EmmyOur environment is something that is often taken for granted which is sad. It’s sad because we do this in spite of the fact it gives us everything we have and need to live. In fact, I don’t think there is a person among us who thinks we don’t need to look after our environment so with today being ‘World Environment Day’ I have put together a list of ways we can be kinder to our earth.
Greenery is important so if you have the space to make your home and garden greener then do.
- Keep real grass over fake grass
- Have flowering plants around to help the bees happy
- Grow some of your own veg to reduce the carbon footprint of your food
- Plant some trees
- Enjoy having some house plants – they will improve the air quality in your home.
- Remember, our local garden centres and nurseries grow a lot of their supplies, not like the chain stores who have them all delivered on a regular basis. Again this brings down the carbon footprint of our purchases.
Don’t waste anything. It’s hard for the earth to produce everything we use and wasting things is a huge problem.
- Avoid food waste by meal planning and freezing or fridging any extras to eat later in the week.
- Stop buying things knowing you are going to bin them. Yes sometimes novelty things can be funny for 30 seconds and it was only cheap to buy but that doesn’t mean its okay to buy it to throw it in the bin. These items still need to go to landfill and their journey to us was at a heavy cost to the environment.
- Learn to accessories to make your clothes last. Fashion is one of the dirtiest industries we all need to use but we can reduce our fashion footprint heavily by refusing to fast fashion items that will only be worn a few times and invest in classic pieces that will stay in your wardrobe to be used for years. Bonus green points if you buy your clothes second hand.
- Stop replacing things before they have exceeded their use. By that I mean buying a bamboo travel set when you have a perfectly good plastic set in the house. The most environmentally friendly option is always the one we already have. By all means when you break an item beyond repair please buy a new environmental friendly replacement.
- Learn to repair and upcycle, it will save you a small fortune. Quite often when something breaks we straight away look for how much a replacement will cost us. Not so regularly do folks look for a repair but thankfully repair cafes are becoming more popular and often things are very easily fixed. Also don’t be afraid to ask your gadget loving friends for help, they LOVE showing us how good they are at fixing stuff.
- These straighteners have been with me 12+ years and I thought they had broken last year. I figured with 12 years of use they didn’t owe me anything but when my other half took a look, he realised a quick change of the fuse was all it took to repair them for me. £110 saved in the bank for me and an extra item avoided for the planet.
Shop local and support your local economy.
If you can support your local baker or a local veg shop over a large supermarket chain then do. This will not only reduce the carbon footprint of your food, it will also support your local economy. Remember during lock down these are the people who supported your community and offered to drop things at your door for free.
Find places you love where you live.
Holidays abroad are lovely but they have a high carbon price to pay. Why not find magical places nearby and opt for a staycation? The UK and Ireland have some magical places to visit, embrace them especially now when travel is difficult. You might even learn to love them and find holidays abroad don’t need to be as regular of an occurrence.
If you do take a trip further away, perhaps take the euro star if it is a viable option. Alternatively you can pay to carbon offset your flights which won’t add much to the total cost of your holiday. It isn’t a perfect solution as it passes the problem on to somebody else to solve but it’s better than no offsetting at all.
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This list could and indeed is endless but I don’t want to overload you. I think this list gives you some good places to start and as you want to extend the ways your look after the environment in your day to day life please come back and check out some of the other articles or check out my Instagram page.
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