Most of us are trying to live our lives in a more sustainable manner. For one thing, it just makes it a lot easier to be able to expect good things for the future of our own lives and the planet as a whole. A lot of us are also quite keen to make sure that we can claim we are doing our part, and that is something that proves to be really important for a lot of people. If you are keen to live more sustainably, there are a lot of changes you might want to look into making.
In this post, we’ll take you through some of the simple, yet powerful, changes that you can make in your life in order to ensure that you are living in a much more sustainable way. Even if you only take on board some of these, you should find that it makes for a more sustainable way of living, so it’s absolutely worthwhile.
What Is Sustainability?
First though, it may be helpful to go through a reminder or refresher about just what sustainability actually is. It is often conflated with other eco-friendly attitudes and behaviors, but it is also its own specific thing that you can focus on in order to help reduce your impact on the planet as an individual, family, or – if you run a business – a business.
To live sustainably means that you are trying to keep your use of wasteful products to a minimum, that you are aiming to produce as little waste as possible yourself, and that you recycle and reuse products. It also implies that you are generally less consumptive, and you are extra careful about which products you do buy, including an awareness of what those products are made of, how they are delivered to you and what other systems or supply chains they might be supporting.
All of that makes it sound rather difficult and full-on to be sustainable. But the truth is that it is much more about making a few simple changes. Let’s start looking at some examples of the kinds of changes you might wish to make if you are keen to be more sustainable in your daily life.
Starting Small
With all of this, the important thing is that you are doing something – not that you are doing everything. It can be very easy to find yourself feeling guilty and feeling as though you need to be doing more. But that guilt might not always be well-placed, and it might be better to simply take that energy and try to turn it into positive action. The point here is that you only need to do a few things, and it might be best to make sure that you are starting small and building your way up. Over time you can then move into more and more sustainable actions, but it all begins with small steps that are easy to follow, so those are the ones we’ll focus on here.
Working On Your Attitude
It might sound cliche, but it is really true that working on your attitude is one of the very best things you can do when it comes to trying to live in a more sustainable way. When you feel a real difference in how you approach and think about these things, that is only going to translate later on into more and more positive action, so it really does make a difference and it’s worth thinking about as best as you can.
Of course, you can’t simply force a change in your perspective, you have to work at it and gradually change your attitude over time in a way that should be useful and effective. Once you start doing this, it’s then like a snowball gathering snow, and ultimately you will find that it makes for a much more sustainable lifestyle in the end. So start by thinking about whether your attitude needs a fix. It could be that this is the only thing really getting in the way of you making the right kinds of decisions in your life.
Stop Using Single-Use Plastics
Plastic is a real burden for the planet, because once it is existent it basically never disappears. All that plastic that has ever been created still exists somewhere on the planet. It should go without saying that this is not necessarily always easy to control – which is why the oceans, rivers and other natural sites are increasingly full of the stuff. That is quite the opposite of sustainable, and this is why getting rid of plastic use is one of the main things you can do as an individual to ensure you are living more sustainably.
In practice, it might not be practicable or even possible to do away with plastic altogether. But a good start is to stop using single-use plastics. It might seem that these are somehow insignificant, but it’s quite the opposite – they add up to a lot of the plastic that is out there filling up the natural world. If you can make a point of using less of it, you are going to find that this leads to less of it being produced, especially if we all do it together at the same time.
So avoid buying these single-use plastics, and you’ll already be doing your part towards a more sustainable future for everyone on the planet.
Turn Off The Tap
Another really important issue when it comes to sustainability is water. You need to make sure that you are using as little water as possible, though this is something that people generally understand less well than many other sustainable living ideas. That’s because people often find themselves thinking about the water cycle as an endless cycle. While it’s true that all water ultimately goes through the cycle, it’s still perfectly possible to be wasteful with water usage, and that can be harmful for the current season and for other people around the world as well.
If you are really keen to live as sustainably as possible, you need to make sure that you turn off the tap a little more often. There are some simple actions you can take to get started with using less water. You might wish to shower only every other day, for instance, and only for two minutes. Or you might want to think about being a bit more clever with your laundry so you don’t use as much. However you do it, using less water is easily one of the best things you can do for the sake of the planet.
Try Slow Fashion
Some industries really have a lot to answer for when it comes to environmental sustainability, but none quite so much as the fashion industry. This, after all, is a world that is built on the very idea of each season bringing a new set of clothes that must be purchased. It is, in essence, the exact opposite of sustainability, and that’s why it’s one of the main areas that you should be looking into if you really care about doing right by the environment and the planet as a whole.
So what can you do if you still want to look your best but you also want to be sustainable? Simply adopt the tenets of slow fashion. This trend is growing in popularity, and with good reason – it’s all about purchasing sustainably-made clothes made from organic materials, and not changing out your entire wardrobe every single season. That is a very simple change to make, but it can make an enormous difference to how sustainably you are living, so it’s something that you will want to think about if you want to do your part for the planet as best as you can.
Sustainable Parenting
There are certain circumstances in life where it is a little more difficult to remain sustainable, and a good example of this is with parenting. When you are thinking solely about what’s good for your child, you might find that the issues of the worldwide planet are a little less prominent in your mind, and you might therefore make some decisions that are not quite as sustainable as they could be. But there are a couple of things to think about when it comes to parenting on a dying planet. First of all, you need to try and make sure there will still be a planet for your children to grow up on. Secondly, there are many ways to easily parent your child sustainably, if you know how.
For instance, instead of using disposable nappies you can switch to full-time cloth nappy use, which is much less wasteful. You can also swap out the supermarket-bought baby food and make your own at home. Again, it’s these simple things that make all the difference.
As you can see, there are a lot of things you can do to live more sustainably, and all of these are worth looking into for each of us.
What do you think?