My friend Tim bought a Toyota Prius a few weeks back. Normally when one of my friends buys a new car I don’t feel inclined to write a blog post announcing it to the world, but in this case I feel differently.

Tim does not fit the basic demographics of your average hybrid car owner. According to a December 2007 Scarborough Research study that examined the behaviors of hybrid car owners, the typical hybrid car buyer is older, more affluent, physically active/outdoorsy, liberal and highly educated as compared to the average car buyer.

According to the study:

• 42% of hybrid owners make $100,000 or more per year;
• Hybrid owners are more than twice as likely as all U.S. adults to have a college degree;
• 38% of hybrid owners identify themselves as Democratic, and 34% identify themselves as Independents;
• Hybrid owners are 10% more likely than the average American to vote in every Presidential Election;
• Hybrid owners are generally physically active, with 33% stating they belong to a gym or health club (as compared to 18% of the total population);
• Twice as many hybrid owners purchase organic food than do average American.

In looking over this study, it’s clear that Tim does not fit the typical picture of a hybrid owner. Tim is a heavy machine operator – he operates a Caterpillar Excavator that has a 160-gallon gas tank which he empties on a daily basis. Last I checked, Tim wasn’t pulling in $100,000 annually, though I’m sure he wishes he were!

Tim’s a young guy too – he’s probably about 36, doesn’t have a college degree that I know of, and doesn’t belong to a gym. And while Tim is active (you kind of have to be to drive a Caterpillar Excavator) – he sails and boats when it’s nice – I couldn’t imagine him doing Pilates or Yoga – 2 other characteristics of hybrid owners. I couldn’t really imagine Tim admitting to eating organic food, though I’m sure he consumes it at times – rather, when I think of what Tim eats I think of meat, potatoes and beer.

When talking to Tim about trading in his 2000 Mercury Mountaineer, he stressed the fact that his truck gets 19-20 MPG (highway driving), and 15 MPG in the winter. His new car is going to save him upwards of $300 a month! When talking about why he bought a Prius, Tim says, “They left me no choice.” The cost of fuel has risen so high that Tim has had to change his habits significantly to fight back and not spend so much money on fuel.

The fact that Tim made the decision to buy a Prius means more than that he is an outlyer when it comes to his age, income and lifestyle choices. Tim is the canary in the coal mine – he is the warning that the time is NOW for us all to change our behaviors and start paying attention to how our individual actions affect our environment, our communities and our world.

Car companies should sit up and take notice when SUV-driving, heavy machine operating guys like Tim trade in their 4-wheel drive for hybrid technology. While Tim’s motives may not have been 100% environmentally propelled, the fact is that his actions will have an environmental impact as he lowers his carbon footprint and enters the world of forced environmentalism.

This past week I decided that I have Green Guilt. There are aspects of my life that could be a little more environmentally responsible (not the least of which is the fact that I drive 500+ miles a week – mostly because my job is a 70 mile-a-day commute). In thinking about all of the large and small things I do that aren’t very environmentally friendly, I thought it might help me break my bad habits if I write up a list and post it for the world to read. This way, my sins will be on display for all, and that might make me more likely to act responsibly, if only to point to the fact that I’m changing my way.

So here it is, my list of green sins:

1. I drive upwards of 500 miles a week. And while I try to limit my driving to commuting, necessary errands and visits to friends/ for my personal life, I sometimes make unnecessary trips. There’s a bus from downtown Portsmouth out to Newington (about 5 miles). I like to go to the bookstore out that way on occasion, but I have to admit that I never take the bus. Likewise, I visit my doctor in Boston every couple of months, but rarely ride the MBTA Commuter Rail to do so.

2. I don’t recycle at work. My workplace does not have a recycling program in place, and I’ve not made any inroads into establishing one. My best friend has been working on a hardcore recycling program for her workplace (and she works in the biotech industry, which makes it particularly difficult to do this kind of thing because of all of the biohazard requirements they have to follow), and I can’t even find out if we can get paper recycling bins for underneath our desks. And while I do try and bring my recyclable bottles home with me and toss them in the recycling bin here, I don’t always succeed in my efforts.

3. I throw away food. This one kills me. What tends to happen is that I go to the grocery store with high ideals and purchase enough produce to last me two weeks. Upon arriving home, I cut up the veggies and store everything in my fridge for easy consumption later. Over the course of the week however, I just won’t eat the food that’s in my fridge. Sometimes I eat out, sometimes I eat with friends, and sometimes I simply don’t eat. At the end of the two weeks, I’ll go to clean out my fridge and make room for new food, and end up throwing what had been perfectly good green peppers and broccoli into the garbage.

4. On the weekends I go out and leave the radio on in my apartment. Don’t ask me why – because I seriously don’t know why I do this, I just do.

5. I occasionally forget my mug when I get coffee at the local coffee joint. When I do forget my mug, I don’t always recycle the plastic cups that hold my iced Java – though I will say that I do make a good effort to recycle these, except of course when I’m at work. The fact that I buy my coffee pre-made from the local coffee joint isn’t so great either, though I almost always grab my morning elixir from locally owned and operated shops – Breaking New Grounds and Popovers on the Square, both in downtown Portsmouth.

6. Sometimes I get my coffee at Dunkin Donuts.

7. When it’s hot outside (really hot), I love to drive around with my windows open and the air conditioning on!

8. I still purchase synthetic clothing that’s made in countries like China, Malaysia, and Thailand. It’s not that I want to purchase these kinds of clothing, it just so happens that I can’t really afford organic cotton and hemp clothes that are hand-made in the USA. In my favor, I never throw out any clothes, I recycle and reuse them or donate my old outfits to charity.

9. Although I do buy a great deal of organic and locally produced foods, sometimes I can’t afford to do so. Some of the organic food that I do buy comes in individual servings (Amy’s Kitchen is my biggest sin on this front), and some of the organic food is mass-produced in California, than shipped to New Hampshire for my consumption (again with Amy’s Organics).

10. My favorite drink is Polar Seltzer Water – which comes in 1 liter plastic bottles and which I can drink 2 of each day when given the chance. I also buy Vitamin Water, Tazo Tea and Poland Spring Sparkling Water every once in a while. I do however, recycle all of the bottles.

With the publication of this list, I am going to try and make some real changes in my life and start acting more responsibly. Green guilt isn’t a good thing to carry around, though it can be used as a motivating factor. Let me know about your green guilt – what kinds of environmentally-distressing things are you still doing? What holds you back when you think about all of the good things you’re doing to make this planet a greener place?

I promise that I’ll report back soon and let you all know what kinds of changes I’ve made and what I can cross off this list of green guilt!

The Discovery Networks company premiers a new cable television channel this week: Planet Green.

We all live on one planet. It is rather odd that so little of our daily dose of media addresses our larger home. The environment, when featured in the nightly news, usual shows up as a special feature, a news piece that is pre-recorded and slipped in as filler at the end of a show. Even a major scientific report will slide off of Tom Brokaw’s plate if there is a celebrity disaster that takes higher billing. “Hold the mother-earth issues for a slow news day,” our media seems to say.

Humans made a game show channel, a cartoon network, and an “All Puppies, All the Time” channel before they launched a channel fully devoted to environmental issues.

I listened today to Brian Seltzer, of the New York Times, talk about the Planet Green channel on Marketplace. He called it, “The highest profile cable launch of the year,” and “a big bet that environmentally-themed programming can be entertaining [and profitable].” In other words: no matter how good the message, the programming has to attract viewers. It has to attract sponsors. It has to make money.

Who is Planet Green’s first premiere sponsor? General Motors: the makers of “The Hummer,” the king surfers of the SUV wave (which thankfully now seems to have crested.) Perhaps every major company or organization needs to have a green platform now.

Discovery’s method for attracting viewers, according to Seltzer, will be to focus on “making everything a little bit better,” and to be “optimistic, not preachy.” For the first half of this blog entry, I have definitely been preachy. For the second half, I promise to be optimistic.

I applaud vigorously. The Planet Green channel will replace the Discovery Home channel, which means it will be in 80 million American homes as of Wednesday, June 4th. 80 million American TV sets will have a constant source of awareness-raising, pro-earth information. That’s awesome. What’s more, the network is making a gamble, and to ensure that the gamble pays off they are going to have to create invogorating content. Al Gore giving (excellent) PowerPoint presentations is not going to be enough. I look forward to seeing the result.

A reading of Planet Green’s weekly schedule reveals their strategy: take show concepts that have worked before and paint them green. The schedule includes home improvement, fashion, and travel shows all with a dash of eco-verve. There’s a “Hollywood Green” show which features, “eco-conscious celebrity lifestyle segments in a sophisticated-yet-fun-to-watch style.” And then there’s “Mean Green Machines,” an enviro-friendly attempt at a greaser’s “Trucks + Bikes”-style show.

The big bang, however? Reality TV shows. Seriously. Check out the descriptions of Wasted or Greensburg. It may seem a bit forced, but if they can take reality TV, a style of television that is frequently reviled (although also frequently watched), and give it a purpose beyond ego-stroking, I may have to tune in.

The real gain here is to the American consciousness. Knowledge is power. Plenty of people have a luke-warm interest in helping the environment, and Planet Green may help them learn simple ways to really help. If arm-chair environmentalists learn lifestyle tips that help them save money while they save the earth, the show might build an unexpected middle-American fan base.

Depressing environmental news can lead to learned helplessness. Barring miraculous shifts in governmental policy, optimism and knowledge that empowers are our only roads out of the environmental decline. Knowing that you can make a difference, even in small ways, is vitally important. Despite my usual skepticism about such efforts, I’m going to tune in, visit the excellent Web site, and give big corporate America another chance to step up to the plate.