Living Green, but Allowing for Shades of Gray

NYTimes has a short article on Wendy Gordon, the founder and director of the Green Guide Institute. The article portrays her as performing " ... a balancing act between greenness and practicality".
I think that people should be encouraged to make small changes, and collectively, those small changes do add up:

Ms. Gordon is a realist. Sure, she would love it if people stuck to containers made from corn-based materials instead of petroleum-based plastics, and if they used only packages that were reusable, recyclable or at least biodegradable. But she knows that few people are ready to spurn cheap plastic packages. So the Green Guide settles for listing the best of the lot - for example, polyethylene terephthalate, commonly used in soda bottles, is relatively O.K. - and cautioning cooks not to reuse plastic containers that seem old, stained or worn.

She is equally realistic about eating habits. Yes, the Green Guide rails against the possible carcinogens unleashed by deep-fat frying - but it stops short of asking Americans to abandon French fries. Instead, the guide offers a recipe for "fake fries" that are baked in oil, a process that it says generates fewer cancer-causing agents.

By being more realistic, one is able to engage people and dialogue can take place. I've always thought that the hardcore environmental/vegetarian types, tend to undermine their cause: they turn people off.