My fortune cookie tonight said, “What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient.”

I found this to be very applicable the to great green movement. It is generally considered the ‘right’ thing to do what is ‘green’, like conserving natural resources, keeping a small footprint and everything that goes along with it. But too often it is much more convenient not to.

It is much more convenient to drive to the grocery store than to bike, or take public transportation. It is so much more convenient to throw food scraps away than to compost them. It is so much more convenient to buy a conventional cotton t-shirt than an organic one. (Much more convenient to get chinese take-out than make dinner tonight). People want to do the right thing, and know they should and probably could be doing the right thing, but so many people simply don’t because it just isn’t that easy all the time.

Josh Dorfman, The Lazy Environmentalist , created a whole media brand around this concept. By identifying easy and more affordable ways for consumers to make ‘green’ choices, more people found they really could take more ‘green’ actions with out much more effort than taking the conventional route.

Of course individuals must make their own decisions (you can lead a horse to water, but can’t make it drink kind of thing). However, it can be empowering when the little things become easily achievable, so the next time taking a little extra effort to do the right thing won’t seem so inconvenient.