It’s very easy to say, “Let us be sustainable.” However, in reality, and practice, it might come across as a bit challenging.
Going sustainable means reducing the amount of dependence on the earth’s natural resources and reducing your environmental footprint. In other words, it means embracing a modern minimalist lifestyle that is cost-effective and energy-saving. First of all, we need to understand why it is essential to lead a sustainable lifestyle. We use non-biodegradable plastic products which might have long endurance and long life but this positive quality is the one which is the biggest disadvantage in this case. Due to this quality, it cannot be breakdown easily and sustains in nature for a long period of time. The non-biodegradable plastic waste finds its way in the landfill and in waterways which is a major threat to the aquatic animals and for every living being. Every year almost 300 million tonnes to plastic waste produces and among which only 9 per cent can be recycled. The plastic waste produces methane gas which is harmful to the environment and contributes majorly in the per cent of greenhouse gases which eventually leads to global warming and depletion of the ozone layer. It is the high time that we need to start living a sustainable lifestyle.
On the surface, it can be extremely daunting, especially when others around you are not doing their part. However, with small steps, you can be a pro at this. The idea is to start with a few small measures before transitioning into a full-fledged sustainable lifestyle.
NADEEM SAIFI
How to Be Sustainable?
Analysing your personal life habits and auditing it will help you get started in the initiative of going all sustainable. It’s important to first break it down into a few small steps before making the big leap.
Start with your current lifestyle. Take a look around you and ruminate on what are the things you could change to invite sustainability into your life. Here a few things that will help you get started:
- Turn off the lights before leaving a room.
- Use more LED lighting and CFL bulbs instead of incandescent lighting as they last longer.
- Enjoy as much sunshine as possible. Open the blinds and enjoy the natural light to minimize dependence on light bulbs.
- If you have a few items to clean, hand wash them,
- Dispose of waste in different bins based on their types like dry waste, wet waste, kitchen waste, etc.
- Start timing your showers to avoid water wastage.
- Turn of some of the electronic devices like WiFi, television, etc. at night when not in use.
- Go for products with absolutely no or less plastic-packaging.
One major way of going sustainable is to resort to living a lifestyle that is absolutely waste-free or shuns the single-use plastic. Here are a few basic things you can do:
- Switch to cloth bags instead of plastic ones for grocery shopping.
- Use shampoo bars instead of shampoo in plastic bottles.
- Use a glass reusable cup instead of plastic and paper cups for your coffee and other beverages.
- Make use of metal straws instead of plastic ones.
- Switch to safety razors and ditch disposable
, plastic ones. - Bring your own containers to the restaurants for takeaway.
- Stop buying bottled water.
- Use cloth napkins instead of paper ones.
Additional sustainable measures:
- Support fashion brands that are economically conscious.
- Reduce how frequently you wash your clothes.
- Get better at sewing skills to patch the garments that could still be of some use instead of discarding them.
- Send electronic cards and e-invites to people for events
- Indulge in going green and add small pot-plants to your workspace.
We realised we really wanted to catch a glimpse of what went on behind the scenes of the companies we looked up to. And we thought other people would want to know too.
So we decided to organise an event to share these stories. Today, we run monthly Show & Tell events and an annual conference.