Jennifer Cole is a native Nevadan, the mother of two beautiful girls, and the owner of Once Upon a Child, located at 4040 Kietzke Lane; Once Upon a Child is a localstore that buys and sells gently-used children’s clothing, toys, and equipment.Jennifer is like many of us, doing our best to spend our dollars where they benefitthe community, and support the growth of a sustainable local economy.

Let’s face it, sustainability is a nebulous concept. A commonly accepted definition is: the synergy between environmental, social, and economical responsibility. Great, but what does that mean for me? How can I define that within my own life and live it? Maintaining a balance between the environmental, social, and economical that can, well, be sustained, on a day to day basis by regular people like you and me is a real challenge.

What is environmentally friendly isn’t always economically viable and what is affordable isn’t always socially responsible and so forth. Thus the question I asked myself for this article: Is living sustainably possible for a family of four, in a smallish, desert city, in the winter, on a budget, with both parents working full-time?

First, I had to define sustainability in a more concrete way in order to be able to quantify my success in achieving it. To me, it means buying organic, local, and recycled, with minimal packaging, staying within my budget and not wasting time or fossil fuels. This is a tall order when your shopping is done during a 40+ hour work week, between school drop-off, nap time, dance classes, etc. It also means recycling, composting, and reusing as much as possible. This, too, is a tall order with a curbside recycling system in our city that does not comingle or recycle items such as #5 plastics or cardboard.

Finally, it means developing practices that make sense for my family and can be maintained without completely depriving or inconveniencing us. I determined, right off the bat, achieving all aspects of my definition of shopping sustainably was not possible in one spot in Reno. However, store hopping also breaks the tenets of not wasting fossil fuel or time. Therefore, I decided that making one trip to the one store that could fulfill the majority of my shopping needs for that day was the most sustainable approach. This required me to be flexible with my list. For example I shop for “fruit” instead of “strawberries,” and “vegetables” instead of “asparagus” leaving me open to choose what is local, or freshest, or most affordable. The stores I shop regularly in order of closest to farthest from my home are: Raley’s (walking distance), Great Basin Food Co-op, Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods. All of these stores provide enough variety for me to purchase most of the products I would shop for in a week. I also shop a good deal at Eco Reno for more occasional purchases such as personal care, household, and cleaning products.

All of these stores have “organic” covered more or less. Raley’s has fair sized organic produce section and carries a variety of organic products in their natural foods section. Costco adds more and more organic products each month. I recently found organic eggs, agave nectar, flour, sugar, coffee, ground beef, chicken, raisins, peanut butter and milk there. Great Basin is totally committed to organic and sustainable. Trader Joe’s is approximately 50/50 organic to conventional, but even their non-organic products are produced with a natural or healthful focus. And Whole Foods clearly has the largest selection of organic items. Once we get to “local” however, is where we have a major problem in Reno.

OK, we live in the high desert. We aren’t going to find much local produce in the winter. However, it is important to me to buy as close to home as possible.

Unfortunately, it is often difficult to tell precisely where products originate. Sometimes “a product of the USA” is the best you can hope for. I try to never buy food from outside the country. However, my kids love blueberries and red peppers, both of which are available in abundance right now, but only from Chile. Can we substitute apples or pears, or frozen berries even? Sure, but I will indulge them occasionally especially when it comes to vegetables since they only enthusiastically eat a few. The other aspect of shopping local is keeping your dollars local. So, the Great Basin Food Co-Op and Eco Reno are the clear winners in this category. The Co-Op is locally owned and operated by its members with a strong commitment to local products. Eco Reno is also locally owned and carries many items by area artisans such as soap, jewelry, clothing and accessories. Raley’s tends to carry a fair amount of California-grown produce and Whole Foods labels everything as to origin, so it’s easy to choose as close to home as possible.

Recycling is easy too. Recycled paper products can be found pretty much everywhere. I personally like the toilet paper and paper towels from Costco. I can buy in bulk, affordably, and even the packaging is 100% recycled. Eco Reno and Whole Foods both carry a variety of paper products and 100% recycled Preserve table ware. Whole Foods is also a “Gimme 5” collection location where you can drop off your #5 plastics for recycling into Preserve products.

As far a minimal packaging, Trader Joe’s and Costco can be challenging for shoppers. Trader Joe’s packages much of their produce with a tray and plastic wrap; however they have switched to a paper board tray and offer more bulk produce recently. Costco products frequently have double packaging (boxes within boxes, bags within bags) but some bulk items actually have less packaging such as one 5-lb bag of organic fair-trade coffee versus five small bags.

Finally we get to affordability. Costco wins hands down for a typical shopping list for my family. However, if you shop for what is on sale, not just what is on your list you can get great deals anywhere. I found organic lemons on sale at the Co-Op when I was there last, and apples and pears at Whole Foods for $.99/lb a week ago. Plus your membership at the Co-Op gives you 10% off your purchases all the time.

So what is the answer, can my family live sustainably in Reno? Well, sometimes, and not as consistently as I’d like. The idea of balance is really the crux of the problem. The stores that are the most affordable offer the fewest local options and tend to over package their products, the stores with the most local options have the least variety and often the highest prices, etc. So, what’s the answer? The answer is to be flexible, do your best, and keep voting for sustainability with your dollars. Support your local stores when you can, but when you shop the big guys read labels and buy responsibly.

Just by virtue of the fact that this is being discussed on a broader scale in our community is a positive sign. More and more Renoites are thinking about sustainability every day as is evidenced by the proliferation of green business and products within the last few years. There is hope and change happens a little at a time. I will continue to do my part and will try to do better tomorrow than I did today. And, that’s all we can really ask of each other, isn’t it?