March 30, 2022
Save time and conserve energy with these six sustainable habits you can do right now.
Did you know the actions you take every day can impact the environment both indirectly and directly? In fact, making a few lifestyle changes can help you reduce your energy bills and decrease your carbon footprint at the same time. By adopting some simple habits and incorporating smart devices in your home, you can do more, while actually doing less.
Curious about upgrading to a more sustainable lifestyle? Here are some tips to do just that:
1. Utilize Home Automation and Save Energy
Smart home devices, like smart bulbs, smart plugs and smart thermostats, do more than just help you save time and money. They can help you conserve energy while also increasing safety, security and comfort. Energy-saving smart bulbs and plugs make it easy to turn your lights on or off directly from your smart device or by voice activation. You can even set a schedule so it looks like someone’s home, even when you’re not.
With a smart home hub, automation is easy. Acting as the brain behind your smart home, the hub helps your devices work (smarter) together through your wifi network. Simply put, a hub allows you to be more sustainable than ever while living in a home that works for you.
2. Go Paperless
Ready to embrace even more technology? Save yourself time and those “accidental” late fees by enrolling in autopay and paperless billing. By doing so, you’ll cut down significantly on your paper waste while also freeing up space in your junk drawer (win-win!). With virtual banking, you’ll find all of your statements consolidated and better organized than your physical stack of paper could ever be. An added benefit—you won’t have to worry about accidentally throwing away an important bill.
3. Eat Less Meat to Cool Mother Earth
Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide create a trifecta of toxic gasses that substantially impact climate change. These three gasses are largely supplied by the farming and livestock industries. When there’s a high demand for meat, production increases—so does pollution. By adopting “meat consciousness” and reducing the amount of meat in your diet, you can help combat climate change while increasing the amount of fresh produce in your diet.
4. Shop Local to Support the Community
When you shop locally, you help cut carbon emissions and air pollution by reducing the miles traveled. Additionally, local produce is typically fresher and features less packaging and less waste—the shorter the journey, the less chance it has of expiring along the way. Other benefits to shopping local are that your purchases will directly support the economy, create jobs in your community and reduce the number of people commuting to work outside your city (decreasing transportation-related pollution)—in one fell swoop (or credit card swipe).
5. Ditch the Disposables
Convenience is usually the go-to in our fast-paced, disposable world. By replacing single-use items with more durable, reusable options, your environmental impact decreases significantly. Using less plastic (think utensils, containers, plastic baggies) and buying in bulk (instead of weekly purchases of the same product) can help you avoid excess waste while also saving money at the same time. Plus, doesn’t food just taste better out of glass containers anyway? We think so.
6. Breathe New Life Into Old Furniture
Show off your unique sense of home decor while reducing waste at the same time. When you buy second-hand furniture, you help cut down the number of large items that end up at a landfill. Pre-owned furniture gives you a fun opportunity to upcycle someone else’s trash and turn it into your very own treasure. Not sure where to start? Check out helpful DIY videos and upcycling blogs on Pinterest for inspiration.
