Sustainability isn’t something everyone focuses on every day, but the tools are available for those who want to start living a greener life. From big to small tweaks to your daily life, you have many avenues to go down depending on your budget, daily habits, and more unique details.
Everyone’s move to a green lifestyle has to start somewhere, so where should you begin? If you’re new to the subject, you may be surprised by how many ways you can update your lifestyle with eco-friendly practices. Start putting together a plan today by reading these helpful ways to start living more sustainably.
Buy Reusable Products
One of the best ways to begin your sustainable lifestyle is by seeking out reusable products to reduce waste. This is among the most powerful steps because the reusable alternatives on the market are more widespread than you might think. Americans purchase about 50 billion water bottles per year, averaging about 13 bottles per month for every person in the U.S., and only 30 percent of plastic bottles get recycled. Our filter water bottle provides an easy way to purify water at home or on the go, ensuring you never have to rely on single-use bottles anywhere. One Water-to-Go filter replaces 400 single-use plastic bottles, making it easy to be sustainable and reduce your carbon footprint.
However, a reusable water bottle is only one of the many convenient options available. Homeowners targeting sustainability in their daily life should consider using reusable shopping bags, plates, cups, batteries, and more products to make a change.
Unfortunately, many of the aforementioned materials have single-use alternatives that are far from sustainable. You can also repurpose certain items instead of throwing them away after one use. For example, rather than tossing away glass jars, you can clean them out and reuse them for any number of storage purposes.
Once you switch to greener products, you can help the environment while still completing daily tasks with ease and efficiency. After all, buying high-quality reusable shopping bags won’t slow down your shopping experience. Instead, it will make your visit eco-friendlier.
Shop Sustainable Brands
Suffice it to say that not every brand on the market is incredibly eco-friendly, whether you’re looking at clothes, cleaning products, or appliances. When shifting towards a more sustainable lifestyle, it’s understandable to wonder if the alternatives will deliver the same performance.
Thankfully, many eco-friendly companies exist in the world, each proudly declaring their ethical standards, so they aren’t hard to find. Moreover, ethically made products can deliver on performance, too. For instance, buying clothes from green designers will help you find more creative, comfortable pieces on the market that better align with your lifestyle.
Beyond everyday products, materials around your house can be more sustainable, too. Roofing materials differ in their eco-friendliness, but there are ways to have a greener experience. For example, metal roofing is suitable for sustainable homeowners. Metal roofs tend to be impressively long-lasting and durable, so you won’t have to dispose of one for many years, if at all, when properly designed and installed.
Likewise, the protective finishes on metal roofing improve heat reflection, ensuring your home can remain cool and cozy on summer days. As you can see, shifting to a greener lifestyle is something you can do in many ways—it all comes down to what best fits your lifestyle. The tips above will help you introduce greener products at home, but another crucial factor to consider is your energy usage.
Install Solar Panels
If you want to make a significant change to fossil fuel usage that helps the environment, consider installing solar panels at home. Solar panels do more than look cool; they provide homes with an easy way to absorb clean energy that homeowners can use around the house, from the lights to the TV. Not only do solar panels provide power to your home, but they help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the process.
A residential solar system can even assist with blackouts in your area if you install a solar battery with your panels. Solar batteries store extra solar energy so homeowners can access electricity without relying on the grid, ensuring blackouts don’t prevent them from staying safe and comfortable at home. Thanks to solar panels, you can have access to energy throughout the day as you normally do without relying on the electrical grid.
Solar panels might seem like a big investment because they are. However, they significantly impact the environment around you. If you’re comfortable investing in a solar system, remember that you can calculate your return on the investment beforehand.
For example, tax incentives are available for residential solar panels at federal and state levels for projects that meet those standards. If your installation qualifies for those tax incentives, you can experience a solid return on investment sooner than you might expect. If your solar panels are too big of an investment at this time, remember that there are many simple but impactful ways you can start living more sustainably, such as updating your appliances.
Use Energy-Efficient Appliances
Another simple solution for sustainability is swapping out old appliances with energy-efficient models. This step is fairly easy because homeowners can turn to Energy Star labeled products for sustainable models. Home appliances with an Energy Star rated counterpart include freezers, refrigerators, dryers, washers, and dishwashers.
The Energy Star website presents an easy way to navigate their large swath of certified products, so don’t hesitate to sift through your options whenever buying a new appliance or amenity for your home. Moreover, you can find suitably sustainable alternatives for heating and cooling components around the house, such as furnaces and boilers.
Homeowners use these amenities frequently, so relying on an Energy Star certification will help you live greener every time you wash the dishes and clean your clothes. Don’t forget that your choice of lightbulb can impact energy efficiency at home, too!
Homeowners who want more sustainability at home should swap out any lightbulbs with LEDs, if they haven’t already. LED bulbs can save energy, help the environment, and save money on energy bills, which certainly doesn’t hurt either. Sometimes, seemingly small tweaks to your home design can help you positively impact the environment. Now that you have this list of ideas by your side, you can start living a more sustainable lifestyle whenever you’re ready.
