By Marty Murray, MowGreen Alumnus
It was a day in early March. The weather could still swing from spring like to wintery in an instant. I had just finished taking the GMAT, and now I had another challenge to face.
When I had biked to the test center, the weather had been reasonably cycling friendly. Not any more. When, after the marathon test, I looked out the window, there was a healthy coating of snow on the ground and more coming down, and there I was with my road bike.
My wife offered to come pick me up, and suggested alternatives, “There are buses, and trains,” but to me the definition of success on that day went beyond scoring 800 on the test. Nope, I had to also succeed in getting to and from the test center without burning any fossil fuel. So I walked out the door and into the snowstorm, and somehow, avoiding sliding cars by running up snowbanks bike in hand and carefully staying upright when it was possible to ride in the slush, I made the three hour, fourteen mile trek back to Greenwich.
Why did I insist on doing that? ‘Cause I’m an eco freak and I take no prisoners.
The eco freak lifestyle isn’t always easy. Our roads and other systems weren’t designed with total sustainability in mind. So the eco friendly way is not always the smoothest or easiest way, but I consider it the only way to go.
When, or if, I go to a grocery store, most of the products are off limits because the methods of creation or the packaging do not fulfill my criteria for sustainability. When I, rarely, buy clothes, it’s “Is that cotton organically grown?” and I don’t even think of doing something like cranking the AC in the summer or flying south for a break from the winter weather. When I looked for a job, I didn’t want to be involved in anything that contributes to the ongoing degradation of our environment and to the real risks to the very functioning of our ecosystem.
That’s why I joined MowGreen, a company driven by a vision of cleaner air, quieter neighborhoods and a healthier world.
Has working for MowGreen always been easy? Of course not. MowGreen is breaking new ground and following the road less traveled, and that has meant challenges like pushing three reel mowers at once in 90 degree heat and dealing with beta test type equipment that snaps in two places in the middle of mowing a four acre lawn. Our clients can also be picky, eco conscious types who want us to know things such as exactly what to put into a certain compost pile or to do things such as handle leaves in a way designed to minimize disruption of the lives of frogs.
That’s the way we like it though, and wow I’ve gotten into good shape.
So that’s the lifestyle I’ve been living, I can’t imagine living any other way, and I’m glad to see that via MowGreen and other cool enterprises, we are moving toward a world where the eco path is getting smoother and easier, the environment is starting to catch a break and we are beginning to heal the world we live in and ourselves.
-Marty Murray
