What’s the key to learning how to live a more sustainable life? Does it mean big, sweeping changes? Or can we start looking at saving money and reducing waste bit by bit?
As people, we’re all becoming more and more aware of the impact we’re having on the world around us. For centuries, humanity has lavishly eaten into the world’s natural resources, looking for new luxuries in some of the strangest of places. However, with impacts on our environment growing starker everyday, it’s never been clearer that more of us need to start making conscious lifestyle changes.
That’s where this idea of ‘sustainable living’ comes in. It’s something that my whole family has really been getting into, especially since the pandemic changed life for us all!
However, sustainable living doesn’t just mean cutting down on plastic waste and thinking carefully about how you affect the world around you. In fact, the very heart of sustainability lies in living off the land, as much as physically possible.
New to living a more sustainable lifestyle? Consider this your complete beginner’s guide, with some great ideas to help you kick things off.
What Does It Mean to Live a More Sustainable Lifestyle?
Living a more sustainable lifestyle means thinking carefully about how the choices you make impact the health of the planet. Not only that, but it also helps to cut down your dependence on expensive, wasteful products and services.
You may have heard of a few initiatives taking place over the years to help ‘reduce your carbon footprint’. This is just one example of thinking more sustainably. Your carbon footprint measures how much emission you are putting back into the atmosphere. For example, by investing in energy-wasteful light bulbs, you are helping to add to a choking atmosphere.
Living sustainably means more than being environmentally-friendly. It means more than saying no to plastic bags, too. It’s about changing wasteful habits for the better.
Why is Sustainability Important?
Sustainability is hugely important because it’s one of the easiest lifestyle changes you can actively make. While few of us can hope to change the oil industry as individuals, what we can do is take ourselves out of the dependency chain altogether. That could mean ditching plastic straws, or refusing to drive your car during rush hour.
Sustainability is important because, despite what many people believe, Earth’s resources are running out. The sun will always be with us, however, clean water is in short supply. Not only that, but artificial, energy-inefficient processes continue to choke our oceans and our air. This is intensively unhealthy for us, for the greenery around us, and for animals, too.
Living an eco-friendly lifestyle is one thing. Thinking and living sustainably is a choice which means making impactful changes to your daily routine. They don’t have to be big changes, however!
How to Start Living More Sustainably
Speaking for my immediate family, we found it easier than we thought to start living more sustainably – it’s true! There’s definitely a lot of doom and gloom in the media and from politicians over how much we actually need to do to cut back, and to protect the environment.
Ways to start living sustainably could be as simple as turning off a light every time you leave a room. It might be as simple as even using different bulbs altogether. Do you run water while brushing your teeth? Why not turn the faucet off until you are ready to rinse?
These are tiny little changes which will make a huge difference to the world around you. It’s not just for the here and now, either. It’s to help protect the environment for generation after generation to enjoy.
If you’re stuck for ideas on how to start living sustainably, I’ve put together a few tips to help you get started.
10 Simple Sustainable Living Tips
- Worrying about how much water you use? As mentioned, a great place to start will be to turn off your faucet while brushing your teeth. You’ll also save money and energy by using a bowl while washing dishes, and by showering instead of taking baths.
- Can you wash your clothes by hand? Save on power wastage and on energy bills by avoiding the washing machine wherever possible.
- Never invest in bottled water. Anyone watching the TV series Blue Planet II will tell you that unnecessary single-use plastic needs to be reduced as it is driving millions of animals in our oceans to extinction.
- Avoid running air conditioning unless you absolutely have to. Hot days can be hard to get through. However, see how cool you can get with a wet flannel or towel and a simple fan. Also – open some windows, too!
- Cut down on those carbon emissions by looking at public transport options. Take cars off the highway by taking buses and trains, or by car sharing. Even better, if you can walk to work and back, do so.
- Look at renewable energy tariffs and providers. You don’t have to stick to the big energy providers – there are plenty of fantastic smaller companies focusing on solar and hydro energy which will give you more sustainability for your money.
- Grow plants and shrubs! The greener your garden is, the more oxygen you’re pumping back into the air. Look after a garden and you’ll soon find the air quality in your garden – and in your home – improving.
- Try and grow your own food wherever possible. It’s very cost-effective to buy fruit and vegetable seeds to grow all year round, and what’s more, it’s a highly rewarding process.
- Try to ease up on how much electricity you actually use in your home. Do you still use a laptop plugged-in? Try running off the battery for a while. Leave your TV on standby? Time to switch it off. Little things such as switching off outlets when not in use could help to make a huge difference.
- Finally, try and look at ways in which you can make sustainability fun. Sustainable living starts at home, and when the whole family gets involved, it’s easier to stick to some of the most effective, far-reaching changes. Why not take a look at a few ideas you and the kids can collaborate on together?
What Are You Waiting For?
As you can see, there are plenty of great, simple ways you can get into sustainable living! It often won’t need you to make any big, sweeping changes. That is, unless you really want to!
To begin with, take a good look at the concepts surrounding sustainability. Think about the energy you use in your home. Are you recycling enough? What do you do with food waste? If there’s room for improvement or even a slight adjustment, it’s worth making the smaller changes first.
Then – who knows what you might be able to build up to! The sky’s the limit – and the planet will surely thank you for it, too.
Originally posted 2022-05-11 16:29:40.