From Guest Blogger Derek Lotts: Living a Green Life–Tips for Eco-Sustainable Living

Sustainable living refers to the practice of trying to reduce the effect your personal life has on the environment and natural resources. In order to accomplish this, a person needs to radically change a lot about their daily life, but most importantly, they need to change their outlook on the environment.

These decisions aren’t only about the environment, most of them will also help you save money on energy bills and help you lead a healthier and longer life.

Joining a community garden

Most people don’t have the space or the resources to start their own garden. This, however, doesn’t mean that they are stuck with buying their produce from the local grocer and not knowing what they are paying for. Local community gardens are a great way to grow your own produce without spending a fortune.

This decision significantly cuts down on your carbon footprint, which’s very much affected by the transportation needed to deliver the produce. It’s also a way to make sure that the vegetables you’re growing are completely organic and healthy. You can’t achieve that level of control if you’re buying from someone else.

Transportation

Transportation has a huge impact on the environment and it’s one of the industries that create the biggest carbon footprint. It’s also something that you can’t opt-out of all that easily, especially if you want to lead a productive and engaged life. However, there are small steps that everyone can take and start from there.

Start by using your bike or skateboard whenever you’re able to. It’s also a good idea to use public transportation instead of your own vehicle and to organize carpools to and from work. This is also more convenient and less expensive.

Not relying on public utilities

Most of the time, public utilities are wasteful and don’t take care of the impact they have on the planet. Moreover, they don’t provide the level of service you could accomplish by providing the services yourself. This is especially noticeable in places like New Zealand, where getting clean water could be a problem in some areas of the country.

In order to make sure you’re getting clean water that’s purified in an eco-friendly manner, you might want to consider using UV purifiers like those from UV Guard from New Zealand.  They provide clean water with zero negative effect on the environment and can easily be installed in any household.

Stop using paper

It may seem like we’re pretty much in the digital age by now, but people are always surprised when they notice how much paper they use and waste each year. This is especially true for those that run small businesses or community organizations. The paperwork takes time and is wasteful and harmful to the environment, especially now when there are better solutions out there.

This change would take special effort on your part, it isn’t something that can be done without preparation and organizing an alternative way to handle your day to day business. If you have employees, you’ll also need to train them in order to make the transition smooth.

Recycle and reuse

This is pretty common advice and it may seem like it’s something that everyone has started to do by now. However, in order to recycle and use resources in a sustainable way and do so on a large scale, you need to prepare a plan and really point out where you can save the most and do the most good.

It’s also important to go beyond recycling and focus on reusing. Take the time to scan local shops and sales and use these to find the products that can be reused. This will save you quite a lot of money and it’s the environmentally responsible thing to do.

Living a green life isn’t only good for you and your family – it’s also a way to do your part to help the environment. With these small adjustments, you could make a real change.