We all live busy lives, but we do our best to keep them somewhat organized with planning and scheduling. Without planning, our days tend to get out of hand, and we seemingly never have enough hours in the day to get things done.
The same goes for helping the planet and ensuring sustainability. If we don’t plan for this in our daily lives, we tend to lose track of it, which can lead to continued overuse of natural resources, pollution, and climate change.
Fortunately, you can plan your day with the planet and sustainability in mind. By including this in your daily life, you can make a consistent impact. Below, we outline 14 great ways to go through daily life with the planet and sustainability as a part of your plan so it all seems effortless — just like a well-laid-out agenda.
How to Plan Your Day With the Planet and Sustainability in Mind
When you wake up in the morning, you generally have a rough idea of what you’ll do for the day. While setting up your day, you can also plan with the planet and sustainability in mind with these 14 tips.
1. Limit Energy Use When Possible
While using no energy is not possible for most people, we can find ways to limit its use throughout the day. For example, leaving items plugged in when not in use draws a small amount of power, so make it a point to always unplug things like smartphone chargers, laptops, shavers, and similar devices when you’re not using or charging them to limit idle energy consumption.
You can also rely on natural light and airflow. Instead of turning on lights or fans in a room, try opening the blinds or curtains for some natural light or open few windows to take advantage of a nice breeze from outside while lowering your carbon footprint.
2. Reduce Transportation-Related Emissions
Driving a car to and from work adds to the growing issue of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. You can limit this with some lifestyle changes. Do you live within a mile or two of work? You can opt to ride a bike or walk to work. If you’re a little farther away, you can swap out that daily drive for a ride on public transportation to help spread the carbon footprint among all the passengers on the bus.
If either public transport or a bike isn’t an option due to distance or infrastructure issues, you can take it one step further by opting for a vehicle that produces little to no greenhouse gas emissions (GHG emissions). Look into swapping out your fossil fuel vehicle for a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), or battery electric vehicle (BEV).
3. Pack Your Reusable Bags
Plan your day with the planet and sustainability in mind by always packing your reusable shopping bags. You never know when an impromptu stop at the store may arise, and having these bags on hand can help you avoid adding to the 100 billion plastic bags Americans use and dispose of annually.
4. Grab Your Reusable Water Bottle
Staying hydrated is critical to your health, and sometimes tap water just isn’t an option, whether it’s due to the taste or pollution issues. This is where filtered and distilled water can come into play. While this water is a great alternative, it often comes in plastic bottles, which has led to Americans buying 29 billion bottles of water annually, and only about 16% of them get recycled. That’s a lot of plastic waste heading to landfills.
You can help reduce your environmental footprint by packing your eco-friendly reusable water bottle and refilling it at a filtered water station at a local store, gym, workplace, or elsewhere.
5. Support Businesses With Climate Change Initiatives
Businesses can play a significant role in helping or hurting the environment and local ecosystems in their daily operations. You can inject cash into the green mission by choosing companies that have green initiatives in place, such as:
- Robust recycling and reuse programs
- Carbon offsetting plans
- Strategies to reduce natural resource use
- Carbon neutral goals
- Renewable energy plans
- Plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through supply chain tweaks
6. Reduce Food Waste
Food waste may not seem like it would greatly impact the environment, but it really does. When you waste food, it also wastes the natural resources and emissions that went into creating that food. So, limit your food waste by planning meals ahead and only purchasing what you plan to eat.
7. Limit Water Use
Another commonly overused natural resource is water. Since it’s as easy as just turning on a faucet, it’s simple to forget that much of the world struggles to get this necessity to life. While water use is necessary daily, you can limit your use by planning your day with the planet and sustainability in mind. You can do this by actively turning the water off while shaving or brushing your teeth and limiting showers to just a few minutes.
8. Change Your Thermostat Setting
Heating and cooling your house plays a big part in carbon emissions, as it uses a lot of electricity. You can make just one change in your daily life that could significantly limit your negative environmental impact: turning your thermostat down a bit in the winter and up in the summer.
Studies have shown that if all Americans changed their thermostats by 1 degree Fahrenheit, it would lower annual carbon emissions by 7.2 teragrams. That’s the same amount of carbon released by 1.4 million people annually.
9. Compare Products Before Buying
When buying products, compare the packaging and search for indicators of environmental sustainability or climate action. This can include companies that prevent mass deforestation by sourcing paper sustainably, are carbon neutral, and take other actions to combat global warming.
10. Bring Your Own Straws
Plastic straws have become a large issue in the world today. These straws and other plastics break down and form blobs covering up to 40% of the Earth’s ocean surfaces. These blobs have a severe impact on ecosystems.
Many governments have banned single-use straws, but not all. You can do your part by carrying reusable straws or paper straws you can use when you decide to get a drink.
11. Buy Only Fair Trade Goods
Sustainability goes beyond natural resources. It also includes the labor force producing the goods. When buying certain products, such as coffee, chocolate, and others, look for the “certified fair trade” logo on the packaging. This means they are dedicated to sustainable production, paying laborers fair wages, and human rights
By supporting these companies, your dollar does much more for those working hard in other countries and helps support the growth of small local communities of farmers.
12. Change Your Eating Habits
Studies have found industrial meat production accounts for 60% of all GHG emissions the food industry creates. This comes from various places on the production value chain, including farming machinery, fertilization, transportation, and more. Cutting back on the meat you consume every day and becoming a flexitarian can help the environment.
We’re not saying the world needs to become vegan. Instead, plan a few meat-free days a week. Focus on healthy, protein-filled plant-based products to get your fill.
That said, remember that not all vegan food is great for the environment, as much of it is shipped from international locations during the off-season in the U.S. So, pay close attention to the seasonal fruits, and only buy those that are seasonal and local to minimize your carbon footprint.
13. Make it easy to be green at home
One big reason many people don’t stick to a green lifestyle is the effort it takes to maintain it. By making it esier to maintain every day, you also make it easy to stick with green habits.
Some ways you can make it easier to go green at home include:
- Placing clearly marked recycling receptacles throughout the house to keep recyclable materials out of the trash
- Having a plentiful supply of glass food storage instead of plastic containers or reusable storage instead of disposable baggies
- Stocking plenty of reusable towels instead of paper towels and cloth napkins instead of paper napkins
- Placing a clearly marked receptical for food scraps to help with composting
- Placing rainwater-collection barrels in strategic locations around your property
- Setting reminders for recycling collection days so your bins don’t overflow because you missed a week
14. Offset Unavoidable Carbon Emissions
Some carbon emissions are unavoidable, such as an emergency business meeting across the country or flying to another state to visit a sick relative. In these cases, you have little choice but to expand your carbon footprint. Fortunately, you can offset this extra carbon by supporting carbon-reducing programs like reforestation, renewable energy, water conservation, or ecosystem restoration.
You can calculate your carbon footprint from these extra activities and purchase the right amount of carbon offsets to help counteract your unavoidable footprint.
Terrapass Can Help You Plan Your Day With the Planet in Mind
While many of these actions to plan your day with the planet and sustainability in mind fall on your shoulders, Terrapass can help in one critical way: reducing your carbon footprint through offsets. By supporting the GHG-reducing programs Terrapass helps fund, you can offset some of those unavoidable emissions that pop up in daily life.
Need to take a flight? Our flight carbon offset can help. Planning a vacation? Our EcoTourist Bundle is a great way to minimize your carbon footprint. These carbon offsets can help ease your mind by allowing you the extra luxuries while minimizing your environmental impact.
Help do your part by neutralizing your carbon emissions with a carbon offset from Terrapass.
Brought to you by terrapass.com
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