Practical Ways To Embrace Sustainability In Your Everyday Life
In today’s world, where there is more awareness of the growing list of environmental issues, it’s becoming clear that to minimize our environmental impacts, people need to take responsibility for their consumption and make efforts for a sustainable approach to living their lives.
The concept of sustainable living is making conscious decisions with choices that promote
Sustainable living involves making conscious choices that promote the planet’s well-being.
It is the ability to maintain at a specific rate or level. When the term is tossed around, it discusses ensuring that natural resources are preserved so future generations can access them.
One of the best ways, as a consumer, you can make sustainability a focus in your life and make a more significant impact on the community around you is through your purchasing power.
The items you purchase and the businesses you frequent will grow as you spend more, influencing competitors to match those more sustainable products and offerings, furthering the idea of enhancing sustainability through your consumer power.
But be clear, there is a growing need to focus on sustainability in our daily lives, but to do it practically. If you’re interested in practical ways to embrace sustainability, we have a list of ways below.
The Three R’s: Foundational Sustainability
The fundamental principle is to focus on the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
The ways to incorporate the three R’s include:
- Reduce
- Reuse
- Recycle
Reduce consumption in what you purchase and how that item is delivered, whether in packaging or shipping.
Reuse as many items as possible, including in creative ways that maybe the original item wasn’t created for.
An example is using plastic packaging for food items as a storage bin for children’s crayons, small items, or what-have-you.
When you purchase items, shop for those items that are designed to be recycled or are already made from recycled materials. A little fact is that most clothes are not recycled. In fact, only 10% of clothing is made from recycled materials. So, shopping for items made from recycled products is an easy way to make a significant difference.
If recycled items aren’t available, consider ones that are durable enough to reuse as the opportunity presents itself.
For example, items designed from recycled materials are paper products that incorporate 90% or higher of recycled material or alternative paper products.
Alternative Or Recycled Paper Products
The reason alternative paper products are a good suggestion is that traditional paper products require a lot of extra resources, from energy to processing, and are often made from harder-to-replenish sources.
Alternative options like recycled paper and bamboo paper products are more accessible to produce and much easier to replenish.
Bamboo paper products include:
- Bamboo paper towels
- Toilet paper
- Paper boxes and cup holders
- Paper packaging for consumer products
- Paper bags
Making consumer purchases focusing on sustainable options like bamboo or recycled paper will help businesses make more sustainable decisions in their product offerings.
Energy Efficient Appliances
Another area to incorporate sustainability in your everyday life is to purchase power-efficient appliances and to limit energy consumption.
When you switch to more energy-efficient appliances, you’re consuming less electricity, meaning that power providers can slow down their production.
Also, becoming energy-efficient, whether at home or the office, will lower your energy bills, making it a cost-effective decision as well.
Take Public Transportation Or Switch To Electric Vehicles
One of the most significant impacts we have on our environment is with fossil fuel vehicles. Depending on the city you live in and your travel needs, consider using the public transportation in your area.
While taking public transportation may be slightly inconvenient, taking the bus, trolley, or subway are great ways to impact your travel less.
On top of public transportation, consider walking or biking for destinations in areas nearby you.
If your city doesn’t have the infrastructure for public transportation or you need to go to areas that are difficult to get to by public methods, consider carpooling, ridesharing, or switching to electric vehicles (EVs).
Electricity is more accessible and is much cleaner than fossil fuels, so with an EV, you can get to and from your destination while making less of a carbon imprint on your environment.
Eat And Shop Local
On top of traveling individually, which increases the impact of harmful fossil fuels on the environment, finding a way to increase sustainability includes limiting the distance you travel for shopping and dining.
One of the best ways to adopt a sustainable lifestyle is to eat and shop locally. The benefits of eating and shopping locally are two-fold.
On the one hand, you’re limiting the energy resources you consume to achieve your outcomes, and two, by shopping and dining locally, you have a greater chance of supporting local businesses where the dollars you spend stay in the community.
Stay Educated
As technology improves, so do solutions for making a positive impact and adopting sustainable solutions. From improved solar power to EVs that emit no emissions, improvements in the products we use and how we package them are constantly occurring.
In some communities, the movement toward more sustainable lifestyles includes pushing for sustainable public buildings and spaces. For example, fabric-enhanced public spaces have responded by utilizing fewer resources and enhancing sustainability solutions.
The key to adopting a sustainable lifestyle is to stay educated. As technologies improve and we become more aware of our impacts on the environment, you can adapt and adopt these changes for the better by staying educated on the newest trends, techniques, and science.
Creating a future with all the resources we enjoy now takes a concerted effort by everyone to help conserve and for more people to adopt a philosophy of sustainability.
By making small changes in how we travel and consume, we’re slowly making positive impacts through our actions to help preserve resources for future generations.