For seven days, project coordinator Anna Mondragon and attorney Frank Herdman each tried diligently to meet 12 "green" goals to save energy, gas and water.

Both were already doing some things, like turning the water off when they were brushing their teeth and switching to more energy-efficient light bulbs. Both wanted to boost their commitment to a more sustainable lifestyle. And they found The New Mexican's "green" challenge a help in jump-starting the process.

While a struggling musician in New York City in the late 1980s, Mondragon worked two days a week for a small architectural firm that designed energy-efficient buildings and used green office practices. But "I never completely made the crossover of being green in my personal life. So after all these years of being marginally involved, I'd like to start 'walking my talk' at home, as well as work," Mondragon wrote when entering the challenge. She went so far as to rate herself from zero to 10 on her success in meeting each goal each day.

Herdman said he entered the challenge to see if he could set an example. "I'm a busy attorney in private practice. If I could adhere to the 12 rules, I think it might prove that others could too," Herdman wrote in his entry.

Here is how our challengers did on a few of the toughest goals.



Goal: Bike, take a bus or carpool instead of driving.

Both participants live close to their jobs, an advantage in meeting this goal. Herdman lives in the Casa Solana neighborhood in north-central Santa Fe, about two miles from his downtown office and just a few blocks from La Montañita Co-op, where he bought a lot of his food. He and his wife don't have children.

Mondragon and her husband live in Rancho Viejo, southwest of Santa Fe. She's a project manager at the subdivision and can walk to work. Her parents live next door, and her mom works part-time at the nearby Santa Fe Community College day-care center. She's able to take Mondragon's 3-year-old daughter, Raji, there and pick her up.

Mondragon's problem was running errands and grocery shopping without using a vehicle. She already plans food shopping and errands around a once-a-week car trip into town. The closest bus stop is at Santa Fe Community College, and she couldn't figure out how to carry all the groceries she buys for her family at one time, so she stuck with taking the car. She gave herself a 10 on days she stayed out of her car and a zero on the two days she had to drive.

Herdman chose a bicycle for tooling around the city when he needed wheels. He used a "commuter" bicycle, one he built from used parts, to go shopping and run errands. For work trips, he took his lighter, faster road bike. Since the challenge, he's continued to bike most places and stay out of his Ford F150 pickup except when he has out-of-town court hearings. He works long hours at the Rubin-Katz Law Firm and sometimes didn't start biking home until after dark. "Riding around Santa Fe, I never encountered problems," Herdman said. "On the contrary, drivers were very accommodating."

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Goal: Recycle, recycle

Herdman was already using the city's curbside recyclables pickup before the challenge. He wishes the city would increase the types of plastic — such as yogurt containers — that it accepts.

Rancho Viejo just opened a recycling collection point in early April and will haul the recyclables to the joint city/county regional recycling center. Mondragon said she had a pile of recyclables in bags to separate. She and her family were already recycling aluminum cans and reusing scrap computer paper for their daughter to draw on. She also called the toll-free numbers on junk mail she received to get off their mailing list.

Once a month, she removes the office fax number from the mailing lists of insurers, pharmaceutical companies, travel agents and discount office supply companies in an effort to conserve paper.



Goal: Buy as much food as possible that is produced within 500 miles of Santa Fe.

This was the most difficult goal to meet for both participants, but for different reasons.

Mondragon found the prices for local food hefty. "As much as I wanted to comply with this part of the challenge, I really could not get myself to spend twice as much as I would normally pay for lettuce, apples, oranges etc.," she wrote. "I would like to support everything that La Montañita Co-op represents, but right now, I can't justify the prices."

She can meet the goal pretty well through the summer and fall, thanks to family within a two-hour drive who grow a variety of seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables, she said. The challenge, she added, made her think about putting in a larger garden this year.

Herdman said his reason for having trouble meeting the goal was simple: His wife, Alice Temple, usually does the shopping and the cooking. With her out of town during his challenge week, he had to do it himself. "I'm a lazy cook," Herdman admitted.

When he did cook, he tried to use locally produced foods. "For breakfast, I've been eating French toast made from Cloud Cliff Nativo bread or Fano nine-grain bread, local eggs from Taos Farms and milk from Rasband Dairy in Albuquerque," Herdman reported.

He bought bison meat, greens and spinach at the Santa Fe Farmers Market. At La Montañita, where the labels affixed to locally produced food make it easy to spot, he found beets grown in Rowe, tomatoes from Alcalde, salsa made in Albuquerque, cheese from Tucumcari and tortillas made near Española.



Goal: Use cloth bags for all purchases.

Mondragon used plastic bags at the beginning of the week but recycles them at the grocery store. She gave herself a zero the first few days on this one, until she finally found some cloth bags in her closet and used them on her once-a-week trip to Smith's grocery store. "I could tell this wasn't a common practice at the store when I asked them to put the groceries in the bags I brought. The young bagger looked at me like I was crazy," she said.

Herdman's bicycle basket doubles as his cloth bag. Purchased at Rob and Charlie's in Santa Fe a few years ago, the nylon basket clips on his bike rack. When Herdman pops it off, it unfolds to the dimensions of a grocery sack. It comes with a strap so he can sling it over his shoulder when needed.



Goal: Take five-minute showers.

Both found it pretty easy to take sub-five-minute showers. "It made me more aware," Herdman said, though he usually doesn't take long showers anyway. "I'm usually racing to get to work (especially when he's biking)."

The only day Mondragon went over the mark was when she conditioned her hair. She ranked herself an 8 that day, and 10 on the others. By day five, she was finding the five-minute shower a cinch. "I think I'm developing an internal timer on how much time it takes to shower," she said. "Five minutes is plenty."



Goal: Turn the lights off when you leave a room. Don't use them unless you must.

Herdman said this challenge definitely made him more conscientious. Mondragon said she was already pretty good about turning off the lights, plus she's taught her toddler to do it as well. "She has a little stool she takes around and stands on to turn off the lights," she said.

Her husband, furniture refinisher Barry Metzger, is the worst offender, she said, though he is getting better. So one of her daughter's jobs now is to "follow around after daddy turning off the lights when he leaves a room," she said.



Parting thoughts

Herdman and Mondragon both said the challenge made them recommit to living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. They said they were trying to stick with as many of the dozen goals as they can. "The real challenge is keeping it up until it becomes a habit," Mondragon said.

Mondragon, who grew up in Colorado's San Luis Valley, moved with her husband to Rancho Viejo seven years ago expecting Santa Fe to be progressive in green thinking and practices. It didn't turn out to be as "green" as they thought. "I would like to do my part as a member of the community to get Santa Fe on that Top 10 list of most green, livable cities," she wrote via e-mail. "We have all the resources in place, we just need to start using them!"

Herdman was surprised to find the challenge didn't add that much time to his already busy six-day work schedule. He said he hopes more people will realize how easy it really is to bicycle commute in Santa Fe. The advantages of bicycling are many, he said: fresh air, exercise, saving gas money and getting to know neighbors. The city and businesses, he said, could help make Santa Fe more bike friendly by increasing the number of bike racks.

A lot of "living green" comes down to developing new habits and routines, said Herdman when his week was finished. "And some of it is quite enjoyable," he said. "If everybody cut back just a little bit, it would make a big difference."

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.


We asked our two Green Week participants to meet these 12 goals for seven days earlier this month. See how many you can do, and tell us about your experiences. What was hard? What was easy? What did you learn? Let us know at www.santafegreenline.com.



1. Stay out of your car. Ride a bike or take a bus or catch a ride with a friend.

2. Take your own coffee mug to the coffee shop or work.

3. Recycle everything you can: cans, plastic, cardboard, newspaper, glass, junk mail.

4. Buy as much locally produced food as possible. (Food produced within 300 miles of your home.) It's a challenge at this time of year, but give it a try at places like La Montañita Co-op and the Santa Fe Farmer's Market.

5. Buy little, if any, processed, packaged food. Go for fresh.

6. Use cloth bags for all purchases.

7. Unplug all electrical devices when not in use or turn them off at the power strip (microwaves, televisions, computers, blow dryers, radios, toasters, etc.).

8. Save your shower water and pump or bucket it outside to landscaping.

9. Turn the lights off when you leave a room. Don't use lights unless you have to.

10. Ditch the bottled water. Use tap or reverse-osmosis-treated tap water.

11. Take five-minute showers.

12. Keep the tap turned off while brushing your teeth.