Introduction xi
1 Getting Started: Crafting Your Vision Statement 1
1. Defining Greening and Sustainability 2
2. Setting Your Greening Goal 2
3. Exploring and Visioning: What Lifestyle and Environmental
Values Define Your Ultimate Cottage Experience? 3
4. Get to Work Straightaway: What Can You Do Now? 6
5. Crafting Your Cottage Greening Vision Statement 7
2 Taking Stock Inside and Out 11
1. Taking Stock 12
1.1 Categories for taking stock 13
1.2 Taking stock checklist 14
iv Greening Your Cottage or Vacation Property
2. Four Rs and Beyond 18
2.1 Common greening practices 19
2.2 Common greening practices and furnishing
your cottage 27
3. What's Next? A Practical Project 28
3.1 Painting, inside and out 30
3.2 Composting 31
3.3 Homemade cleaning products 32
3.4 Reduce recyclables 33
3.5 Chemical-free pest control 36
4. Now That You've Taken Stock and Started a
Practical Project, What's Next? 39
3 Becoming Environmentally Savvy 41
1. Living an Environmentally Sustainable
Lifestyle Is Not New 42
2. What Do You Need to Know about Greening at
the Cottage? 43
3. Learning and Greening 44
3.1 Nature's classroom for tomorrow's stewards 45
3.2 Learning and practicing stewardship with the kids 47
3.3 Simple rainwater catchments 48
3.4 Exploring the forest, or woods 50
3.5 Learning and conserving 50
4. Deepening Understanding and Improving Your
Greening Lifestyle 54
4 Making a Commitment: A Cottage Greening
Action Plan 57
1. Steps to Creating a Cottage Greening Action Plan 58
1.1 Your Cottage Greening Action Plan 58
2. Sharing Your Commitment 62
2.1 Green gifting 63
Contents v
5 Putting Your Cottage Greening Action Plan
into Action 69
1. Our Action Plan in Action 70
2. Your Cottage Greening Action Plan in Action 73
2.1 Substantive greening actions 74
3. Reflections: Where Are We Now? 82
4. One Step at a Time towards a Sustainable Lifestyle 83
Sources and Resources 85
Books and Articles 85
Children's Literature 86
Websites 87
Visioning, Mind Mapping, and Mission Statements 87
Environmental Sites 87
Download Kit 89
Checklists
1 Taking Stock Checklist 15
2 Monitoring Progress of a Project 62
Example
1 A Cottage Greening Vision Statement 9
Exercise
1 Cottage Greening Action Plan 60
