Every single one of us has the ability to contribute to making a positive change. If you’re wondering how you can help make an impact, you’ve come to the right place. Here are just a few things you can do in your everyday life to help take care of our planet and leave it a better place.
1. Start with Ethical Products
Our stores are filled with products that cause environmental and social harm. Let’s use clothes as an example. Fast fashion holds a firm grip over the industry, producing clothes and accessories out of cheap materials using unethical labor. It’s time to make a change in the way we consume goods. One way of doing this is to do your research. Look at what brands are doing and how they approach sourcing and producing their products. More and more we have begun to see companies lead the way, all you need to do is look.
2. Help Reduce Plastic Waste
Landfill sites are filled to the brim with household and commercial waste that often finds its way into our water systems. Negatively impacting the sea life that calls it their home and entering our food chain - plastic pollution is no joke. How can we do better? Starting at home replacing plastic containers with eco-friendly alternatives such as glass, reusing or recycling is a great way to take a step in the right direction. On a local level, plastic collection drives help clean your community while donations to organizations can help make a greater impact and keep our water and beaches clean.
3. Plant Trees
Did you know that around 10 million hectares of forest are cleared every 12 months? Used for agriculture, livestock pastures and to accommodate expanding urban spaces we have now lost ⅓ of all forests on earth. It’s a scary number but we can keep it from growing - with a little help. Reforestation, or simply put, making an effort to plant trees to replace those that have been cut down makes a noticeable difference to our world. Our recommendation is to do a quick google search for local initiatives in your area or, if you want to help from afar, look up companies with green initiatives such as treedom and tentree.
4. Prevent Food Waste
Have you ever opened your fridge to take out a fruit or vegetable only to realize that it’s gone bad? The answer is probably yes and it’s happened to you more than once. With all the food that is grown in the world, we toss out on average 1.3 billion tons every single year. While it doesn’t seem like throwing away a tomato makes a big impact, when you look at the big picture, food waste negativity impacts sustainability and produces greenhouse gasses. To help prevent food waste there are several things you can do such as: buying only what you need, using beeswax wraps to keep produce fresh, freezing extras, composting scraps or signing up for an app such as Too Good To Go that connects you to stores and restaurants who have surplus food.