Years ago I would search the web for current info, particularly when I was building a house. Yet the information and product knowledge wasn’t always easy to discern. To get paints, you had to order them from many states away. To get cork flooring, I had to go directly to the distributer. CFL’s weren’t here yet. And forget about sustainable furniture or clothing.

The times they are a changin’. In Mt. Pleasant, there is actually a store — a physical locale — that can help satisfy your desire to do right by Mama Earth. Mary Gatch opened Dwellsmart this past November in the Plaza at East Cooper shopping center next to Twin Rivers Bowling. Whether you are exploring sustainable furniture, clothing, healthy cleaning products (for you or your home), or green building products, the folks at DwellSmart have done an admirable job of covering their bases.

I asked Mary for a “top 5 easy on the wallet list” of what customers can do to start making some changes. Here’s what she had to say:

1. A stainless steel, reusable bottle for $15. If you’re consuming one bottle of packaged water per day, you’ll break even in less than a month. And, you won’t have to worry about chemicals leaching from the plastic in your bottle.
2. Reusable bags for groceries, produce, and more ($3-$7).
3. Dryer balls for $20. You’ll save energy and money through reduced drying time, and you can save money, avoid chemicals, and reduce waste by stopping the use of dryer sheets.
4. Eco-Me Home Cleaning Kit for $30. Contains all you need to mix your own cleaning products using basic ingredients such as vinegar and water. You’ll save money, avoid chemicals, and cut down on packaging waste.
5. A permanent coffee filter for about $18. Improve the taste of your coffee, save filter waste, and avoid the stress of running out for more coffee filters.

She added that switching to CFL’s were probably a given with Gogreen readers, so she didn’t include that to the list.

As far as #1 goes, if you make that switch you will not be adding your plastic water bottle to the 22 billion (that’s right, billion) water bottles that Americans drank and disposed of in 2006 alone. I purchased dryer balls last year, as I am always looking for ways to consume less energy – but my favorite way to dry the clothes is the old fashioned way – on a line. It makes you feel good, plus putting your 5 year olds multi-colored dotted undies outback is a sure fire way to start a little social interaction with your neighbors!

So when you get a chance, stop by DwellSmart and see what they are all about.

I knew all along that I was going to struggle with living in an area where we would have to hop in our car to get pretty much anywhere. When we lived in Mt. Pleasant, I rode my bike to work, the store, the bank and any other place I could get to on two wheels. At the time of our move to Awendaw, we had one youngster, I wasn’t working, and my husband’s commute consisted mostly of a sweet stretch of rural scenery. When the girls were really young, we stayed at home as much as possible. We played, read, created and whiled away the time. I wanted to instill in my youngsters a sense of wonder, a love of books, and an appreciaton of the natural world. We were lucky enough to be in a position to do all those things.

Then school came and so did the realities of a life lived on the road. Spending more time in a car meant fruitless hours stuck in town, taking deep breaths while sitting in traffic, and confronting an issue I abhor – getting everywhere by an automobile!

Now that my kids are getting a little older, I want them to realize that all our actions have consequences. When my 10 year old would complain about the development crawling up highway 17, I would relay one of my grandfather’s expressions, “last one out, shut the door”. Is it right for us to build in the country and not expect others to follow suit? We all need to live someplace, it is how we decide to live that we need to question. Can I be a steward of the environment and continue to rack up mile after mile on my car? Not in good conscience. Do we need 2400sf of house for a family of 4? Not really.

Renting a 1500sf house a few blocks from the ocean is the next stage in our family adventure. Having the beach close-by helps make the transition easier, and renting considerably less space let’s us evaluate the merits of our idea before making a more permanent decision. As we went to sleep on our first night in our new place my husband asked why I was laughing. “I can see Maya’s sleeping little face from my pillow.” Maybe we’ll need 1600sf.

A group of 5th grade students at Charles Pinckney Elemetary School are choosing a different tact. Pinkney’s Ecology Club, lead by S.A.I.L. teacher Mike Cline, recently held a conservation week at their school. The goal – to heighten awareness of the amount of lunch time waste their campus creates and provide possible solutions to the problem. To get it rolling, the Ecology Club educated and enlightened the staff and students at Pinckney through spots on the morning announcements. This was followed by their “tap and stack” campaign. For 5 days running they collected all lunch trays used by students, tapped the waste, cleaned, and then stacked them. 2,339 trays later a monument of Styrofoam trash was created and put on display in the atrium. Their efforts culminated with a “waste free lunch” day. Classes were encouraged to bring a lunch with as little packaging as possible. Mrs. Marques’ and Ms. Jacksons’ third graders embraced the idea and weighed in with 14 ounces of trash per class.

The Ecology Clubbers plan to take their findings to Dr. McGinley (head of Charleston County Schools) with the hope of spreading awareness and ultimately changing policies.