Enviro-Tips to Help Save Our Planet

Global warming is real and we all have to do our part to help save the planet to preserve it for the next generations.  Every month we feature an Enviro-Tip in our Student Organizer so that we can help spread a few ideas about ways  that everyone can help.  Here are the tips that are featured in the 2018 Student Organizer.

1. Simplify: Simplify your life as much as possible. Only keep belongings that you use/enjoy on a regular basis. By making the effort to reduce what you own, you will naturally purchase less/create less waste in the future.

2. Observe an Eco-Sabbath: For one day, afternoon or hour a week, don’t buy anything, don’t use machines, don’t switch on anything electric, don’t cook, don’t answer your phone and, in general, don’t use any resources.

3. Natural Body Products: Check the ingredients and look for paraben-free nontoxic products. Head over to your local natural products store to pick up natural, cruelty-free body products.

4. Become part of the Sharing Transformation. The maker movement, collaborative consumption, the solidarity economy, open source software, transition towns, open government, and social enterprise are just a few of the movements showing a way forward based on sharing.

5. Refuse Products that Create Waste: If available, instead of buying processed food, bring your own bags and containers and buy from the bulk and produce sections of the grocery store. Minimize or eliminate other types of purchases that generate waste.

6. Free Bug Control! Invite a spider into your home! Eeeeeew, just a few cobwebs in a ceiling corner will minimize unwanted bugs in your home.

7. Bring back the clothesline: Using a clothesline to dry your clothes whenever possible is a great way to reduce carbon emissions.

8. Buy Local: Buy food (and drink – ideally tap – water) from local companies whenever possible. Each pound of local food you purchase prevents a quarter pound of climate change (C02) emissions. Support your area’s Farmer’s Market.

9.Pack a Waste-Free Lunch: A waste-free lunch means that you have no trash to throw away when you’re done (just compostables such as apple cores, banana and orange peels, peach or cherry pits). The best way to reduce trash is to not create it. Use a reusable lunch box or cloth bag, reusable containers, water bottle or thermos, cloth napkin and silverware to wash and reuse.

10. Take an Active Role in Reducing Your Family’s Water Consumption. Enrol your family by asking everyone to change their consumption habits. You can place signs near water outlets reminding family members to take shorter showers, and not to run the tap when brushing teeth. Every little bit helps and everyone helps a little bit.

11. Share With Friends and the Community. Share things like books, magazines, movies, games, and newspapers between friends and neighbours. Peruse your local library or used book store to find books, magazines, CDs, books-on-tape, and videos.

12. Thoughtful Gifts and Environmentally-Friendly Wrapping. Bake cookies or goodies for your loved ones. Think “green” while shopping. Reuse envelopes, wrapping paper, the front of gift cards as postcards and other paper materials, wherever possible