Sustainable houses are about tiny, energy-efficient modifications you can make to lower your carbon footprint, not about living off the grid or sitting in the cold. A sustainable lifestyle is influenced by being sustainable at home.
How to adopt a greener lifestyle
There are various methods to adopt a greener lifestyle, and bigger initiatives like setting up solar panels are one of them. However, you can start even smaller than that because many small changes can lead to a larger one.
In this post, we provide some advice on how to make your home more environmentally friendly so that we can all do our part to protect the environment.
Reduce plastic use and recycle
Reusable bags
We know that it might be challenging to remember your reusable bags every time you visit the shop, but consider keeping a few in the car or hanging near the door to use as you exit. Remember that it takes each of those plastic bags around 1000 years to decompose in a landfill.
Zero waste stores & local markets
Why not try shopping at establishments that use zero waste, where huge jars of items that you can pour into reusable packing to bring home are used in place of plastic packaging. The Zero Waste Network offers a helpful store finding tool if you’re not sure where to look for your local retailer.
Buying fruit, vegetables, meat, and baked goods at local markets and stores allows you to bring your own reusable bags and containers to transport the food home. This, together with getting milk delivered in glass bottles as we used to in the past, will all help to minimise our usage of plastic.
Grow your own fruits and vegetables
Growing your own fruit, vegetables and herbs can help cut down on wasteful plastic usage in food production and supply chain emissions. You don’t even need a lot of room. These can be grown in pots and tubs, the garden, or why not contact your neighbourhood council to rent an allotment? Whenever you can, make your own compost. Excellent for the garden and reduces landfill waste.
Ditch the disposables
Use washable cleaning cloths and use compostable bin liners where possible. Washable nappies and sanitary products are widely available to reduce the amount that ends up in landfill and even reusable, washable cosmetic pads are now widely available. Consider swapping hard plastic products for bamboo substitutes, items like cotton buds and toothbrushes and even children’s plates and cutlery are all now readily available in more sustainable bamboo versions.
Reducing water waste
According to Friends of the Earth, a power shower may use up to 17 litres of water every minute. We all do it: run the shower for a while before stepping inside and leave it running while we shampoo our hair and shave. However, this literally wastes water and money. Here are some suggestions to assist you and your family in water conservation.
Use a timer
Try using a timer, either in the shower or on your phone, to cut down on the length of your showers and conserve water and electricity.
Turn off the taps
Running the taps whilst brushing your teeth wastes around 24 litres of water for a 2 minute brush, twice a day, so make sure you turn the tap off whilst you are cleaning your teeth.
Many water companies offer a free, easy to fit insert for your taps to reduce water flow for efficiency.
Be more strategic with your washing machine
Whilst thinking of water consumption, only using the washing machine for a full load of clothes will use less water and energy than running 2 smaller loads.
Try washing your clothes in colder water – it gets the clothes just as clean as it would if the water were hot but in a more efficient way. According to Energy Star, up to 90% of the electricity used by a washing machine is used by heating the water.
Install a Smart Meter
Installing a Smart Meter to measure how much gas and electricity you’re using gives you control over the small changes you can make to make your home more energy efficient and do your bit to help the environment. Those little changes soon add up! You could:
Turn off lights and appliances
Change to energy-efficient light bulbs to reduce your annual electricity bill by £10! Instead of using the “Standby” option, turn off appliances completely, and unplug chargers when not in use to avoid wasting electricity.
Hang clothes to dry rather than use the tumble dryer
Make energy-conscious decisions when purchasing new appliances. A rating for most big appliances indicates an appliance has the best energy efficiency.
We hope these simple tips inspire you and your family to become more eco-friendly. These small changes, if we all do them, will have a huge impact!
