All it took was an article she read six years for Beth Terry, author of Plastic Free and creator of myplasticfreelife.com, to change her plastic-buying ways. Now, six years in, Terry has managed to reduce her plastic waste to a level that every American should aspire to.

“I just decided to see what it would be like to live without acquiring any new plastic,” Terry recalls. “I didn’t know if I could. In the beginning, I had piles and piles of plastic. Now, my plastic waste fits in one regular-sized grocery bag.”

Erik Rhyne took his passion for eco-friendly living and his experience as a technician for BMW to start an Honest-1 Auto Care franchise in Greensboro, NC. At Rhyne’s shop, small touches like paperless billing, a store-side garden and complete parts recycling add up to big green savings.

“The automotive world is inherently a dirty world,” Rhyne admits. “In a lot of ways, that has just become a part of people’s mind frame — cars are dirty and that’s just how it is. That doesn’t mean we can’t be conscious of what we’re doing.”

Jim Bodden founded WOW 1 DAY! Painting as a means to reduce the mess, the stress and the disruption of repainting a home. In 2008, he launched the company with a supreme focus on speedy quality. Bodden estimates that about 85% of the jobs the company quotes can be fulfilled in just one day. And, with painting standards rapidly changing, the company can paint with low- or no-VOC acrylic paints.

“The painting industry as a whole has dramatically improved,†Bodden reports. “Ten years ago, our [business] model would not exist, because the drying time on oil-based paints would not allow us to put on two coats in a day.â€

Leo Raudys, Senior Director of Environmental Sustainability at Best Buy, was drawn to the company after careers in policymaking and scientific fields because of the brand’s strong history of innovation. One of Best Buy’s biggest environmental successes is its electronics takeback program, which provides consumers with a convenient place — Best Buy stores — to take end-of-life items.

“We try to make recycling old electronics and appliances as easy as it is to purchase them,” Raudys says. “We really aim to take back virtually everything we sell in our core categories, and we’re pretty close to doing that.”