The theme of this year’s Blog Action Day is climate change — a subject near and dear to our hearts here at Go Green Travel Green.
Our philosophy is to focus on easy step you can take to live a greener, healthier lifestyle. So here are 6 steps you can take today (or any day) to reduce your environmental impact, just about anywhere in the world.
1. Walk
It’s harder to get motivated to pass on driving and, instead, walk to your destination in the winter. But fear not — you can face the cold in moderation. Instead of walking everywhere, decide you’re going to walk to one destination every week instead of taking the car.
2. Opt for Public Transportation
For those days when it’s just too cold or rainy to walk, take the bus or train. If you don’t have access to public transportation, carpool.
3. Cut Back on Electricity
Unplug appliances when you’re not using them and turn off the lights when you leave a room. It will save money and resources.
4. Buy Local, Seasonal Food
Support your local farmers by getting food from nearby farms, and look for organic produce and dairy. Food tastes better when it’s fresh and doesn’t have to travel 2,000 mile to land on your dinner plate.
5. Support Sustainable Businesses
Pass up Starbucks and head to that coffee shop in your neighborhood that composts leftovers. Don’t know of such a coffee shop? Check local directories, or ask the restaurants in your neighborhood if they’ve thought about composting. If they realize there’s consumer demand, they might start being more sustainable.
6. Spread the Word
One of the best ways to fight climate change is to encourage more people to take little steps to reduce their impact. Tell your friends, coworkers, neighbors, and family what you’re doing to make a difference. Your story just might encourage them to do the same.
Recommended Reading:
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
my favorite one was support a sustainable business.
I think more people should do this anyway.
1. WALK – which brings me to backpacking. In every area of the USA you will find that thang which makes living here wonderful. National, State, and BLM parks. And everyone of them has a ton of trails to hike. Get out there and hit it. You don’t get much greener than hiking!
I find everyone could help to cut back on electricity.
I think where I come from we have more than embraced green living, but I think there are certain creature comforts people will not give up.
@Conor Thanks for your comment. I agree there are certain comforts that are hard to give up. And, depending on what they are, they may not need to be given up. We’re all about moderation.
Support sustainable businesses that’s wonderful idea.
Im so glad that looking after our environment has become important to more and more people, these tips are great
Your post made interesting reading. Yes, going green does not have to be too difficult. If we can understand the concept behind the philosophy, it would become more natural for us. We can alter the way we live our lives just a little bit to make a big impact on the environment. We run a global sustainability directory called Climatarians where we highlight key issues in green initiatives around the globe.
Yap, will have to put my car hire away for a while
Hi,
All the above mentioned tips are all equally important in their own rights. We cannot adopt one and leave the other. Environment protection should be a complete package. The very thought of conserving our nature and environment should be made a part of our day to day life. It is not too difficult. There has to be a slight change in our life style which will go a long way to preserve our environment.
The best method to create awareness about the impact on environment is through word of mouth publicity and a constant input from the experts of the environmental field. But this awareness needs to be done in such a manner that it interests the people, encourages them to work towards and should contain less of jargon and more of simple facts and figures which are easily comprehended by the common man.
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I would also suggest grow your own vegetables. It’s realitively easy to do and even if you grew only some of the vegetables you usually eat, it would be a saving on the transport and packaging you get with shop bought produce.
I can also suggest public transportation when distance is too far to walk. There is public transportation in much more of North America than many realize, but sometimes the information when travelling in a non-familiar area is difficult to find. To address that I have recently launched a web-site listing how to find this information.
http://www.pubtrantravel.com.
David Waight
I really liked that your sixth thing was to spread the word. It is so important for the people who really care to opern eveyone else eyes because a lot of people don’t think about this stuff. I posted something similar in my blog and just told everyone to at least pick one thing to put into their life because every bit helps.