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So, you want to live a more sustainable lifestyle. That’s amazing, we’re happy to have you on board! All the information about sustainable living available online can be a little overwhelming for somebody looking for simple sustainability tips to get them started, which is why we’ve put together this article explaining the basics of sustainable living for those who are new to it.
Firstly, let’s establish what the word sustainability means. Generally, this can be broken down into three categories, also called the three pillars of sustainability.
Environmental sustainability is what you’ll most likely imagine under the term ‘sustainability’. It includes consideration of issues such as climate change, plastic pollution or water scarcity, which have all been becoming hot topics, as people and companies alike are working to reduce their impact on mother nature.
Social sustainability is also an important element, although its definition is much looser. It entails the fair treatment of people, so that society can develop peacefully. In regard to social sustainability, you may (for example) be considering how much people who make the things you buy are paid or the conditions that they’re working in.
Economic sustainability rounds up the trio. While this is something you may not associate with sustainability, it is still a big part of sustainable development. On an individual level, this may mean that you’re making sure the sustainable choices you’re making are not breaking the bank or, contrastingly, that they may be good for you financially.
For this article, we will focus on environmental sustainability, as that is a pressing branch of sustainability that we need to start addressing more frequently. However, keep in mind that the environment is not all there is to sustainability.
If you’re making a decision to buy an item made from sustainable materials, with low amounts of carbon emissions released, but the workers making the item aren’t provided adequate wages or are forced to work in unsafe conditions, the product isn’t truly sustainable in the entire sense of the word.
One question you may be asking yourself if you’re new to all this is: ‘why bother with sustainable living?’. Does it really make a difference if I change a few of my habits?
There are many different reasons why we should all be working towards living a more sustainable lifestyle – each more important than the other. Here are just a few of the reasons why you may want to reduce your personal environmental impact:
Before you begin to make efforts towards more sustainable living and start following sustainability tips, decide why you’re taking action. Is it because you’re worried about the world your child will have to live in, or because you want to protect your home city from flooding because of climate change?
This reason why will keep you going even when living more sustainably begins to feel like a challenge, in times of struggle and adversity.
While environmentalism and sustainable living are tackling many ways in which to help make the planet a greener place, there are two areas which are often considered the most – waste production and climate change. At least that is the case in the most recent decade. These are arguably the most pressing environmental issues at the moment, so focusing on reducing your carbon footprint and limiting your waste production are great areas to start with.
However, it’s not all just about waste and climate change – deforestation, habitat destruction, water pollution and scarcity, soil degradation and other issues deserve our attention too. Don’t forget about these while you’re working on reducing your waste and emissions.
You’re probably wondering what are some concrete ways in which you can tackle these issues. We’ve compiled some of our favourite beginner’s sustainability tips under each separate issue in the form of bullet points, to make them as simple to follow as possible.
Many sustainability tips articles and guides to sustainable living are sectioned depending on the are of your home or life they’re centred in. However, ours is divided by environmental issue – to help you better understand how exactly your actions are helping the environment.
The great thing about living a more sustainable lifestyle is taking your impact on the environment into your own hands and truly making a difference – which is something these tips will help you achieve.
Once you have a specific goal for your sustainable living journey in mind, it’s time to get started by following some sustainability tips and advice. No matter which area you choose to focus on first, here are several helpful tips to aid you in all areas.
Often, we hear a sustainable living tip from one of our friends or read it on social media, so we decide to follow it – without checking if what we heard is actually true and indeed helps the environment. In an age of fake news and misinformation, we all need to learn to research before we act. No, this doesn’t mean you need to head to the library – just a simple Google search is usually enough, unless the issue is particularly complex.
Let’s look at an example where doing just 5 or 10 minutes of research can prevent you from following sustainability tips that don’t make much of a difference and could potentially even increase your negative impact.
For example, you’ve likely heard sustainability tips before telling you to eat local if you want to decrease your environmental impact. Have you tried researching this online before? Just a quick search will reveal that in reality, a much better way to reduce your carbon emissions is to focus on what you eat instead of where it comes from. You’ll quickly find out that while eating local makes some difference it’s nowhere near the difference that skipping meat and animal products makes. If you followed the tip to eat local without fact-checking it, you could even end up choosing products with a much higher carbon footprint just because they’re produced locally.
When we first start working towards sustainable living, many of us can get overwhelmed with all the different steps we can take to improve our environmental footprint. As almost any area of our lives can be improved with some handy sustainability tips, the list of potential things you could focus on is very lengthy.
If we were to take all these steps at once, we would likely trip over our own feet, get overwhelmed and quit on our efforts within a few days. Instead, it’s important that we don’t bite off more than we can chew. While this does depend on the areas you choose to start with, it’s best not to be building more than 4-5 new sustainable living habits at a time. If you’re short on time or will be making more radical changes, focus on even fewer before you’re confident they’ve become a part of your life.
As in many other areas, the sustainable living solutions which work for one person likely won’t work for everyone. It all depends on your situation – so don’t force yourself to take up a sustainable habit just because someone else swears by it.
Do your research first and then think about how you could implement it into your everyday life. For example, your friend may have just given up driving altogether and sold their car – but this doesn’t mean that you have to do the same thing. If you live in a place with good public transport, and don’t need a car for commutes, then it may be a good thing to think about. However, if you live in the countryside where using public transport is not an option, giving up driving likely won’t work for you.
Some changes in climate over time are normal on our planet – however, human-induced climate change is making these changes much more severe, as well as causing them to occur faster. The catalysts of climate change are greenhouse gasses, which trap the sun’s heat within Earth’s atmosphere and prevent it from escaping into space. The main greenhouse gasses are:
While many of these occur naturally, our activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, farming of livestock and deforestation, are causing them to be released in higher concentrations without being absorbed as quickly. Carbon dioxide is by far the most frequently emitted and is responsible for 64% of human-induced climate change.
While the other gasses are emitted at much lower quantities, they have a much stronger greenhouse effect. Methane is responsible for 17% of human-induced climate change, followed by nitrous oxide at 6%.
Here are some of the steps you can take towards lowering your carbon footprint and decreasing your personal contribution to climate change:
In the past few decades, plastic has become a part of nearly every aspect of our lives. From buying food at the supermarket to building our homes, plastic is everywhere. Since the beginning of its mass production, we have produced more than 18 trillion tons of plastic, of which only 9% was recycled.
Plastic never truly biodegrades – it only falls apart into smaller and smaller plastic particles: microplastics and nanoplastics. We know alarmingly little about the impact of this on our health and the health of other organisms living on this planet.
To stop contributing to the plastic pollution of our earth and seas, follow these sustainability tips:
The word deforestation refers to the cutting of trees and replacement of forest land with other land, usually for agricultural or industry purposes. Nowadays, most of the deforestation (and its most dangerous type) is occurring in rainforests. On average, 2,400 trees are cut down without replacement every minute. This has many different, far-reaching effects on the environment including increasing the rate at which climate change occurs, erosion of soil which was previously protected by the forest or affecting the entire water cycle.
It’s even more alarming as rainforests provide a home to a wide variety of species which will go extinct if their habitats are destroyed. As we’re living in an age that’s dubbed by many to be the 6th mass extinction on Earth, it’s crucial that we protect as many of these habitats and species endemic to them as soon as possible.
To decrease your contribution towards deforestation and habitat loss, follow some of these sustainability tips:
Many of us think of water as a very abundant resource, as we’ve grown up in a western world where most often, the only consequence of wasting water are increased water bills. However, especially as climate change progresses and agricultural practices become more environmentally demanding, water is becoming a precious resource many lack access to.
Currently, 1.1 billion people worldwide permanently lack adequate access to water to fulfil their basic needs, with even more lacking access at some point during the year. As a result of that, 2.4 billion people are facing severe sanitisation problems.
However, we as humans aren’t the only ones suffering because of water scarcity – so are plants and animals sharing this planet with us, many of which are under the threat of going extinct. For example, the Aral Sea (despite its name, a lake), which has shrunk to 25% of its original size in the last 50 years as a result of poor water management, to reveal a desert-like wasteland.
Our waters aren’t just threatened by scarcity, they’re also polluted by many industries, including agriculture, fashion or mining, which often flush untreated wastewaters directly into rivers due to lack of local environmental restrictions.
Preventing water pollution and scarcity is crucial to living a more sustainable lifestyle, here are some ways to do so:
Sustainability isn’t just about environmental conservation – but it is its crucial component. The great thing is that we can take ownership of our own impact and change it by making more conscious decisions and taking concrete actions.
Reducing your carbon footprint and the amount of solid waste leaving your home are two good areas you can make a big difference in. However, they’re not the only ones, which is important to keep in mind. Deforestation or water pollution and scarcity, as well as other threats, can be equally as damaging to this beautiful planet we live on.
Like this post? Here are some others you might enjoy:
A Wasteful Wardrobe – How Is Fast Fashion Contributing To The World’s Plastic Pollution
The 5 R’s Of Zero Waste And How They Can Help You Build A More Sustainable Lifestyle
10 Things You Can Compost At Home
The Devastating Environmental Impact Of Food Waste – And What You Can Do About It
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