For many of us, conservation is a key goal in our lives, and we make a conscious effort to reduce our water consumption, our energy use, throw away less, recycle more and use less gas, but how do we know we’re making a real difference? These changess are difficult to track and what’s even more difficult to understand is the effect of our efforts. We all know it’s important to make changes in our lifestyles, but how do do it?

The best way is to set goals for ourselves. Take a look at your last utility bill. How much water did you use? Electricity? Gas? We all have heard we can reduce these bills, but forget about the money for a moment and focus on the actual amount you use. Take for example the condo my girlfriend and I live in. We moved in a month ago and just got our first utility bill. Despite our efforts to use as little water as possible, the bill said we were using 5 kgallons a month, just about average. Average? Us? How? We take many precautions to make a difference and we’re still not seeing it so we’ve decided to set a goal for ourselves of just 3 kgallons a month. That high amount of water for two people still seems outrageous to me, but without forgoing basic hygiene, laundry, showers, dish-washing, it starts to seem a little more reasonable.

We’ve decided to get a better showerhead with a shut-off valve for when we’re lathering. We already make sure to run the washing machine and dishwasher as little as possible. To help offset our wastewater amount, we’ve decided to start using a bucket in the tub to collect the water as we’re waiting for the shower to get warm and instead of just dumping all the water glasses, buckets and other water collectors, we’re going to use it to water our plants.

The moral of the story is this: if you are serious about making a change in your life regarding the environment, take a look at your bills and set goals for yourself. While you’re at it, take a look at what you buy in a month and start to make some goals with that too. Only buy fair trade. Only buy local produce. Buy all organic. Whatever it is, make sure it’s something attainable and reasonable and hit it.