Finding new ways to make small changes to your daily routine can help you live a more sustainable lifestyle. Environmental sustainability is when we live our lives in a way that is respectful to the planet and its finite natural resources. We all grew up hearing it: reduce, reuse, recycle, and now it’s time to put the mantra into effect. When you take small steps towards living more sustainability, you’ll find that your daily life doesn’t change very drastically, but your actions will be noticed.
#1 Pack Your Food To Go
You can quickly reduce waste by using reusable Tupperware and jars. Think about how many plastic water bottles, paper coffee cups, and aluminum tins you go through in a month as you dine out. Then think about how many people are waiting in the same lines as you; that’s a lot of waste.
If you start to pack your coffee to go in a travel mug and your meals in reusable containers, you can be one less person contributing to waste. Not only is food from your kitchen good for the planet, but it’s good for your pockets too. You can save a ton of money while eating exactly what you want and meeting your dietary needs.
#2 Make More Sustainable Clothing Choices
Learn some simple sewing skills: If you can reattach a button or patch a hole, you’ll be able to keep your favorite pieces for longer. Instead of shopping for new clothes made under unethical conditions, you can keep the ones you love.
Wear your clothes more than once: The less you run your washing machine, the less water you waste. If your clothes aren’t stinky or stained, wear them again. Washing clothes will wear them out, so you may be giving your clothes some extra life by washing them less. Set up a basket for the clothes you’ve worn once or twice but aren’t necessarily dirty.
Give and take: Swap parties, thrift shops, and online trading are great mediums for giving clothing more life. During Spring cleaning, invite some friends over and trade clothes that don’t fit you or your style anymore. Just because a piece doesn’t serve you anymore doesn’t mean it can’t serve someone else.
#3 Use Eco-Friendly Cleaning Solutions
Cleaning supplies are one of the most significant contributors to pollution. From plastic bottles in our landfills to chemicals in our air and water, mass-market cleaning supplies are far from safe for our planet. Although big brands want you to believe that only the harshest chemicals will let you get a deep clean of your home, that’s simply not true. Mix some vinegar and water in a reusable glass spray bottle, and you have a solution that will make your whole kitchen sparkle. Upgrade your cleaning tool kit with glass bottles, at-home solutions, and reusable cloths.
Green Tip: Use old t-shirts instead of paper towels and dish scrubbers to get even more use out of your clothes.
#4 Mind Your Mail
Paper mail is not the planet’s friend. Not only does paper call for deforestation, but between planes and trucks, the postal service creates carbon emissions that hurt the environment. Most of the time, you can opt-in for receiving e-bills rather than paper ones. Keep your junk drawer clear by going paperless. You can also add a little sign above your mailbox that says “no junk mail.”
#5 Always Keep A Reusable Bag With You
Keeping a cute and compact tote with you is one of the easiest ways to live more sustainably. Of course, you know when you’re going grocery shopping and can prepare accordingly, but you never know when you’ll walk by a boutique or farmer’s market. Even when you’re packing light with just a purse or small backpack, a compact tote can come in handy.
#6 Clean Up Your Beauty Routine
The beauty industry has a mega carbon footprint, but just because you’re living a sustainable lifestyle doesn’t mean you can’t keep up with your self-care routine. There are small changes you can make every day that can minimize your environmental impacts:
- Turn off the faucet while you brush your teeth
- Use reusable cotton pads to remove your makeup
- Use shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, and body wash bars instead of bottles to reduce packaging and keep plastic-free
- Use reusable period products
- Try buying products from only ethical brands that make their sustainable practices transparent
- Use up every last drop of whatever you buy before replacing
We spend a lot of time and money on keeping up with our hygiene; we should make sure our actions are environmentally friendly when we do so.
#7 Eat Plant-based
You don’t have to go completely vegan to have an impact, but the more often you swap out animal products for plant-based ones, the better. By eating plant-based, all of us can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced by our diets by up to 60 percent. Take your coffee with almond milk, make tofu nuggets for dinner, or swap out one of your meals for a serving of Soylent. Every meal counts.
Green Tip: If you’re willing to go plant-based, take it one step forward and lean towards soy. Our soy protein creates 25% less negative impact on the environment than other plant-based proteins.
Sustainability Is Big Picture
The Soylent team knows that in no way, is it just your responsibility to save our planet. We must all work together on creating the world we want to live in. This doesn’t mean your little actions don’t matter, but how they all add up with the choices made by other people, companies, and institutions around the world. Together we can truly create impact, one step at a time.
