Collectively, small lifestyle changes can make a huge impact on the environment–and your life. Looking for happiness and health? What’s good for the environment is also, it turns out, great for you. Here’s a collection of tips from the No Impact community.
Do you have a video story from your No Impact Experiment? Share your story below:
Sustainable. Locavore. Environmental steward.
I’m all for it. Really. My blood runs green. It does.
I compost.
I raise heirloom plants.
I own a Prius.
But I could be so much better.
A friend and I went to see the movie, Fresh. Of course, after watching the film, I swore I would never eat mass-produced food again, I would patronize the local farmer, I would eradicate all of the bad choices I make on a daily basis and SAVE THE WORLD.
Then I went home, had a Diet Coke and an Oreo.
But I digress…
The thing is–I really thought my family was pretty eco-savy. But we’ve also become eco-lethargic. So my family and I have embarked on our own year-long experiment to reduce our carbon footprints while positively impacting our environment. We like to call our project: “No Impact Man-Lite.”
We’re attempting to make substantial, meaningful changes…a little bit at a time, focusing on practical tips other parents and families can implement to improve their relationship with the environment. I’m writing about our successes–and misses–at www.growingdays.blogspot.com
From eliminating my beloved Diet Coke cans to fostering biodiversity through my heirloom plant business to deprogramming our consumerist kiddos…we’re working to lower our impact–one day at a time.
This post was submitted by Julie Thompson-Adolf.
Been living in Europe for 30+ years(Born In The USA) and seems that here environment-friendly habits are more advanced.Probably a cultural thing.Anyway, recently I have been getting rid of “stuff”.Maybe an age thing, my mother did the same at slightly older.I think as you age you see more about what is really essential and what is superficial.Like many women I have closets full of clothes and “nothing to wear”,so am giving away piles of garments I’ll never wear again(will never see size 4 waistline again, let’s face it) to charitable organisations. Am recycling all those magazine and newspaper articles I will never read again which have piled up over time. My regret is that with at least 5000 books in the house, I CANNOT throw them away, but no one wants them. Any suggestions? (they are mostly in English so not a popular item with libraries here)
This post was submitted by Barbara.
This year, by growing as much food as we can on our small city lot (including hens for eggs!), my partner and I reduced the number of trips to the grocery store, saved money, ate less meat, cooked great meals together, were darn proud of ourselves, and had fun doing it.
This post was submitted by Jen McIntyre.
I´m a brazilian frutarian-vegan girl. I´m 20 years old, and I decided to become a vegetarian when I was 17.
Since that I started to search for information about vegetarianism… And then, after 2 years and a half, I (re)descovery fruitarianism. All my search was to become simple, and with that cause no-impact to our planet.
Of course I study a lot about that, and I begun to live this way of life. It changed all my life, how I see the world, nature, my self.
Today I do know what is a healthier life, a healthier body, I heatlhier mind… and the consequence, obviuos, is the no-impact. All my “trash” is 100% organic, and it´s totally rich to compost.
I always use eco-bags, I go buy my fruits and vegetables riding a bike, and I always buy local food.
I don´t need to use anymore desodorant, body-lotion, shampoo and a lot of things…because now the consequence of my choice is health.
And I always have energy to exercise every day, at least 1 hour or more!
This choice was possible because I descovery this website :www.foodandsport.com of Dr. Douglas Graham. And then I bought his book
” The 80/10/10 Diet”. After that, all I can say is that cause no-impact to your body and our planet is totally possible and natural!!!
I hope you can discovery that eating simple can change a lot our world (inside and outside)for better!
Good Luck!
Malu
This post was submitted by Maria Luiza.
We only get coffee if we have our own cup with us – no cup, no coffee. We only shop for food if we have our cloth bags. We save all the shower and bath water to flush the toilet, wash the floor, water the plants, and don’t shower daily. If we are buying cheese (from the market) we wrap it in a cloth napkin, we never need any kind of plastic. We compost food scraps, recycle all paper, tin, glass. Pick up from the street and collect number 5 plastic lids and collect other number 5 plastic from random places to take to whole foods for Preserve recycling. We pick up the menus that are delivered and send them back to the restaurant or recycle them. We try to get to all those free terrible coupons in plastic bags before the supers of the buildings on our blocks do (they just get tossed), and we recycle them, and use the plastic bags they come in for trash (the very little we have). We open carefully and re-use any envelopes that come in the mail. We shop from our local farmer’s market and are CSA members – eating locally and seasonally is much better for us and the planet. We ride our bikes everywhere, never take a cab. If we are going far, we’ll take the train. I bartend once a week and have a no-straws policy strictly in place. Most all of our clothes are hand-me-downs or second-hand/vintage, and we don’t throw any clothes in the dryer and only wash with cold water – to save energy and the life of our clothes. we use the library for books and movies. we have a strong unplug policy, always unplug phones, computers, the tv, all of it when not in use… um, i might be missing stuff but that’s where we are at and how we live. This is exciting to get to have a community sharing the No Impact Cleanse week in unison.
This post was submitted by Stig.