Green living means different things to different people in different zones of the world. However, as the term ‘going green’ grows more and more popular, a cohesive idea of green living has begun emerging.
At its core, green living means making conscious choices about how we interact in our environment. It is about being intentional about what we eat, how we travel, and what we use as it relates to how we co-exist with our planet, Earth.
Want to know what green living, eco-living, or sustainable living is?
Read on and you’ll find out how to start living green, and the various ways to implement sustainable living in your lifestyle right now.
What is green living?
Green living or eco-friendly living is a way of sustainable living that aims to reduce the impact on or the overuse of the Earth’s natural resources.
Though green living has become popular in recent years, there’s a considerable need for more people to adopt more sustainable lifestyles.
Expert’s say pollution and consumption have recorded higher numbers per capita in recent years.
Is there a difference between green living, eco-friendly living, sustainable living, and clean living?
Even though these terms encourage lifestyles that aim to take better care of our planet, many enthusiasts make the mistake of interchanging these terms. If you are new to understanding what green living is and interested in learning how you can do your part by living sustainably, it can all be confusing.
So we’ll address the question now before moving on.
As we’ve discussed, eco living or green living is a lifestyle that encourages us to be conscious of the impact of our living choices on the environment. Eco-friendly means earth or environment-friendly lifestyle.
Sustainable living, on the other hand, is a bit more complex than green living. It refers to the practice of designing and producing things in ways that support green and eco-friendly living.
So in what ways can you live more sustainably?
Tips for living green
Here are a few ways you can encourage green and ethical home living:
Green eating
Eating is a big component of our lives. However, we are hardly conscious about how we should strive to cultivate, prepare and eat our food. And what to do with leftover or excess food. The U.S Department of Agriculture reports that the value of food wasted globally every year is up to $1 trillion.
Green eating means choosing to tailor our food consumption habits in sustainable ways that are healthy for us and our environment.
Green traveling
Eco-tourism or Green traveling are practices that promote environmental and social sustainability. Green tourism encourages travelers and nomads to take steps to be more environmentally conscious while traveling.
It doesn’t necessarily mean you should avoid traveling by fossil-fueled means of transportation, but make efforts to travel on more sustainable means – riding a bicycle for short distances, traveling by road when possible instead of flying. Though you may be sacrificing some comfort, you also get to save some money.
Recycling and storage
Packaging can be harmful to our environment in many ways. Apart from the energy emission when producing these materials, failing to properly discard packaging can harm wildlife – as we’ve seen in recent times.
Learning to recycle materials – bottles, plastic, and wrappings or opting for biodegradable packaging will not only save you money but also help you live sustainably.
Conserve Resources
We’ve discussed wastage and how much is lost in excess food and material production. Food isn’t the only resource that is wasted, clothing, water, electricity, and gadgets are also excessively consumed.
The idea isn’t to sell your home and go to the wild, but simply to be mindful of how you consume resources. It will go a long way if we all could think deeply before buying any product.
Being mindful of your consumption habits, making efforts to reduce carbon imprints in our environment, recycling materials, and conserving as many resources as possible is the general idea of green and sustainable living. However, you can take baby steps to incorporate eco living into your life.
Here’s How to implement green living in your daily life
- Try to conserve as much energy as you can. Install insulators to effectively warm and cool your home.
- Save water by taking short showers and installing water-saving faucets.
- Grow some of your vegetables and buy more organic food from the local market.
- Learn to recycle and reuse materials – bottles, plastics, wrappings, etc.
- Walk or ride a bike for a short-distance commute.
- Donate your old clothes and possessions to non-profits or sell them on a premium to thrift stores.
- Before buying anything, ask yourself if you really need the item.