Here at A Greener Nest, we talk a lot about how to maintain a sustainable lifestyle. But what is sustainable living, exactly?
Sustainable Living: A Definition
Put simply, sustainable living is the practice of making mindful lifestyle choices that result in a positive outcome for the environment. This usually involves reducing one’s carbon footprint and conserving natural resources.
Sustainable living is NOT about:
- Being able to fit all of your trash in a mason jar
- Eliminating every form of plastic from your life
- Generating absolutely “zero waste”
- Depriving yourself of every modern form of technology
While certainly noble, these goals are usually unrealistic for the average person due to modern manufacturing practices. And, if anything, such goals would likely result in frustration and guilt, which is the opposite of how a person should feel when they’re doing good for the planet!
Sustainable living can be different for each person, but I like to break it down by focusing on three key areas.
Sustainability in Practice
1. Practice Conscious Consumption
Essentially, conscious consumption is a commitment to making ethical purchasing decisions that have a positive social and environmental impact. Instead of impulse-buying, conscious consumers consider the implications of everything they purchase. They actively support ethical companies, avoid unethical companies, and consider the life-cycle of each product they buy.
Practices include:
- Buying goods that are manufactured in a circular economy or have a recycling program
- Using natural, biodegradable, and non-toxic products (i.e. making your own cleaning products)
- Repairing instead of buying new
- Swapping, borrowing, thrifting, or shopping secondhand
- Buying local (i.e. visiting a farmer’s market)
- Foraging or growing flowers and botanicals instead of buying internationally-grown varieties from the store
- Refusing single-use products and finding reusable alternatives
2. Shift Your Behavior Towards Conservation
Environmental conservation has always referred to the preservation, management, or restoration of wildlife and natural resources. However, becoming an everyday conservationist requires individuals to take on personal responsibility for stewarding the global ecosystem in both big and small ways. Ultimately, it comes down to a change in mindset, routines, and established patterns of behavior. It’s seeing every human being as a potential conservationist, and every home and neighborhood as an ecosystem.
Practices include:
- Conserving non-renewable natural resources (oil, coal, and gas) by opting for renewable energy (i.e. installing solar panels, using rechargeable batteries, biking instead of driving)
- Carefully stewarding and repurposing renewable resources (i.e. saving water by timing your showers, composting food scraps)
- Preserving biodiversity and native ecosystems (i.e. planting flowers for native pollinators, converting your backyard into a wildlife sanctuary)
- Growing your own produce to offset water wastage and carbon emissions involved in commercial growing and food transportation
- Saving and reusing jars, containers, and packaging material
- Inventing new technologies, products, and solutions to address human problems
- Changing business practices to reduce plastic and single-use packaging
3. Become a Sustainability Advocate
Becoming a sustainability advocate means actively defending, supporting, and championing sustainability within your circle of influence. As much as it’s rewarding to live a sustainable lifestyle on your own, the truth is, it’s much more effective (and fun) when it’s practiced by many people. So tell your friends, family, and community about what you’re doing to be more eco-friendly. Teach a class. Send an email to your local sustainability board or your favorite snack company. You’d be surprised by how many people want to hear your ideas!
Practices include:
- Participating in environmental action (i.e. organizing community cleanup events, volunteering for habitat restoration projects)
- Educating and empowering your community to make sustainable lifestyle changes (i.e. teaching a sustainable vegetable gardening class, hosting sustainable parties and celebrations)
- Petitioning your local government for policies that would benefit the environment
- Asking for ethical and sustainable changes from businesses that you support
- Telling your family and friends to support environmentally-responsible companies
Conclusion
Sustainable living encompasses so much more than producing absolutely “zero waste.” It’s about creating better outcomes for the environment as a whole.
To be truly sustainable, we must make ethical decisions about the everyday products we buy and use, change our lifestyles to responsibly steward natural resources, and become sustainability advocates in our own communities.
If we practice conscious consumption, conservation, and championship, we can transform our culture from one that is focused on instant gratification, quick profit, impulse purchases, and consumerism to one that is concerned about the preservation of the planet for future generations.
I hope that you now have a better understanding of what sustainable living might look like for you and your community. While it may be different for each person, the good news is that you can start practicing it today, wherever you are!
The most important thing to remember is to stay positive, focus on the small steps that you can take right now, and remember why you’re doing this. At the end of the day, it’s not about perfection, but doing your best with what you have.
