Top 10 Tips to Begin Living Sustainable Life

We live in an era where people are becoming more aware of their decisions and at least want to live more sustainably from reducing waste or reusing materials. I read a great article on Gineers Now, here is the link https://gineersnow.com/engineering/environment/top-10-tips-on-conscious-consumption-sustainable-living. As I have said before in my blog, little changes in your every day lifestyle can make big differences in the world. That's why I will provide 10 tips, and if someone starts being conscious of one of them, they will begin to make a difference.

Here are the 10 tips to living a sustainable lifestyle:

1. Reduce Use of Single Use Plastic - for example plastic straws, plastic utensils, and plastic cups and plates are a waste and can only be used once. If a product can only be used once, then must be disposed it's not a sustainable way of living

2. Cut Down on Meat Consumption - agriculture and farm animals are the biggest contributors to climate change

3. Reduce Food Waste - start composting food scraps and start own garden to produce vegetables

4. Support Fair Trade Products - fair trade has raised standard of living and reduces risk and vulnerability to farmers

5. Be Conscious When Buying Products - consider what you need rather than want and consider how long the product will last and can it be recycled

6. Use Public Transportation - using gas powered cars causes greenhouse gases which hurt the environment or consider carpooling to reduce number of cars on road

7. Give Presents that are Experiences - give gifts like tickets to a game or amusement park rather than a toy that will be thrown away within 6 months

8. Adopt, Don't Shop - talking about animals, visit a shelter rather than buying

9. Reduce Electricity - simple things such as unplugging chargers when not using and turn off lights when not in room

10. Practice the 5 R's - reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose, and refusing. Use energy saving light bulbs, shorten showers, buy reusable products, be aware of plastic usage, and buy environmentally friendly products

These 10 tips are all important, but take one at a time. For example, try to unplug all chargers when not using, turn off lights when you don't need, and shorten your shower. Make these a habit which will change your lifestyle slightly, but will make big differences in how you life a sustainable lifestyle!

Tips to Help College Students Go Green

The term "Going Green" is similar to living a sustainable life, as in it's a lifestyle that in environmentally friendly and make conscious decisions to help the environment. Practicing more eco-friendly decisions will result in changes of habits. When changing one's lifestyle to a more green one, each student should think about where their food is coming from and how much trash he or she produces in a typical week.

Here are some tips to help student's change their lifestyle to help the environment:

Ride a bike around campus. Rather than driving a car around campus for a short distance, invest in a bike since it'll keep the rider in better physical shape while reducing carbon emissions. Riding bikes can be a fun hobby which can help propel more eco-friendly practices in someone's daily routine.

Unplug electronics when not using them. This tip helps reduce the amount of energy used in dorm rooms. Today, college students bring several electronic devices and all have different chargers that often stay plugged in throughout the whole semester, be mindful and unplug when not in use. Also, use energy saving light bulbs in dorm rooms.

Place plants in dorm room. Rather than buying aerosol air fresheners, use plants to improve air quality in the dorm rooms.

Use reusable water bottle. Instead of buying large cases of plastic water bottles where the plastic bottles get piled up in the dorm room, use a reusable water bottle. It keeps your water cool throughout the day and reduces the amount of waste someone produces in a week. 

Recycle! Most college campuses offer recycling in the on-campus living, it's important to properly recycle.

Avoid wasting water. Turn off water when brushing teeth rather than running it the whole time. Be mindful of the length of showers, try to reduce time.

These are some simple tips that anyone can put into affect tomorrow. Small changes will result in a large impact in the environment's health. It doesn't have to be a major change in someone's life to start to live a green life, people just have to take it one day at a time.

(Picture from Princeton Review)

What is sustainable living?

Since my blog will be about sustainable living, it's important to define what sustainable living means to me and the importance of living a sustainable lifestyle. Sustainable living is a lifestyle where an individual or society tries to minimize the use of the Earth's natural resources and personal resources. People who practice living a sustainable lifestyle attempt to reduce their consumption of natural resources by altering methods of transportation, diet, and energy consumption.

Information is always better understood through firsthand experiences. In the link below there is the "Ecological Footprint Calculator" which is a quiz to find out how many Earth's it would take in order to current lifestyle I live. When I took the quiz, it told me if everyone lived liked me, it would take 6.7 Earths in order to sustain my lifestyle.

Ecological Footprint Calculator Quiz: https://www.footprintcalculator.org/

I will share some simple and easy ways to change your lifestyle into a more sustainable lifestyle that uses less Earth's and personal resources. The first is REDUCE, REUSE, and RECYCLE. Don't buy plastic water bottles or use plastic bags at the grocery store, rather buy a reusable water bottle and use reusable grocery bags. Reducing amount of waste is the most important part of the 3 R's, since it's the easiest, so be conscious of the amount of waste you produce as an individual. 

The next thing to do in order to live a sustainable lifestyle is unplug phone chargers and other appliances when not in use in order to reduce energy consumption. Also, take shorter showers and don't run the water when brushing your teeth in order to reduce the amount of water used. Living a sustainable lifestyle can be challenging, but making minor adjustments to your everyday routine can help save the planet, such as no more plastic water bottles or unplugging appliances when not using.