World Environment Day occurs on the 5th June every year and its purpose is to encourage people to strive for the protection of our environment. This year you may be asking yourself, what you can do to reduce your carbon footprint? In this article we'll highlight some handy tips on how you can be more sustainable.
Reduce single use
If you’re on the go you may find yourself using an increased amount of single use items such as plastic water bottles and disposable coffee cups. One way you can try and reduce your carbon footprint is by cutting back on the amount of these that you use to prevent unnecessary waste being sent to the landfill.
There’s plenty of alternatives available, including metallic water bottles and reusable coffee cups. You could also look into investing in a home water filter to prevent the temptation of buying bottled water. Most coffee shops will also offer you a discount on your purchase if you provide your own reusable coffee cup.
Eat your veggies
Did you know that eating meat is actually one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions? It takes a lot of energy to farm animals on such a large scale, so reducing the amount of meat we eat is a great way to protect the environment. This doesn’t mean you have to cut meat out of your diet entirely, but why not have one or two veggie days?
Avoid fast fashion
Fashion trends come and go, but clothes don’t need to last for just one season. If you’re considering parting with some old clothes maybe have a think about ‘is this really no longer wearable?’ or ‘would someone else still benefit from this?’ likewise, if you need to buy clothes then you could consider avoiding fast fashion for clothes that last longer and are produced in a more sustainable way.
For example there are many thriving charity and second-hand clothes stores that offer fashionable pre loved clothes that are just no longer of use to someone else.
Be wise of your products
It’s no secret that not everyone is trying their absolute hardest to go sustainable, in the same breath there’s a lot of companies out there that are actually causing a lot of harm to the environment.
To make sure you’re not contributing to harm you can try to buy organic products that doesn’t use unsustainable practices and lend themselves to a greener lifestyle. When shopping for food you can ensure you look for the Fairtrade label meaning they not only use sustainable methods but actually pay their workers a fair living wage as well.
We can all contribute in our own way, all it takes is a few simple lifestyle changes. We encourage everyone to take up more sustainable practices and even though it may seem like the impact could be rather inconsequential, the more collaboration we do, the more we can do to one day create a greener planet.
