Easy Sustainable Lifestyle Ideas For Beginners
Sustainable living aims to minimize individuals’ environmental footprint. It can help promote cleaner oceans and forests.
Buy food in bulk at the supermarket and use your own containers as storage. Many beauty and household cleaning products also come in bulk quantities.
1. Buy Local
One simple way to live sustainably is by shopping locally. Doing this reduces greenhouse gas emissions associated with shipping food and goods around the world while simultaneously supporting local economies and supporting community life.
Fair-trade coffee or chocolate purchases provide much-needed financial support to their producers while helping ensure money reaches those most in need. Reducing waste by choosing cloth napkins and t-shirts rather than disposable paper towels will also help.
Reduce environmental harm by driving less and opting for public transit instead. If necessary, switch to hybrid or electric cars, which are among the more eco-friendly options available. Furthermore, restrict air travel as much as possible as it’s a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions.
2. Say No to Trends
Many individuals embrace sustainable living because of environmental concerns and want to find ways to protect the earth while decreasing human impacts. Other motivations may include wanting to reduce waste or support ethical business practices.
Consider purchasing clothing made of eco-friendly materials in order to reduce your carbon footprint, borrowing or renting a suitcase from someone instead of purchasing new one, using reusable shopping bags instead of plastic ones when shopping and borrowing one instead of purchasing new ones for trips abroad.
Consider using reusable cups when drinking coffee or tea, or bring in your own mug to work – making and recycling disposable cups takes an immense amount of energy and resources.
To help make sustainable choices when selecting meals, look for local food co-ops and farmers markets to purchase whole, unprocessed foods. Or make your own with ingredients you have grown yourself or purchased locally from stores. When buying electronics, look for products made using renewable energy that operate under fair manufacturing conditions.
3. Make Your Own Cleaning Products & Cosmetics
Sustainable living has quickly become more than a buzzword; it refers to an approach to life that puts less strain on natural resources by placing less demands upon them.
Homemade cleaners and soaps can be more beneficial for people and animals alike than commercial cleaning products due to fewer toxic ingredients being present in them. Common home-brew ingredients include vinegar, baking soda, glycerin and citric acid for quick DIY solutions.
Make your own cosmetics is another great way to become more sustainable. Instead of purchasing prepackaged lotion, consider creating your own using ingredients like shea butter, castile soap or coconut oil. Some direct-to-consumer companies even provide refill bottles and reduce packaging waste!
Switch from disposable paper towels and tissues to washable cloths instead – you’ll save money and reduce waste, which in turn helps the planet by saving billions of pounds of non-recyclable paper from ending up in landfills each year. Repurpose old t-shirts as cloths as another way of cutting down paper waste!
4. Borrow What You Need
At its core, sustainable living requires only purchasing what is truly necessary and locally produced products can help reduce shipping emissions from around the globe. Furthermore, using items for their full lifespan without upgrading is key to sustainable living – for instance using rags instead of paper towels when cleaning and glass containers instead of plastic bags to store leftovers are two great examples of ways to do just this! Bringing your own reusable grocery totes may also reduce waste significantly.
Utilizing solar energy at home for powering electronics is another fantastic way to promote sustainability, cutting back on fossil fuel use and your electricity bill while potentially saving money and receiving tax credits.
Car-pooling or walking to work can also help you become more environmentally-friendly, not only reducing carbon emissions but also improving health! In doing so, it will create more empathy towards our planet and its inhabitants.
5. Change Your Lifestyle
Sustainable living involves making the best use of our environment. This involves reducing waste by choosing environmentally-friendly companies for production. Also, being mindful about what products and food items we purchase that could negatively affect the planet is part of this lifestyle choice.
Climate change, depletion of natural resources and water pollution are serious concerns – but we can make a difference. Simply begin by opting for products made without plastic packaging and investing in energy efficient lighting options such as energy saver bulbs.
Make an impactful change today to lower your carbon footprint! Walking or cycling instead of driving to work can significantly lower greenhouse gases and air pollution emissions while improving health outcomes and saving money on fossil fuel usage. Use sunlight instead of electricity when lighting your home to lower energy consumption and reliance on fossil fuels, while making sure only what you need is purchased each time – this goal should also aim at decreasing food waste which accounts for approximately one billion tons each year! Finally, focus on purchasing what’s needed as around one billion tons of edible food ends up going undiscarded each year – this goal should also help 1.3 billion tons yearly!