Small Changes You Can Make To Be Environmentally Friendly

Environmentally friendly is a term that is discussed a lot these days, with climate change regularly talked about in the media, organised protests and activists campaigning for a more protected planet, it’s no wonder that many of us are starting to become more conscious of our choices and how they affect our planet. And let’s face it, this is great news! The point of wanting to be environmentally friendly is to help to preserve our planet and make it a better, safer, greener and more sustainable home for our future generations. There are plenty of business owners, communities and people just like you and me who are all wanting to do more to help save our planet and reduce waste, but where do you start?

Making the commitment to living a more environmentally conscious lifestyle doesn’t have to mean making huge sacrifices to the way you live your life. There are many small changes you can make day to day that can drastically help our environment. In fact, once you get into the swing of it, it will become second nature – switching off lights, not leaving the TV on standby, you might even already do these things without considering the environmental impact. But there’s so much more too.

Conserve Energy

When it comes to saving energy at home, it’s not too difficult to remind yourself or the family to turn switches off. But if you run a business, an awful lot of electricity can be wasted due to bathroom and office lights not being switched off, computers left on standby and air conditioning units being overused. To tackle this energy waste consider putting up signs to remind employees to turn lights or computers off, or invest in sensor lights in bathrooms or communal areas. It might not seem like much, but if every business made a more conscious effort to save energy – imagine the difference it could make!

Save water

When you live in a country where water is so easily accessed it can be easy to ignore how much of it we waste. Monitor your use of water for one day, and you might be surprised how much you actually end up wasting without meaning to! Things like leaving the tap running whilst you brush your teeth, or over filling the kettle are all actions that contribute to a lot of waste over time. Saving energy also means saving water, and is yet another insignificant change you can make that could make a significant impact on our environment.

Recycle

Plenty of us are making the effort to recycle our rubbish at home now which has drastically improved the way we manage our waste in the western world. Many more businesses are also incorporating recycling into their company ethics too, which is extremely important when you consider how much rubbish and waste must be produced by employees every day. Recycling is key to becoming more environmentally friendly and if you have the option, this is something you should definitely be doing.

Support local businesses

Buying local produce when possible is a great way to support both our environment and also our local communities. By buying locally, you are not contributing to emissions caused by shipping food long distance, and let’s be honest, fresher food tastes better!

Be travel conscious

How you choose to get around is important factor when it comes to living an environmentally friendly lifestyle. Choosing to walk or cycle rather than drive to work can hugely reduce your carbon footprint. Using public transport or arranging car pools to work are also really effective ways to be more conscious when it comes to travel.

One of the most important factors of living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle is to spread awareness and educate others on how to make these changes too. You don’t have to be one of those people who preaches about their life choices to everybody they meet, but encouraging others to make a positive impact in areas where you can, such as at home or at work, can also really make a difference to how people view the importance of the environment. Many people think ‘what is the point?’, but becoming more environmentally conscious is about the bigger picture, which for some can be difficult to see. The more people commit to saving our planet, the safer and greener our planet will be.