Though somewhat reluctant to be press-ganged into joining the 3CLJC eco-committee, Isaac was happy to embrace his eco-mission when it came to the Tikkun Olam project for his upcoming bar mitzvah. To illustrate how anyone can undertake actions to live more sustainably and improve their environment, Isaac set himself the challenge of performing ten eco-friendly activities in ten days. The purpose of the enterprise was to show that such commitments need not be difficult, and can easily be done by everyone. A key element of the project was to put together and deliver a presentation about his ten simple actions, to be given to the community at the special Eco-Shabbat. This was held at and in conjunction with the good people at Stroud’s Springhill Cohousing Community, where Isaac wowed the assembled masses with a whistlestop tour through his adventures in accessible eco-activism. Isaac’s ten-step program:
- Eat from home: Use home-grown produce to make a meal
- Litter picking
- Buy local (i.e. produce that is grown or made near where you live)
- Start a compost heap
- Go a day without meat
- Wild foraging: find healthy foodstuffs growing wild around where you live
- Walk somewhere you would normally drive to
- Turn off the lights when you are not using them
- Wash up with cold water’
- Take shorter showers