Tips For Starting A Sustainable Lifestyle
According to Lester R. Brown, a sustainable lifestyle is tilting towards all that features renewable energy-based and reuse or recycling economy with a diversified transport system. This is his definition of what a sustainable lifestyle in the 21st century encapsulates.
Leading a sustainable life is adopting a lifestyle that revolves around practices that aim to reduce one’s consumption of personal and Earth resources to enhance it for longevity.
This method of living is also called “net-zero living” or “earth harmony living.” A person who leads a lifestyle of this sort consistently tries to embrace sustainable options through what they eat and how they go about their daily activities. This includes what they wear, their chosen means of transportation, energy consumption, etc.
These practitioners revolve their activities around anything that can reduce their ecological footprint, especially their carbon prints. To do this, sustainability is key in all your endeavors, through finding a natural balance through and through; and the principles of sustainable development.
You can have adopted a healthy lifestyle if your life principles align with that of the sustainable development goals that summarize a reverence for the symbiotic relationship shared between humanity and Earth’s natural ecology.
The Sustainable Development Goals
The United Nations created the SDGs to provide a cross-country collaboration to make the world a better place. Between global warming, pollution, hunger, and other vices that plague the world, the sustainable development goals aim to eradicate these vices by 2030.
Across borders, it is a goal for all countries to work together, bearing in mind these goals. The goals are seventeen in number, and anyone who aims to live a life of sustainability must be acquainted with these goals. We will not expatiate on them here so that we do not deviate. However, an understanding of these is pertinent to a sustainable lifestyle. They are:
- No poverty
- Zero hunger
- Good health and well being
- Quality education
- Gender equality
- Clean water and sanitation
- Affordable and Clean Energy
- Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Industry innovation and infrastructure
- Reduced inequalities
- Sustainable cities and communities
- Responsible consumption and production
- Climate action
- Life underwater
- Life on land
- Peace, justice, and strong institutions
- Partnerships for the goals
These goals must be immersed in your life if you aim to start that sustainable lifestyle, so much so that it becomes an indispensable part of you. Starting new habits is never easy; it requires a lot of motivation.
That’s why Dan from the Whole People advises starting with small, easy steps; so easy that you can’t say no and you won’t need the motivation to do them. When you have a mental shift to this regard, you can only start to seek sustainable means to reflect your sustainable lifestyle.
Tips for a Sustainability Development
Everything we do daily has an impact on the Earth, and below are ways we must seek to live sustainably:
Eat less meat
Lesser consumption of meat will result in lesser animal deaths. The amount of animals killed daily to fuel the meat-consuming market has a drastic impact on animals’ lives. Also, meat processing consumes a lot of energy which takes a huge toll on the environment over time.
Reusable variants
Opt for reusable options whenever you shop for your daily supplies and consumables. Unlike single-use options, these reusable variants do not end up polluting the environment. This could include going for metal straws instead of plastic.
Reduce your use of papers
To achieve goals 6, 14, and 15, you need to reduce your paper usage to the barest minimum or eliminate it. Papers are one of the world’s constant pollutants, and the lesser it is used, the closer we are to achieving sustainable development goals.
Reusable Energy
Buying electric-powered cars, using solar-powered home equipment, and any other reusable energy is a step in sustainability’s direction.
Recycling turns things into other things just like magic
This is an anonymous quote from an anonymous sustainability enthusiast, and it is perfect for this purpose. Recycling is at the heart of sustainability. This compresses the amount of material that would have been mere waste and pollution to the environment. With recycling, new products can be created from used materials. So always put your waste in the correct bins to facilitate recycling.
Other ways to start that sustainable lifestyle is: being a green thumb, patronizing Fairtrade products, and speaking to those around you about sustainability. You can also learn to give out excess items in your possession, manage water, buy eco-friendly cleaning products, buy clothes made from sustainable materials, use your car less, do not waste food, among others.
Now that you have chosen this path, you should talk about it with people around you as often as you can. With time and consistency, you will discover more interesting ways to care for the environment and it will be your new way of life.