Is being green too expensive for even the middle class?

(photo by Rob Lee, used under a Creative Commons license.)

This past Sunday, Jeff Opdyke penned his "Love & Money" column for the Wall Street Journal on "The (Too) High Price of Being Green." Opdyke's lament about the high buy-in costs of going green around the house struck a chord with this suburban mama:

I know I risk angering a lot of people in the green movement who argue that environmentalism is about doing right by the environment, not your wallet. It's about thinking broadly, about the future we're passing on to our children. It's about the planet's survival.

Philosophically, I'm with you. But philosophy doesn't pay my bills.

It's one thing for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to rework his Hummer to run on zero-emission hydrogen. For him—for many high-profile celebrities now painting themselves green—it isn't a financial inconvenience. In fact, it could help them financially if it boosts their careers.

But it makes a huge difference for the average family to dump thousands of extra dollars into a hybrid vehicle. After all, when you're trying to save for retirement and your kids' college tuition, when you're trying to pay off the mortgage, the car note and student loans, when you're swamped by the everyday costs of life, green sometimes just means a deeper shade of red in your checkbook.

If the WSJ link above converts to a subscribers-only page, you can find the entire column republished at Green Envy, whose author takes issue with some of Opdyke's calculations and reasoning.

Treehugger suggests less expensive, everyday ways to live greenly. An excerpt:

The most environmentally conscious acts are often the cheapest. Like putting on a sweater rather than turning on, or up, the heating. Compact fluoro lighting saves money in the longer term. Owning and using a bicycle for city travel instead of a car. Catching public transit instead of paying a car's loan, insurance, maintenance, fuel, registration, etc. Buying secondhand, preloved goods, in lieu of new resource-intensive stryofoam wrapped or blister pack clad goods. Taking holidays locally rather than flying off to seemingly exotic locales (why fly to the Maldives if you can overland to Baja?) Placing a brick or weighted bottle into your toilet cistern, so it flushes less drinking water down the drain. Buying direct from farmers markets before visiting the supermarket. Reducing meat consumption, in favour of vegetables, fruit, grains and legumes. Not buying wasteful ‘packaged’ water, but refilling your own bottle with (the often more pure) tap water. Volunteering for your local conservation or environment group.

Drawing on the new Yahoo! Green portal, Trent of The Simple Dollar lists more "ways that going green saves a ton of money".

What about you? What's your best tip for saving money while making the greatest pro-environment impact?