article appears in April 18 • 2008.