Advantages of Being Eco-Friendly
It’s not difficult to become more eco friendly in your life. While you may think it involves extra time and money that is not the case. In this article, we will describe many ways in which you can do your part to being more eco friendly.
Eco-friendly washing powder and cleaning materials have been around for a long time, but their cost is still greater than the usual environmentally unsound variety. Back to basics is one way to be eco-friendly in our cleaning: old household guides published during and prior to WWII tells us how to clean effectively with vinegar and lemon juice, explain how to make our own soap and shampoo from natural ingredients often cheaper and certainly healthier than the stuff we buy ready made.
Cutting down on greenhouse gases also means either using our cars less and public transport more or using different means of transport altogether. Thanks to the economic downturn more people walk or cycle to work than ever before. Many large companies already provide transport for their employees and this should be encouraged more. Getting more exercise is good for us anyway, but it also cuts down on CO2 emissions and therefore assists our efforts to reduce global warming.
Learning from Experience
Countries like Scandinavia are world leaders in energy efficient building methods, so are countries like Canada and Germany. More must be done to encourage energy efficient building methods in countries like the UK and Ireland for example. Eco-friendly building methods are also being promoted throughout the Netherlands, so there are enough countries from which to learn.
A greater exchange of knowledge about eco-friendly waste management, building methods and recycling schemes would benefit people across Europe, yet this is still not being done to the extent that European tax payers would wish. For the last ten years UK councils have been deliberating over what recycling schemes to adopt, when existing schemes in countries like Germany have provided data for more than twenty years. Why is there no greater exchange of knowledge and taking up of proven eco-friendly schemes?
A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body
Living in an eco-friendly way shows people how we are interconnected both in terms of our impact on our environment and in terms of being the end consumer in a long food chain. Healthy nutrition has already become a huge issue in light of obesity across most Western countries. Adopting an eco-friendly life style involves eating and living in a healthy way, with more fruit and vegetables, less meat consumption and more exercise every day.
Even if we only designated one day a week to eco-friendly living, that one day across a large section of society would have an enormous impact. As consumers we have the power to force supermarkets to stock only the things we want to buy. This in turn forces supermarkets to encourage responsible, eco-friendly food and goods production for sustainable sources.
Not eating red meat for one day of the week will result in less deforestation…less cattle will be required…less methane gas will be emitted into the air. Not buying fruit and vegetables out of season, means less air miles, therefore less air pollution and reduced cost, fresher food stuffs on our table.
Travelling to work on foot, by bike or by sharing a car with other people is a great way to improve our living standard as well as living in an eco-friendly way.
It’s so easy to be eco-friendly, just give it a try.
