Peter Byck’s film Carbon Nation offers tangible take-aways for affecting change and implementing sustainable solutions on many levels.

On Sunday, April 17th I watched the screening at Facets Multimedia in Lincoln Park during the weekend of its Chicago theatrical premiere. Tim invited me and even though I didn’t have time to read about the film, I’m a vulture when it comes to learning about sustainability (look for my next post on favorite sustainability books). After a few minutes of environmental stats via awesome motion graphics, I realized that this wouldn’t be the doom and gloom evening I had anticipated.

Tim, our fearless leader, is often coming up with ideas to improve our business. When he suggested recently that our company go green, we all cheered.

Perhaps referring to him as fearless is a tad extreme. When I say he's fearless I mean he doesn't fear irrational things, like, oh, cake. He fears no cake. But he does have rational fears, about things like, say, we humans screwing up our environment so badly that poor ol' Mother Earth can't fix herself back up again. And we, his employees, share that fear.

"But what's the first step in going green?" I asked in a trembling, afraid-of-new-things kind of way.

"Take a look at the 'eco-Andersonville Sustainable Business Certification Program Worksheet'" he boomed in a commanding baritone. Baritonally commanded, I did so. Once finished printing the sizable document I shook my fist at the heavens, suddenly realizing the irony of printing out on mashed-up trees a document specifically dedicated to reducing the amount of things we print out on mashed-up trees. Damn. Karma-wise, I deserved to be chopped up into cubes and scattered about the roots of a young sapling as fertilizer.