Being eco conscious doesn’t have to be difficult, in fact often it’s the simplest and easiest changes to your routine that can end up going the furthest and having the biggest impact on your overall carbon footprint. Sometimes you don’t have to do anything to be more eco-friendly, but rather just need to stop doing something that was previously causing you to waste energy.

To demonstrate these points, read on and we’ll look at some rapid fire ways you can be kinder to the environment as well as to your wallet. These are easy changes that can have a big impact on the environment!

Buy Eco-Friendly

One way to be more eco-friendly is to support eco-friendly businesses and products. You can do this by being a bit more discriminatory in the items you buy and choosing to invest in products that have been made in an eco-friendly manner. Even services can vary in their eco-consciousness. What car does your plumber drive? How was the wood for your flooring acquired?

When buying electrical products this is even more important: make sure you are buying items with a good efficiency rating.

Turn Off

Not in the room? Turn off the lights! Period. 

Don’t Standby…

This applies to televisions too – if you’re not using it, turn it all the way off.

Take Colder Showers

This is actually really healthy and very invigorating. Taking colder showers helps that it will also save you a ton of money on not having to heat the water. It will leave more water resources for the environment. And you will save water as you likely won’t be in there as long – (ha ha).

Recycle

If you have recycling in your area then do your bit and make sure to actually use it! If it isn’t a local service meanwhile then consider going a little farther afield with some of your waste. Make sure to do it properly too by washing the items and making sure to sort them. The key to good recycling is to come up with systems that make it easy for you to stick to the good habit – whether that means investing in a large enough recycling bin, or whether it means placing your items in a plastic bag to take to the local recycling center. Find what works for you and then stick to it. Plastic is destroying wildlife and animals and that has to be worth cleaning a can for.

Turn Down the Heat

Even if you turn your heating down by only one degree, you’ll actually save a surprising amount of energy by the end of each year. And then imagine if everyone were to turn their heating down by that amount. A tiny imperceptible change, with huge consequences. The best way to do this is actually to turn down your temperature a single degree every night and then only change once you find it to cold. Besides, wearing warm clothes are cozy and comfy! 

Turn Down the Brightness

The same goes for brightness. Turn this setting down a notch on your various electrical devices – television included – and you’ll save a ton of energy. Many people don’t realize that reducing brightness makes such a difference!

Use Natural Garden Products

Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides aren’t good for the environment, so if you want to keep your garden healthy while being eco-conscious and doing your bit, make sure you use natural options. You can even go DIY and use things like egg shells in the place of pesticides.

Switch to Solar Energy

Best of all – switch to solar energy. Whether you invest in an entire solar panel array for your roof, or you just get a solar battery/solar charger for your garden, this can be a fantastic tool to reduce energy bills and to create far fewer emissions.