Daily habits that will help you reduce your impact on the planet
What are the keys to a greener, healthier, more sustainable lifestyle? Here are four habits you can develop to ensure you’re making the best choices for yourself and your family every day:
- Read labels religiously. Check labels on food, household products, cosmetics and more for things to avoid – like high-fructose corn syrup, trans-fats, chlorine, ammonia, formaldehyde and petroleum-based substances – as well as for the good stuff: “shade-grown,” “fair-trade,” “organic,” “sustainably harvested” and “recycled.”
- Second-guess every purchase. Before you buy anything, ask these questions: “Do I really need this?” “Is there a greener alternative?” “Could I buy it used, recycled or refurbished instead?” “Could I rent or borrow it?”
- Support the best, speak up to the rest. Patronize green businesses – restaurants that serve local foods, solar-powered Web hosting companies, makers of recycled products – whenever you can. And regularly encourage the not-so-green to change their ways: sign online petitions asking corporations to reduce pollution and unsustainable practices, email chain stores to suggest they add more environmentally friendly products, ask your local bakery if it could start offering more organic, whole-grain breads and goods.
- Aim to grow a little greener every day. Face it: unless you already live completely off the grid, grow all your own food and generate zero waste, there’s always something else, something new, you can do to reduce your impact on the planet. Subscribe to environmental newsletters, bookmark green living sites like this one, and commit to looking every day for new ways to improve.
The copyright of the article Habits for Greener Living in Green/Simple Living is owned by Shirley Siluk Gregory. Permission to republish Habits for Greener Living in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
