My husband, Michael Greven, and I moved to a rural area near Columbus in 1992 to live closer to the earth and to teach our children about respecting nature.

Since then, our lifestyle has become completely focused on green living because of the climate crisis and our strong desire to try to lessen our carbon imprint on Earth.

We have two green businesses — EgoSource Inc., which deals in solar technology, and CasaVerde LLC, which focuses on green building — so it is basically what we do.

Our lifestyle is all about conservation because we feel it is the best way to create less greenhouse gases.

We live in a passive-solar house that is designed to be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. We have replaced all of our windows so that the house is very energy-efficient. Our home does not have an air conditioner or a furnace, but we do burn wood. There are about eight days in summer and in winter in which we are not completely comfortable, but we feel that it is a small price to pay to have less impact.

Two summers ago, we purchased solar panels, which have cut our electric usage and are a terrific way to provide energy for our home. We also hang all of our laundry to dry it instead of using a dryer.

Our family recycles everything that we can — paper, plastic bottles, glass, cardboard and metals. Thankfully, Columbus has a pretty good recycling center. We also compost and feed food scraps to our chickens and dogs. We eat and sell eggs from our free-range chickens, which we raise ourselves because we don’t appreciate how the poultry industry functions. We don’t eat beef.

During the summer, our family eats food grown in our big organic garden. We then freeze and can food from it for the winter months. We have never put chemicals on our lawn as that just makes the grass grow faster and then you have to mow it more. We have even reduced the area that we mow, enjoying instead the growth of natural grasses and wildflowers. Rain barrels provide a source for watering our animals and smaller gardens, as well as for washing the car.

My husband and I drive diesel Volkswagens, which get very good mileage. We also try to carpool with family members whenever possible. Driving less is our biggest challenge, with two older kids and work obligations.

Although it takes more effort to live this way, we are teaching our children not to be wasteful and that we can make a difference to help protect the Earth and their future.

As told Star reporter T.J. Banes at tj.banes@indystar.com