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 bought mix and match silverware at the thrift store super cheap and keep it in a box in the cabinet. We use it whenever we have parties. No more plastic ware, ever!
This post was submitted by Kim.
I’m a composting nut. I’ve saved tons of food waste from entering the landfill and raised millions of healthy earthworms. since 1975…for really…I have composted all of my cooking refuse. there is a stainless steel 4 quart soup pot that lives on the counter by the sink. It has a lid and is always shiny. throughout the day everything from fruit and veg peelings, hulls and seed pits to tea bags goes in. at dusk I walk back to the fenced composting area and dig a hole, chop everything up, layer it with shredded leaves or grass and bury it. back inside I wash the pot and we’re good to go for tomorrow.
all through the growing season I have instant, at the ready, beautiful rich compost to add the garden and top dress the shrubs.
This post was submitted by Donna Iona Drozda.
For the past two years I have volunteered at a monthly free market. People bring unwanted items which someone else could use (mostly clothes, books and household items), and take away whatever they like.
This is not a 1-1 swap: one can bring plenty and take little or nothing away, and one can bring little or nothing and take many items.
This project keeps many items out of the landfill and recirculates them to new users. It helps people save money. I have found interesting clothes and books there myself, and it is the best and most enjoyable voluntary work I have done in my life.
[NB Organising a free market on a regular basis requires storage space, which should be kept well-organised so that the confusion doesn’t become overwhelming (as ours did at one point). Items past hope should be rigorously weeded out, or the market starts to look a bit dismal.]
This post was submitted by Deborah Sweeney.
1. I have been a vegetarian for 13 years. I was happy to read in Colin’s book that this fact already lowers my carbon footprint significantly. However, I fully support small farms raising happy animals who have fresh air, sunshine, a good life span, and who are killed humanely & quickly. CAFOs are a stench in humanity’s nostrils (literally).
2. I garden. I HAVE to grow some of my own food. Connecting with the earth this way is a part of my being. The fulfillment one gets from digging in the soil, saying hello to the earthworms, and planting a seed is truly indescribable. Every time I plant a seed and nurture a plant I feel I have given birth to something wonderful. I will nurture them and in turn, when the plants are ready, they will nurture me. What a beautiful process.
This post was submitted by Amanda Hunyadi.
-drive a Hybrid Honda Civic
-produce home elecricity with solar P/V
-hot water heating with solar
-heat home with air source heat pump
-buy electricity from Bullfrog Power
-buy carbon offsets for transportation
-dispose of only 6 bags of garbage annually
-compost all kitchen & garden waste
-advocate for renewable energy
-conservation & energy efficiency daily at home
-support local organic CSA
-sponsor a Green Homes Tour each spring
This post was submitted by Don & Heather Ross.