The other day, as I was hopping in my 4 wheel-drive soccer-mum car that I purchased brand-new and runs on diesel, I pondered just how green I really am. I like to think I am pretty environmentally friendly but, without question, there are many areas in which I could improve.
While my car isn’t the greenest choice, there are other reasons why I drive it. I have to be able to tow a horse float, which limits my options. Within that small group of cars, I absolutely look at fuel economy as one of the most important factors. I do a lot of driving. Picking a car with good fuel economy is one of the ways I can improve my “greeness” and it also improves my budget.
I tell you this story because I believe that it’s not how green we are that matters most. It’s about how we factor our concern for our environment (whether just in our homes, or the earth in general) into our lives each day. It’s about constantly making changes and adjustments to improve the way we impact the planet, each other and our future generations. Every little bit helps. It doesn’t matter what you change or how big a change you make, it just matters that you make start. Do what you can in the space you are in and with the resources you have.
Each day I find a different way to approach things in my life that will improve my impact on the planet. For me, any changes have to tick 3 boxes.
- Must be better for the planet than what I’m doing now,
- Must not negatively impact my family, and
- Must not be more expensive than what I’m doing now.
Here are some examples of big and little changes I have made:
- I use Tri Nature products everywhere I can (obviously)
- We changed over our 2 electric hot water services to heat pump services which slashed our energy consumption and bills (you can read more about this change here)
- I use green/reusable shopping bags for any shopping. I have the smaller ones that fold up into tiny bundles in my handbag at all times so I am never caught without. These are also great for using in the supermarket instead of plastic bags for items like apples and tomatoes.
- I buy in bulk where possible to save on packaging
- I buy “nude” wherever possible. I can’t stand the trend towards packaging on fresh produce. Drives me crazy and I would rather buy a whole pumpkin and find ways to use it than just a half wrapped in glad-wrap on a styro-foam tray.
- I always ensure packaging is recyclable on everything I buy
- I grow my own food as much as possible with the time and space I have available
- I buy locally made wherever I can (if I can’t get Australian fruit and veg I won’t buy it at all, which really hurts with avocados and asparagus and I am now growing my own garlic)
- I reuse as much as I can, especially packaging, for example:
- I donate all cardboard to kinders – it’s amazing what they can make out of a cornflakes box
- packing material from Tri Nature is shredded paper which I use to line my chook house and then compost once they’re done with it
- glass jars and solid plastic containers are washed and used for
- gifts (filled with home made goodies or decorated and filled with other gifts)
- leftovers or home made food
- temporarily housing “pet” bugs from the garden
- home made slime storage
- recycle everything I possibly can that can’t be reused
- I carry a small bag with a metal travel fork and spoon so I never need plastic or take-away cutlery
- I recently invested in some metal straws which live in my handbag so the kids never need to get the plastic ones (because it’s never just one of the plastic ones either)
- I take my 1L refillable water bottle everywhere so I don’t need to buy bottled water
- I take my 2 travel mugs with me everywhere so I don’t need to use disposable cups for tea or hot chocolates
- I recycle as much water as I can from our house
- the washing machine hose goes out the window of the laundry and all water from washing goes straight onto the grass and the garden. This isn’t an issue for the grass or plants because I use Tri Nature products.
- any water that hits our roof goes into rain water tanks and is used on the garden. We have evaporative cooling which dumps water onto our roof every 3 hours when it’s on, so even though it hardly ever rains here, we still get water in the tanks.
- bathrooms and kitchen I have yet to figure out.
Hopefully I have given you some ideas about what you can do differently that will help you and our planet. I would love to hear your ideas! Please comment below, email me or drop me a line on facebook and let me know what you have done in your space.