6 ways to live more sustainably
By Phoebe Hares
In an era of social media, the internet, and fast-news, we are inundated with data and information telling us all the things that are wrong with the world and all the things we shouldn’t be doing.
It can be overwhelming to know what we should be doing, or where to start. Climate change is at the forefront of everyone’s minds at the moment, with everyone and everything telling us we need to live more sustainably.
But, what does that even mean?
We’re told we need to change our whole way of living imminently if we want a future. Kinda terrifying. It’s easier to just live under a rock and hope it all blows over. Living sustainably is a lot simpler than it’s made out to be. If you want to make a real difference in the world there’s a couple of small things that you can do each day.
We think that ‘one person doesn’t matter’. But, that’s simply not true. For instance, just one person choosing to eat one vegan meal each day for a year equates to saving 3,000 miles driving in carbon emissions, and saves 200,000 gallons of water.
Let’s just sit with that for a moment.
- By not eating meat or dairy for just one of your meals everyday can save 200,000 gallons of water each year. This is just one small daily change you can do to live more sustainably.
2. Shop local
What we eat and where we buy our food is probably one of the biggest decisions we can make in terms of our effect on the environment. By shopping locally, we are reducing our food mileage.
Imported food can travel up to 1,500 miles to get to the supermarkets before we buy it. That’s a whole lot of mileage for one meal.
3. Reduce your food wastage
This is an important one. We waste 1⁄3 of all food produced globally each year. If going vegan for one meal will save 200,000 gallons of water, think how many gallons of water and carbon emissions actually go into each meal. 25% of the world’s fresh water supply alone goes into the food we waste. So, just buy the food you know you’re going to eat, and don’t be afraid of leftovers.
4. Use environmentally friendly cleaning products.
This is one that’s not often spoken about, but is really quite important. Cleaning products are not only packaged in single use plastic, but they contain really harmful chemicals that aren’t good for us or the environment. For example, triclosan is a chemical that can be found in many everyday household products. It’s an antibacterial chemical that also kills the good bacteria in our stomachs, infects rivers and disrupts ecosystems. It’s not a good one. So, look for cleaning products that use recycled packaging and environmentally friendly ingredients. This will help your health as well as mother nature’s.
5. Conscience shopping.
Shopping, consumerism, has the biggest detriment to our environment.
We spend around a grand each year on clothes that get worn an average of 8-times before we throw them away, which equates to 3.1kg of clothes wastage each year per person.
Not only is this a huge waste of clothes, but most of these items are made from non-biodegradable materials using fossil fuels and non-renewable energy. Often, in poor working conditions in unethically manned factories. Think before you buy.
Spend more money on good quality, sustainably made items that you’ll love for a lifetime. When you get bored, sell it. Streetwear fashion often goes for more than what the item was bought for. By shopping smarter, you’ll actually save (or even make) money in the long run.
6. Meditation
So, this one sounds like I’m going off topic a bit, but hear me out.
Meditation as a daily practice gives our brains a break from the busyness of life, which gives them the space to process all the info we’ve absorbed from the day. From this, we’re able to make decisions a lot easier. Living sustainably can seem hard, and daunting.
But, by meditating, or practicing mindfulness, for even just 5-minutes each day it will be a lot easier to make these conscious decisions. Healthy you, healthy planet.
A MASSIVE thank you to Phoebe for her guest article this week.
Please feel free to leave a comment below if you have any additional suggestions on ways to live more sustainably, or if you found any of these tips useful!
