The choices you make every day are ones with a profound impact. From the smallest decisions at the grocery store to what you buy your mother for her birthday, you send a message declaring what type of future you support for the Earth. We have entered an age where each of us need to step up to the next level of responsibility, making conscious choices so that we ensure a happy life for future generations of not just people, but of all the other creatures we share our beautiful planet with.
In the words of green architect Bill McDonough, “The world often sees environmentalism or being green as less bad. It’s really not about being less bad; it’s about being more good…we have to become a creative force, not just a less destructive force.”
Let this process of discovering Earth-friendly choices be a fun and happy one for you, and then become vocal so your decisions influence your friends and family.
Here is a selection of everyday activities:
Send a quick email to your senators, congressmen, and the President, telling them you value the environment and want to see harmful pollutions including pesticides and chemicals eliminated. Mention the protection of air, ocean, water, wildlife, old-growth forests, natural environments, state parks and beaches.
Ride your bike, walk, choose public transportation or carpool when possible instead of driving alone.
Pick up litter wherever you go – it all washes into the ocean where fish, turtles and other marine life mistake human trash like plastic bags and bottle caps for food.
Bring reusable bags to the supermarket for your groceries.
Use recycled paper in your printer at work and at home. U.S. businesses use over twenty-one million tons of paper annually. If half of this were recycled we could save a forest the size of Florida every year.
Don’t ask for a receipt at ATM machines and gas stations. If everyone in the US viewed their information onscreen instead, it would save a roll of paper long enough to circle the equator 15 times.
Air dry your hands in public restrooms instead of paper towels.
Use stainless steel water bottles instead of plastic. Realize that plastic was made by refining oil, and limit your purchase of anything plastic, replacing it with glass or stainless steel when possible.
Plant an organic garden in your yard or in window boxes in your apartment.
Buy local fruits and vegetables and bread to cut back on energy used in refrigeration and transportation of food from a distance.
Send a quick email to your senators, congressmen, and the President, telling them you value the environment and want to see harmful pollutions including pesticides and chemicals eliminated. Mention the protection of air, ocean, water, wildlife, old-growth forests, natural environments, state parks, and beaches.
Buy used books, download books, or check books out from the library instead of purchasing new books, most of which use no recycled paper in their pages.
Bring your own to-go containers into restaurants, including silverware and cloth napkin. Use them any time you get food to go.
Choose one species of animal to love, protect and defend in your lifetime
Take up Paul McCartney’s campaign of Meat-free Monday. A city of a million families not eating meat one day a week saves millions of gallons of water and oil per year.
Stop eating all fast food. Most of this food is highly processed with chemicals, and must be transported hundreds, even thousands of miles to reach you.
Buy organic! And be aware of ordering organic in restaurants. Hundreds of millions of gallons of pesticides enter our soil and water supply every year. Chose organic and make it known you want the poisoning of the planet to stop.
Make all your showers three minutes shorter.
Lose your lawn! Plant native drought-resistant plants instead, and save on fertilizers and water.
Send less email. Internet data servers use as much energy as all U.S. TVs combined.
Purchase an energy efficient refrigerator, washer/dryer/, and water heater for your home.
Talk to your kids about helping the Earth, and encourage them not to waste water in play.
Stop visiting any zoos, aquariums, or marine parks that do not support conservation or teach visitors about the animals in their natural habitats.
Purchase all natural cosmetics including makeup, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen and lotion.
Do not flush anything down the sink or toilet you would not want to swim in such as medicines, bleach and chemical hair dyes.
Plant a tree.
Cancel all your junk mail.
Use cloth napkins in your home.
Use biodegradable diapers or cloth diapers.
Use cloth menstrual pads or a silicon menstrual cup like the Diva Cup. Disposable menstrual pads and tampons account for millions of tons of garbage each year in landfills in the U.S.
Purchase energy-efficient light bulbs, and keep lights off in your home when you are not using them.
Carpool to school and work.
Ask your employer to donate all profits made on Earth Day, April 22, to a nonprofit organization helping the planet.
Buy wild fish over farmed as farmed fish are high in heavy metals. The volume of feces that enter the ocean from the average fish farm is the equivalent of a town of 65,000 people releasing their raw sewage into the sea.
Buy shoes with Earth-friendly or recycled soles.
Use biodegradable dish and laundry soap.
Use clay-based paints on the wall in your home or office.
Live closer to where you work, and telecommute if you can.
Go paperless with your bills and bank statements.
Buy honey from organic farmers who treat bees respectfully.
Use rainwater tanks to recycle water from the roof into the yard.
Compost your food! It means less garbage.
Closing the flu in your chimney when the fireplace is not in use can save 5% on energy usage used to heat your home.
Stop smoking.
Put your investments into sustainable companies.
Purchase a surfboard made from recycled materials or covered with epoxy resin. If one in fifty surfers worldwide made this choice in just one year, the surfboards saved from landfills could stretch from California to Hawaii.
For your next vacation take an eco-vacation, or even enjoy a stay-cation at home turning off all phones, computer and other electronic devices.
Make the same environmental decisions for your pets that you would for yourself: organic food, eco-friendly collars and leases, shampoos and bedding.
When giving gifts consider gift cards, concert tickets, restaurant certificates, and movie vouchers as alternatives to heavily packaged and wrapped birthday and holiday presents.
Bring your ceramic coffee mug with you to get your morning coffee. Many shops give you a mug discount, and it saves trees!
And the yoga bonus:
Buy a yoga mat made from natural rubber or recycled materials. Avoid any yoga mat created with toxic PVC. If every yogi in the U.S purchased a natural yoga mat this year instead of one with made with PVC, collectively they could prevent the production and eventual landfill of 46.2 million pounds of PVC plastic. If these mats were stacked and laid flat, they would reach more than seven times the height of Mt. Everest.
L.A. native Kaia Van Zandt is a historical novelist who teaches at YogaWorks in Santa Monica on Main St. at 2:30 P.M. Tuesdays and Thursdays. She founded the youth division of the Humane Society of the United States in 1989. Download her free ebook on unblocking your creativity at: KaiaVanZandt.com or email KaiaHVZ@yahoo.com
Tell us your favorite Green Living Tip from Kaia’s list or one of your own and enter to win a Kulae Eco Yoga mat. Submit your entries to: edit@layogamagazine.com, subject line: Green Living.
By Kaia Van Zandt
