What Do You Resolute?

What were you doing when you were 9 years old? I remember being the age of 9, and at that time, my passion was probably Andre Dawson and the Chicago Cubs (yes, I used to like the Cubs, but I think it was more of an Andre Dawson thing). That's what I did, loved baseball. I could not have dreamt of doing something to help the environment or begin to think of some idea to perhaps  better the world. But that's what 9 year old Milo Cress did.

Milo, a 4th grader in Vermont, started a school project in an attempt to get businesses to stop using straws. The simple reason for this was the amount of waste created by something so trivial. We are all fully capable of drinking without a straw, right? In fact, we use 500 million straws each day, enough straws to fill 46,400 large school busses daily. That's a lot of needless waste! So, Milo went from business to business and asked them to stop using straws. The project took on a life of it's own as businesses, media and even politicians across Vermont caught wind of Milo's venture. The 4th grader's project culminated with its very own straw-free campaign led by the "green" web company Eco-Cycle. What a motivated young man!

As for us, I'm not sure our customers would allow us to go entirely strawless, but that doesn't mean we don't try. Our servers tend to automatically put straws in water glasses. We've  attempted to put the kabosh to this over the years as we agree it's wasteful and who drinks water out of a straw, seriously? I admit that I prefer a straw to stir my cocktail with or drink my Pepsi out of, but hey it's a new year, a new pledge, and I can do my part no matter how small.

Well, what would the first newsletter of the new year be without a resolution article? Myself, I am not the most "green" of individuals. There are certain things I'm aware of, but I have to be honest and say that being "green" is not a daily part of my personal or professional lifestyle. Becoming a "greenie" probably is not in the cards for me in 2015, but that does not mean I can't do something, albeit small, to help our environment. Every little bit helps right? Will you? Just say, "no straw please."