The word sustainability has created so much buzz in recent years. As we talk about climate change on a large scale, the importance of a sustainable life also comes into play. Brands use it to generate followers, and millennials often talk about it while carrying their paper bags. Yet, empty promises of such life have left many people confused about what it actually is and how we must live up to this word in our daily lives.
A sustainable living involves reducing the number of earth resources that you use every day. It includes less usage of plastics, using energy-saving AC components, electricity, water, food, and a lot more. Thankfully, there are many ways to do it, which basically includes limiting the amount of energy that you use, changing your diet, and using eco-friendly products.
In a nutshell, to live a sustainable lifestyle, you must try to reduce your dependence on earth’s resources while also replacing the ones that you currently use. Small changes like these could help lessen your environmental impact on pollution and climate change and hence reduce your carbon footprint in the future.
After reading this, if you are intrigued towards living a more sustainable lifestyle, we recommend you to try the following tips:
Grown Your Food
Growing your own food is not that much of a difficult thing to do as it sounds. You can start by turning your backyard into a garden and grow a single plant. If you have never taken care of a plant before, it will get a little complicated. But not impossible!
You can start with herbs such as cilantro, basil parsley, and chives. Once you have stretched your green thumb, you can expand your garden by growing multiple plants. Relying on your own produce to feed yourself will teach you to eat locally and seasonally, and it will ultimately have little to no impact on the environment.
Furthermore, you can minimize food wastage by tossing the scraps in a container and let them decompose. Later, transfer the decomposing remains to your garden soil to grow healthy fruits and vegetables.
Shop From Thrift Stores
If you turn to fast-fashion brands for buying clothes, remember that they are not sustainable. They produce a lot of waste during production and have deplorable working conditions for their workers. As the fashion industry is the most polluting, you can cut down on waste by becoming an eco-conscious consumer who only buys vintage pieces from sustainable clothing outlets.
Instead of buying brand new pieces for an occasion, you can rent them. And if you do buy new ones, invest in sustainable and ethical brands that recycle, reuse, and give back to earth.
If you have a piece of clothing that you do not wear anymore, give it to a thrift store or charity shop.
Consume Less Energy
Residential energy consumption is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. As these emissions accumulate in the atmosphere, they lead to climate change, temperature increase, and wildlife disappearance. Although you cannot do anything about energy consumption by other individuals and industries, you sure can reduce your personal energy consumption.
Turn off the lights when you leave a room, upgrade to LED lights and Beny EV charger, hang clothes instead of drying, and avoid overusing your HVAC system. These changes may seem insignificant, but they contribute significantly towards reducing your total carbon footprint.
Another significant thing you can do is switching to electric cars from petrol and diesel ones to reduce carbon emission. You can also take a walk or ride a bike to your destination instead of driving. Using public transportation is also a feasible alternative.
Recycle & Reuse
You must remember the three R’s that you learned in elementary school – Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse. These three are the basics for living a sustainable lifestyle and are not that hard to follow. Recycling helps reduce the amount of waste that you see around yourself and conserves natural resources. It also increases economic security by prioritizing domestic materials and increasing jobs in the sector.
As single-use plastics such as soda bottles, wafers packet, sanitary napkins, etc., tend to end up in landfills, causing harm to the wildlife and environment, prevent this by choosing reusable and eco-friendly alternatives. You can start by recycling the items that can be recycled before using them as much as possible before throwing them. Switch to reusable water bottles instead of plastic ones to save the environment and your money.
Another thing you can do is take reusable bags to grocery stores as the plastic bags given by the store owners take a long time to degrade. They do not even break down entirely and become microplastics that absorb toxins and contribute to pollution.
Save Water
Water is the ultimate source of life. Everything you do from morning to night has some contribution by water whether it is for cooking, washing, bathing, or cleaning. That is why you must conserve it for the sake of the environment and your future generation.
You can start by bringing out minor changes in your daily lifestyle. It includes taking short showers, turning off the tap when brushing or shaving, installing water-saving showerheads, checking toilets for leaks, and installing a dual flush that uses only an adequate amount of water. Soon you will notice that these small changes bring about a significant difference.
Final Words
As you learn about the climate crisis and how your daily actions contribute to them, you may develop an urge to change your lifestyle. Although it will not be accessible at first, you can surely bring about the changes by adopting smaller practices. Take one step at a time on this long and winding road towards sustainability because overhauling your life is just not feasible.
Soon you will get used to this new lifestyle and wonder how you even managed without metal straws and paper bags.
