How to be a positive force for the environment

Like sooooo many people my thoughts keep going back to "what can I do to reduce my (negative) impact on the environment?" and "what can I do to help others be more environmentally friendly?"

Clearly there are no appealing simple answers. Becomming a hermit doesn't appeal. Nor does grumbling at others how dirty their habits are. I remember a South Park episode that looked at the idea of people (in California in this case) who were smug about how environmentally friendly the were - I found it entertaining though it did bring home to me that "I'm greener than you are" is hardly a complelling argument.

I'm not one to promote third party conferences, particularly when they charge hundreds of pounds for delegates however I AM interested in one titled "GreenIT" - it's due to take place on the 7th and 8th of May in London - it is possible to register as an "attendee" for free though that doesn't give access to the conference sessions.

There are many companies pushing their green credentials and quite often missing the point entirely. I remember one who pushed the message that you just had to go and buy a brand new flat screen TV as it was more environmentally friendly than keeping your nasty old one - clearly there's much more to it than power consumption alone. Even offering to recycle the old one (while a good start) doesn't mitigate the impact of building and shipping the new one.

I have been following work in Microsoft's Green Data centre initiatives and wonder what can be done from an IT Pro & consumer perspective.

I would like to learn a great deal more about steps that we can take to actually make a difference. Any constructive suggestions would be appreciated. If you're interested in working together then I'd love to hear from you. If you know of communities (anywhere in the World if they're online) that are serious about making a practical effort then again I'd love to hear from you.