In 2019, Southern Cross University conducted a survey and found 77% of participants want to learn how to live more sustainably.
there are many ways to embrace a sustainable lifestyle. If you’re eager to start but aren’t sure where to begin, you’ve come to the right place.
Here are seven ways to live a more sustainable lifestyle.
What Is Sustainable Living?
Sustainable living is where you reduce your demand for resources and reuse them when possible. This means you use eco-friendly products and welcome sustainability into your life whether it’s ditching plastic bottles or living off the grid.
You don’t have to completely change your life, it’s just about living with intention and considering the environment.
Our 7 Tips for Sustainable Living
Whether you believe in climate change or air pollution is worsening in your city, focusing on sustainability lets you feel in tune with your surroundings.
Once you live sustainably, you’ll notice the benefits. Here are the seven best places to start.
1. Grow Food at Home
If you’re eager to live off the grid, grow a vegetable garden at home.
Not only does it promote healthy eating but when you grow your own veggies, there’s no chance of pesticides. Plus, long-distance transportation of produce relies on fossil fuels harmful to the environment.
To start, plant a few seeds in the corner of your yard or in a container on your windowsill. You need little room to grow edible herbs, fruit, and veggies.
Don’t have a green thumb? Then visit your local farmer’s market and buy their fresh produce that’s locally grown.
2. Choose Slow Fashion
Fast fashion produces 10% of the global population’s carbon emissions and is the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply.
We have fast fashion because brands race to produce new styles on the market every season. As a result, garments are produced and manufactured in unsustainable ways which means workers aren’t earning a fair living wage.
Consumers then have wardrobes filled with barely worn outfits and overworked, undervalued workers. To avoid this, embrace slow fashion where you value quality clothing and consider the manufacturing process.
Or visit vintage shops to find second-hand clothes as they’re often a treasure trove of fantastic styles. As a general rule, before you buy anything ask yourself if you’re going to wear it at least 30 times. If you won’t, don’t buy it.
3. Switch to Sustainable Household Products
We use many household products that are unsustainable from plastic clingfilm to toothbrushes. A great place to start is your bathroom where you can swap to bamboo toothbrushes and plastic-free shampoo bars.
If you end up with a pile of usable items, donate them as someone else may make good use of it.
4. Choose Eco-Friendly Transport Methods
You can reduce vehicle emissions by using electric cars instead of petrol. You can also use public transport like buses or ask co-workers and neighbors if they want to carpool to work.
And, if you’re close enough, cycle for an eco-friendly and healthy alternative.
5. Recycle
Strive to recycle as much as possible. If your neighborhood doesn’t offer recycling pickup, find a drop-off location to recycle your goods.
When recycling electronics, ask the electronic recyclers where the materials go. Always avoid companies that send the waste overseas for unregulated recycling.
You can also resell clothing or toys to secondhand retailers or donate them to NGOs who will redistribute them to those in need.
6. Drink Water From the Tap
Americans buy around 50 billion water bottles per year, that’s 13 bottles per month for every person. Most of these are improperly recycled and are sent to the landfill.
People have become dependant on bottled water because they believe it’s safer and better tasting than tap water. But most municipal water supplies in the U.S provide safe, clean water to drink.
If you don’t like the flavor of your tap water, get a filtration system. And if you love the convenience of bottled water, purchase a refillable bottle and keep one in your fridge and one at the office.
You should also conserve household water use. For instance, install a water-efficient toilet that lets you choose between a full flush (for solid waste) and half-flush (for liquid waste).
Make small amendments too like turning off the tap when you’re brushing your teeth. Plus, switch to water-saving showerheads to reduce household water use.
If you have a yard, plant drought-tolerant species in high-quality soil so you don’t have to constantly water them. Further, if you have a sprinkler system, make sure they’re not watering the sidewalk or the driveway, and are on a timer.
7. Only Buy Fair-Trade Products
Consider where you get your coffee, sugar, tea, and chocolate from. There should be a fair-trade certification which means the items were grown using sustainable farming methods and the local workers receive a fair price for the goods they produce.
If they don’t have the label, the items may have been produced unsustainably and could be a result of exploitative labor practices.
That’s How You Start Sustainable Living
Now you know seven ways to ease into sustainable living.
Taking these small actions will make a drastic difference in how you navigate the world and appreciate where your belongings come from.
Once you adopt a sustainable lifestyle, you eat healthier, support fair-trade laborers, and reduce your carbon footprint. Good luck!
