On April 22nd. 2017 we celebrated Earth Day. A day dedicated to education about the environment and sustainable practices. This year for Earth Day I noticed more instagram posts and snapchat stories than ever before. An endless array of artsy pictures depicting people celebrating the earth and literally hugging trees.
I get it, it’s trendy to be environmentally conscious.
Being an all organic vegan is like totally the new in thing. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as trends promote positive cultural change, then to each their own. However, we need to ensure that we carry this love for the Earth beyond April 22nd, so I’ve curated 5 quick and easy tips that we can practice in our day to day life in order to usher in a more sustainable tomorrow!
5. Switch to LED lightbulbs: Other than being much cooler than incandescent lights, thus reducing the risks of combustion, LED lights are environmentally friendly! The annual energy consumption of LED lights is 30 times LOWER than that of their competitors! So while they may not provide that popping selfie lighting, you can save money and reduce your ecological footprint by switching to them!
4. Shorter Showers: The average American showers for 11 minutes, while this may not seem like a long time the environmental impact is HUGE! That equals about 55 gallons of water per. day. Which equals 385 gallons a week. I know personally shower time is my moment to put on an award winning show however, for every minute you reduce your shower time you can save approximately 55 gallons of water.
3. Walk or Bike: This is a great way to stay healthy while also reducing your carbon impact! If you don’t own a bike don’t worry, cities across America are starting to place bike share stands all over. If you want to find them easily download Social Bicycles on your app store!
2. Shop Locally: Shopping locally gives you the benefit knowing exactly where your food comes from and supports small farmers. It also reduces the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the agricultural industry. Here’s how, the transportation of goods by large chains requires trucks, these trucks travel long distances adding to carbon emissions in the air. Locally grown food travels a lot shorter distances because it’s grown in near by communities.
1. Stop eating meat: I know a lot of us absolutely love a good hamburger, but that one pound weekly burger takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce, 51% of greenhouse gas emissions are produced by the animal agriculture industry, and it takes up significant land space. I know vegetarianism/pescetarianism/veganism isn’t for everyone but just skipping out on that weekly burger can make a huge difference.
It’s no pressure if you can’t walk and bike everywhere or if there aren’t local grocery stores for you to shop at, the fight for Environmental Justice is about equipping ourselves with education and the tools to do what we can where we can!
Use this quick list to help move our love for the earth Beyond Earth Day.
(photo provided by techavy.com)