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:
I could give over 20 tips, or just this advice…
Realize that we live on a planet, that we are not the only species on the planet, that it is here for everyone and everything, and we are not living in harmony with anything else here. When you wake up every day, instead of caring about money, a job, or bills, etc. ask yourself how you are going to be a natural, functioning part of the ecosystem that day. Ask how you will contribute to the Earth, and if it matches what you will take away from her? Without a worldwide change in mindset and how current societies view Earth, the damage will never stop.
This post was submitted by Wolfie.
I reduce my impact on the environment by eating a meat and dairy-free diet.
This post was submitted by Sarah.
I’m a bit ashamed of using an electric clothes dryer (we have a big family, lots of laundry, and not a lot of sun), but I do use the condenser water for house plants..also have recently begun to go food shopping on foot in our local village stores instead of driving to the hypermarket(my cardiologist applauds), buying organic fruit and vegetables whenever possible, and none imported or out of season, eating meat only twice a week, using cloth tote bags,(free plastic bags no longer available here anyway) and am saving money as well(fewer consumer temptations)..Tho a fan of bottled water, have started drinking from the tap. Our town fortunately requires the recycling of paper, cardboard, plastic and glass which is collected once a week in front of our house. We compost organic waste at our country house in Britanny and will soon be doing it here at our main residence. Europe has begun a ban of incandescent light bulbs which will soon be no longer available, but questions remain about the recycling of the newer bulbs which contain poisonous matter… What I will not give up ? my laptop, cosmetics, books made from trees….
This post was submitted by Barbara.
We recently decided that instead of recycling most of our glass jars, we would save them for use around the house. When we are grocery shopping, we look for products that come in glass jars and avoid buying products in plastic.
We have been reusing various size glass containers for uses like a toothbrush holder, bathroom q-tip holder, water jars (instead of sigg bottles), keeping food in that we buy in bulk like nuts and grains, etc. It saves us money not having to buy glass containers for those uses.
This post was submitted by Chrystine.
5 years ago, I started walking and cycling to school with my kids. In the town where I live, people routinely drive their kids to school in vans, SUVs and station wagons on journeys of 2 miles or less, the most polluting. We’ve found this is great time to spend together. The kids arrive at school energized and at home at the end of the day decompressed. We’ve used the time to study spelling words, learn times tables and all the states and capitals. It’s saved me a gym membership – I walk 5 miles a day. It’s also saved us the $650 bus fee. Now my son is 11 and goes to middle school, he walks and rides by himself, giving him a great sense of independence and me a sense of freedom that I don’t have to play taxi.
On October 7th, I organized a walk to school day in celebration of International Walk to School Day for our elementary school. 150 kids walked that day, despite bad weather, about a quarter of the school population.
This post was submitted by Melissa Gough.