Simple Steps for Sustainable Living: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
What is Sustainability?
Sustainability is a particular way of thinking becoming more and more relevant for those who care about maintaining a healthy environment for generations to come. This mindset is extremely valuable as it enhances the possibility of implementing smarter decisions in how society cares for surrounding spaces and species.
Wikipedia defines ‘Sustainable Living‘ as “a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual’s or society’s use of the Earth’s natural resources, and one’s personal resources… Its practitioners often attempt to reduce their ecological footprint by altering their methods of transportation, energy consumption and/or diet.”
On a larger scale, society may feel helpless in reducing our carbon footprint due to the mass pollution being produced every day. Despite this, at the individual level, this may not be so overwhelming. In being aware of the consequences of your actions, there are simple ways to increase sustainable living and thinking.
In implementing these simple steps in your everyday routine and encouraging those around you to do the same, it becomes easy to start living more sustainably while considering the environment.
How Do You become more sustainable?
Holistic Health Sustainability
Holistic health aims to improve your mind, body and soul, according to Holistic Health Coach Leona Kontkanen. As discussed, sustainability starts with the mind. A holistic approach to sustainable development encapsulates economic, environmental and social growth. In using this method, practitioners have seen a shift in clientele’s food consumption and pollution awareness.
Food and Nutrition Sustainability
It is valuable to understand that the food we consume can directly impact our climate. According to WWF, food is responsible for over a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Here are their top six tips for sustainable eating.
- Eat More Plants
- Eat a Variety of Food
- Waste Less Food
- Moderate Your Meat
- Buy Food That Meets a Credible Certified Standard
- Eat Fewer Food High in Fat, Salt and Sugar
When eating sustainably, it is best to eat organic food and buy local and seasonal food. Choosing to eat organic fruit and vegetable reduces pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in your food as the produce is grown naturally without adding chemicals. According to The Sustainable Living Guide, organic food and farming can benefit local ecosystems and biodiversity. Organic farmers use less transportation and less industrial energy. Additionally, by using higher quality fertilisers, soil loss is reduced.
Purchasing local and seasonal food similarly requires less energy consumption for transportation. For any grocery shopping, taking reusable bags for food and produce is a great way to reduce plastic. We recommend supporting your local farmers market, encouraging economic growth in your region. Or, better yet, growing your own veggie garden!
Travel Sustainability
Choosing to drive less or travel with sustainability in mind can assist in reducing your carbon footprint. If you live close to your workplace, walking or riding a bike over driving your car is a simple way to increase physical exercise and decrease transportation pollution. Otherwise, public transport and carpooling is a great alternative.
With current advances in technology, if you DO require using a car as your mode of transport, investing in electric vehicles. EV not only offer solutions for energy efficiency but also provide a sustainable way of travel. You can read more about moving the move to electric vehicles in our blog post here.
Energy Efficiency
The need for renewable energy has increased, particularly in the past three years. Renewable energy includes natural resources such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydro. In an effort to minimise our carbon footprint, Australian’s are beginning to see the benefits of solar power in terms of financial and sustainability reasons.
Solar power is clean energy generated from sunlight. The heating of solar panels on a roof generates electricity with photovoltaic cells, removing the need for fossil fuels at a residential and commercial level. This renewable energy is readily available for homeowners and business owners and is a big step towards sustainable energy consumption.
Fast Fashion
Fast fashion is a global purchasing trend focused on rapidly producing and distributing clothing. The nature of fash fashion is about producing cheap, poor quality clothing and encouraging constant repeat purchasing. These clothes often provide society convenience but at a great cost to the Earth. The labour used in the process is often in developing countries, taking advantage of the workforce by underpaying the employees.
Australia is one of the largest consumers of textiles in the world. The industry is creating a hugely negative environmental impact. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, close to 90% of discarded leather and textiles can be found in landfill. Using polyester and microfibres to produce clothing is impacting climate change. In combination with the mistreatment of textile workers in developing countries, this represents the overall influence fast fashion has socially and environmentally. By taking individual actions, and holding companies accountable to sustainability, our chances of ethical consumption and production habits are likely to grow.
Here are some of our top tips to shop sustainably!
- Shop at your local op shop
- Invest in higher-quality clothing from local business owners
- Repurpose and recycle old clothes
- Research brands before you purchase from them to ensure they have a sustainable background
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Address: U3/20 Dover Drive Burleigh Heads Qld 4220