Turning to sustainable ways, may it be for the betterment of the environment or as a lifestyle change, can be hard to start if you don’t know where to begin. Taking care of the environment may be one of the most basic knowledge we are taught during our schooldays, but it is still easy to feel at a loss. To start your quest for eco-friendly living, here are some easy-to-follow steps that can help reduce your environmental footprint.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The first step to leading an environmentally friendly lifestyle lies in what most of us know as the three Rs of waste management. By reducing, reusing, and recycling, half our journey towards sustainable living has already been undertaken. Reducing your purchases and buying only the essentials leaves you with less waste to deal with.
In line with that, opting to buy reusable things can save you money and let you contribute to the global effort of protecting the planet. Lastly, recycling and re-purposing your used items basically let you enjoy the benefits of reducing and reusing, allowing you to give old items a new lease of life.
Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Carbon emissions are one of the top pollutants and contributors to global warming. With the capability to have adverse consequences on human and environmental health, reversing its effects by turning to environmentally-friendly sources can help us lessen or even stop the repercussions of climate change.
Starting at the most basic part of our lives, we can offer help by adjusting and tweaking how we run our households. Simply unplugging unused appliances lets you do your part in saving the planet by reducing carbon emissions from coal or fossil fuel energy sources. Besides unplugging, switching to eco-friendly power sources, such as those from reputable solar companies, is also a cost-efficient choice that will produce positive results, especially in your electricity bill.
Support Fairtrade Products
Some prominent corporations are also the biggest contributors to global warming. Most choose environmentally harmful ways of producing crops since it is cheaper and more convenient. Thankfully efforts to combat these are now available. Fairtrade is a movement that pushes for better benefits and work conditions for farmers and sustainable ways in producing various agricultural products. It helps the environment by promoting eco-friendly alternatives to grow crops in exchange for a decent sum.
Through patronizing fairtrade products, you get to help small-time businesses work in better conditions. This will also influence other farmers to use eco-friendly practices, such as eliminating pesticides, reducing water usage, and using products that will benefit their surrounding ecosystem when tending to their land.
Drive Green
Another cause for global warming is greenhouse gas emissions from cars. Vehicles produce carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, which all leave long-term negative effects. To do your part, walking, cycling, carpooling, or using public transportation are great options in minimizing your transportation footprint and leading a sustainable lifestyle.
Choosing not to ride your car will also allow you to get the exercise you need by walking or riding your bicycle to the places you need to be. You can also save money and explore places you wouldn’t have been able to see had you been confined in your four-wheel ride.
Eat Only What You Can
Excessive buying combined with being wasteful results in more food buried in landfills, producing higher amounts of carbon dioxide. If you’re fully committed to living a life of sustainability, you should eliminate one major thing: wasting food. You might think that the food you fail to eat, as little as it is, won’t really make a huge impact when put on the large scale of things, but everything starts small.
There is an estimated one hundred twenty-five million pounds of food waste every year in the US alone, and if you combine that with the rest of the world, it would doubtlessly produce astronomical amounts. With as big a problem as this comes a simple and easy solution — eat only what you can. It’s easy to be blinded by different kinds of delicious food when on a grocery run, but if you take the time to really think about how much of it you can eat, you’ll start only checking out the things you’re sure won’t go to waste.
To ensure that you are not left with waste even after modifying your eating habits, composting is a way to stay on your sustainability track. By turning leftovers into compost, you can create nutrient-rich soil and help reduce landfill waste.
Little as it may seem, contributing in our own little ways can significantly impact the long run. By doing the tips mentioned above, you can start your eco-friendly journey and help contribute to a healthier future for the planet.
