In The Event That...

You Need an Excuse to Spend Even More Time at Whole Foods

by Danielle Zimmerman

Big Green Purse Tue., March 4, 7 p.m., free, Big Blue Marble Bookstore, 551 Carpenter Lane, 215-844-1870, bigbluemarblebooks.com

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The task of cleaning up and saving our environment might seem daunting at first, but you don't have to be a hardcore conservationist or eco-nerd to do your part. Just do what you always do: Go shopping. Only, try changing the way you do it.

Author Diane MacEachern elaborates on this idea in her new book, Big Green Purse (Avery, $17.95), and Web site of the same name (biggreenpurse.com). Her "One in a Million" campaign aims to get 1 million women to use $1,000 — of money they'd already be spending to manage their household — to buy green each year. She targets women, specifically, because women currently spend a whopping 85 cents of every dollar in the marketplace.

"You shift your spending from products that waste your money to give your budget more leeway to afford things like green and organic products, that can be a little bit more expensive," says MacEachern.

If her mission works, a billion dollars in the economy would wind up going toward products that do not harm the environment. The more people buy green, the more manufacturers are forced to start producing in environmentally safe ways and offering more earth-friendly products. And the more organic products are produced, the easier it is to find and buy them.

Still skeptical? MacEachern will be on hand at Big Blue Marble Bookstore this Tuesday to help show us how to put this plan into action and feel good about consuming again.