Small Changes

About 3-5 years ago talking about 'clean living' and 'single use plastic' would get you immediately pinned as 'crunchy.' Fast fashion like Forever 21 and Zara was at its peak popularity, and no one thought twice about that straw in their drink. Even I would have looked at you sideways if you told me plastic-less soap was the way to go.

Thankfully, its become more mainstream to be conscious of the environment and the rapidly developing climate change. People are realizing, slowly and inconsistently, that the consumer, need-to-have-it and buy-what-I-want attitude, is not sustainable. Over about a year, I've been trialing a few small changes in our lifestyle to lessen our impact on the climate. We are FAR from zero waste, but we are trying, learning, and striving to be better, and every little bit helps. Here's what we've done that works well for us; maybe some of these things will fit in your lifestyle, too:

- Adopt the planetary diet. This one wasn't a stretch for us. The Orthodox Christian diet typically cuts out meat and dairy about half of the year, and the times we do eat meat it's rarely beef, lamb, or other types of meat that have heavy carbon footprint. Also, the planetary diet is just good for you- the majority of your plate really should be leafy greens and vegetables, whole grains, and non-dairy proteins such as beans and pulses. Plus it's partly based on the Cretan diet, which my husband and I are obviously big fans of :) Here's a little more information, if you're curious. And if you're up for going completely vegetarian or vegan, great! Even better. Just make sure your diet is balanced, and talk to a nutrition specialist to make sure your diet contains all your needed vitamins and minerals.

- Reduce single use household items. This one definitely reflects a "do what you can" approach for our house. Both my husband and I work pretty long hours, so making our own cleaning products wasn't really an option. But we could easily replace our paper towels with reusable cloths, plastic ziplock bags with glass tupperware and wax cloth wraps, and also stopped using plastic when shopping altogether. Its been a process- I don't always remember to bring the small bags for fruit and veg to the markets. But anything was better than doing nothing altogether. We got these cloths, these wax wraps and pretty much all of our bags come from Trader Joe's :)

- Let go of fast fashion. This was a hard one for me. I grew up in an affluent community. Shopping was the reward for good grades, the way we killed a Saturday afternoon, and a form of stress relief when things weren't going great. I started small- I started paying attention to labels; I stopped buying non-organic fabrics or clothing that I couldn't guarantee was ethically sourced and fair trade (The Reformation, for example, or Amour Vert. There are literally dozens these days.) This year, I made a resolution to only buy used clothing, and only when I needed it. This has been amazing for my physical space and for our budget. My closet isn't filled with things I haven't worn in years, and I only make a purchase when its really necessary and/or I've slept on it for awhile. Do a quick google search for the nearest Goodwill or vintage shop in your area; there's also a few instagram accounts that sell vintage clothing online.

- Don't get it to go. This one's hard. Sometimes you just get a straw without asking, and if I'm working an overnight shift and forgot my traveling mug, not purchasing coffee just isn't an option. But we try to remember to specifically ask for no straws whenever we can; I have a few metal ones at home and this great portable one was a gift from a coworker. There are also awesome travel bamboo cutlery sets which I highly recommend :) And if I'm meeting someone to sit down for coffee, I either bring my own container for iced drinks (I don't know why you can get a ceramic mug when you sit down at a coffee shop but all iced drinks come in plastic??) or just skip the drink altogether.

- Green your vacation. This is a tough one. Peter and I love traveling, but flying and many other aspects of travel really aren't that green. Taking more local trips is a great way to avoid the impact of flying and get to know your area. When we did take our big trip to Hawaii, we made a point to volunteer. We attending an event for the Ocean Friendly Restaurants foundation, and tried to eat only at restaurants listed on their website. There's also a couple of great nonprofits that host beach clean ups, you can check them out here. And we ultimately volunteered at a sacred historic site with Maui Cultural Foundation. We found all of these nonprofits through Instagram and a quick google search; I'd highly recommend taking a look before you travel and seeing how you can lessen your trip's impact on the environment.

- Get politically active. This is something we need to be better about. But I try to keep abreast of political issues affect the environment by following this person on instagram, and donate to our parks foundations when we can. I also follow a few Native American activists, since some of the biggest threats to public lands are often occurring on sacred land. While we usually can't travel to protests, we try to keep abreast of big issues affecting sacred land  and sign petitions when they're circulating.

- Think about the next step (but don't get overwhelmed.) We recently switched to plastic free shampoos and conditioners, but when I looked around for container-free stores the nearest one was an hour away. We'd love to own a hybrid or electric car, but since I just finished payments on my current car, so that will have to wait a few years. If you looked at this whole list it probably looks really overwhelming. But we started doing these things a few small changes at a time. If you're interested in doing your part, don't get overwhelmed- just think about what changes will be feasible, and start there. You can do it :)

If you're not sure where to start, here's a couple of bloggers I find very helpful and inspiring:

- Joy Felicity Jane - great vegan recipes and good tips about sustainable living in the city
- Michelle for Good-  a mix of lifestyle content with ethical fashion and sustainable living
- The Good Trade- great general resource for sustainable fashion, lifestyle and home tips.

Hope that was helpful! If you do something else to leave less of a carbon footprint, please feel free to share in the comments. We can all learn from each other.

PS none of the links above are affiliate. These are just products I've really liked using and people/websites I've found useful in the path to live more consciously.