CosmoGIRL 250 Things You Can Do to Green the World

I never really considered myself a “green” person until I went to the Power Shift conference in Washington, DC last year. Things I or my family had done for years—recycling, composting, using reusable bags and cutlery—were second nature to me, and it did not quite click with me that we had been going green for years. After going to Power Shift, I made a decision to do more to help the environment, so when I saw CosmoGirl! had come out with a book with 250 ways to go green, I was intrigued.

The audience for CosmoGIRL 250 Things You Can Do to Green the World is the same audience as the magazine: high school girls. Many of the suggestions are targeted to that age group, such as ways to go green for the prom. Some of the tips extend to college students, such as dump and runs (a great idea, and a good way to pass on things you do not need anymore). However, many of the green ideas can apply to any age group. The pocket-size book is broken up into nine sections: fashion, home, food, beauty and fitness, travel, school, holiday, pets, and activism. I appreciated in their pet section that they recommend adopting pets from an animal shelter, a cause very close to my heart.

What makes this book very accessible is that many of the green ideas are easy to do. For example, tip #115 recommends keeping a pitcher of water in the fridge, then pouring into a travel mug or reusable bottle (bye bye plastic bottles!). Since the target audience is high school girls, many of the ideas take into account a limited budget. Many of the tips also suggests different eco-friendly organizations and charities that readers can get involved in. In addition, the book also gives a shout out to green groups run by women.

Each page contains one tip (except the ten eco-tips that are longer) and are easy to read—they resemble the blurbs of information found through a CosmoGirl! or Cosmopolitan magazine. However, I did find one small problem. In tip #176, the authors recommend buying a book printed on recycled paper; I could not find anywhere in the book stating that my review copy was printed on recycled paper. Besides that glitch, CosmoGIRL 250 Things You Can Do to Green the World is a good “going green” reference, especially for teenagers.

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