Nancy Hickling will be guiding us through her adventure on the path to going green. She'll blog regularly about things she's noticed, ask questions about the legitimacy of certain products, and request feedback on environmental principles. From someone who is out of touch with the "green" world, we'll get to watch as she faces all the obstacles and learns to share our passions.

I'm not green.  I have never been green. I am actually quite wasteful at times.  All of this is unfortunately true.  That is until I met a woman named Ashley Sue.  Ashley is one of the most incredible women I have ever met.  She is charismatic, sweet, thoughtful, and GREEN.  When I first met her, she was talking about how her and her boyfriend live an extremely green lifestyle.  She enlightens people on eating organic, the vegan lifestyle, and going green.  (She also developed an all girl football fantasy football team - talk about an incredible chick!)

Once I met Ashley Sue, I was intrigued, I started reading her blog weekly wondering what new pointers she would introduce into my life.  One day Ashley Sue and I were talking about the green lifestyle and the little things I can do - so I started to take some baby steps, and then fell right back into my old lifestyle (yes folks, I'm not proud).

So I had lost hope until I met Pete Pagano, an owner of several businesses in downtown Raleigh.  Pete is one of the other most influential people I have met on the green trail.  Ashley Sue, Pete, and I talked for two hours straight about going green, and even little tips to help with my everyday lifestyle.  Then he informed me of one of his many ventures - Green Planet Catering.  Well, let me just say, it was all icing on the cake from here.  Pete then introduced me to Daniel & Ben (both strong members of Green Planet Catering - and two individuals who are truly passionate about their green lifestyle) and all I can say is these two gentlemen were incredible.  They showed me their biodiesel conversion system and organic farm, they explained how their catering company works, their goals and aspirations, but more importantly info about their green lifestyle.

That pretty much brings you all up to date as to why I am here.  I need some coaching, guidance, and helpful information from all of you.  I am not green now, but I want to go green.  I have taken some baby steps and stuck with it - recycling was a big one for me.  However after meeting Ashley Sue, Pete, Daniel, and Ben I want to do more, be more, explore more.  Now I seem to have my sensors on to EVERYTHING.  I was at a wedding this past weekend, and noticed how wasteful everything was. I was at a Kenny Chesney concert and noticed the next day when I went back to my car how many bottles, cans, etc. were flung all over the place - and I asked myself how can I make this better???

This is where I turn to you - again, the idea is to assist me in my journey of turning green.  I intend to ask several questions and also question a lot of what society has put in place in attempts to ride the "green train" as some great marketing ploy. For example, Wal-mart, Kroger, etc. are now green for having reusable bags!?!?! This is definitely a great baby step (again I know we all need to start somewhere) - but does this really make them green?

So my first challenge to everyone out there is help me define green.  I would love some suggestions on other baby steps I can take at home to try and get to a more sustainable lifestyle.