Julie Du Brow

If you live in Los Angeles and you’re into healthy green lifestyles, you might already know Julie Du Brow. She’s discerning, funny, hard-working — and committed to making environmental change happen no matter what!

“I have the most incredible niece and 2 nephews, who live in Paris (my sis’ kids) and spend time w. us here.  Last summer, my (now 7) yr old nephew wouldn’t leave the beach till he’d picked up 10 pieces of trash (and that was almost every day!).  They are now 9, 7 and 5.  Loves of my life, along w. my beau of 11 yrs who is a tribal art dealer.”

So we’re soul sisters. We asked Julie to write something for the Practically Green blog, and her disarming, capacious reply is perfect for Earth Week. It relates to all of our popular actions around recycling, reusing, reducing, and reviewing.

For instance, coming up:

• Reduce showers to 5 minutes or less, which we’ll zero in on May 2 with guest blogger Shannon Hinderberger of Working Mom Goes Green
• Review the “dirty dozen” list of fruits and vegetables, focus a few dates later, by Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff of Healthy Child Healthy World and Ecostiletto
• Recycle cork (wine corks, cork boards, etc.) for which we’re still nailing a guest blogger  (hint hint)

*                    *                    *                    *                    *

Over to Julie:

“RE” is the name of the game

I have to be candid with you and say this is my first real blog post speaking for me. I write for clients all the time, but rarely for myself…so please be gentle.

I read 100s of blog posts a week, literally.  And everyone has great ideas for things you can do every day.  I like to try and weed things out, select what I think is doable, realistic and thought-provoking and share those through my social media outlets.  Heck, since I was 4 years old, I read the paper and cut out cartoons or articles that I thought would interest family and friends (here is a recent fave, just for kicks).  Daughter of a journalist, words and the ideas they create and actions they inspire are very important to me…it just came naturally.

So out of all this—and I hope I’ll get more than one chance to share with you—I think what sticks out to me today are two letters…R-E. There are so many great words that these two letters can be tied to in the ‘green’ world.  The obvious:  Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We all know this.  But take a couple minutes and think about how truly actionable—if we choose to listen—the “RE” words can be in our daily lives to engage our ‘green’ mindset:

Re-cover…things you set aside and have found again to fix instead of buying new.

Re-calculate…can you drive to five errands in one trip vs. five individual errands?  If major companies can shift on the huge concept of packaging, can we re-calculate our errands?

Re-lease…is there one thing a day (or week to start) that you really don’t need to consume?

Re-think…help your local school add even a little environmental education to their curriculum to set kids on the right path and have a healthier school.

Re-invest…in the idea of sharing: online libraries vs. always buying anew.

Re-energize…walk to the post office or restaurant and get a little energy and exercise and don’t use the $4.00/gallon gas car.

Re-adjust…filter your water instead of buying large bottle after bottle.

Re-form…sit your family down and make a commitment to do any of these other things, as a family!

Re-direct…this may be my current favorite. I have to think every day how to redirect my thinking and my actions in a way that is probably not so comfortable the first 5x but becomes easier and easier. One of my favorite ways to Re-direct is to try to purchase more locally.

The “RE” makes us stop, and think for a second how we are dealing with anything we touch, or know how we traditionally acted.  Ten years ago, I wasn’t a consciously ‘green’ person, and I have a ways to go, no doubt.  But growing up and going to Germany to see my mother’s family, I remember distinctly that everyone brought their own bags to the market even 40 years ago (ok, you got me, I’m 46).  It was such a natural, “duh” transition to me to bring my own bags. I re-direct my thoughts and actions every day and try to do one thing that makes more sense.

Because really that’s what being green and sustainable is in the end to me…it’s logic at its most basic.  It’s re-thinking things, re-directing our energy in how we act and plan…whether you are planning your day or planning a remodel or planning dinner.

Let’s continue this conversation…and I’d love to hear YOUR favorite “RE” word or YOUR re-definition of one of the above!