An eco-friendly lifestyle comes with many benefits. But, going green is much more than recycling.
A green lifestyle is a mindset. It implies living in a way that is friendly to the planet. This lifestyle is about maintaining the natural ecological balance and preserving the planet along with its natural systems and resources. It is about caring for the planet.
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What It Means To Go Green
Going green means taking steps, both big and small, to minimize the harm one does to the environment. It is about living in a way that reduces pollution, consumption, and waste. It is about adopting habits that help to conserve natural resources and energy. To sum up, it means living in a way that is respectful to the planet we get to call our home. It is also an urgent call to action as at the current rate, the Earth will not be able to sustain life, including our own, for much longer.
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Benefits of Going Green
Have no doubt, adopting green habits in your daily life does make a difference. Although the list of benefits that an eco-friendly lifestyle brings is never-ending, here are the environmental, health, and economical gains.
Saving the environment
If you consume less and contribute to reducing waste, there will automatically be fewer toxic substances released into the environment. Although zero waste is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve, we can all reduce our footprint by avoiding buying food in plastic containers or shampoos with toxic chemicals that end up in rivers through sinks and pipes.
Improved health
A cleaner environment benefits our health. The WHO estimated that air pollution causes about 2 million premature deaths across the globe on a yearly basis. Air pollutants have been found to be associated with behavioral issues, learning deficits, and lowered IQ in children. The health of our environment also has a direct impact on the quality of our food and ultimately our health as we wouldn’t even have a shot at being healthy with polluted drinking water and food contaminated with life-threatening chemicals such as heavy metals.
Money savings
If you adopt green habits, you will think of ways to save energy that will directly reduce your Reliant Energy utility bill. It’s as simple as washing your clothes only when the washing machine is full, in an eco-friendly mode with colder water, and drying them naturally in the sun. Also, the less energy we use, the less pollution we create.
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Green Lifestyle Tips
Going green means doing something to reduce the impact of our daily activities. You can be as creative as you wish as literally the sky is the limit. Any activity and product you can think of can become even ‘greener’.
Use natural cleaning and beauty products
Use products that are as natural as possible as opposed to those of man-made chemicals. Natural products are produced in a more sustainable manner and they can do little harm even when released into the environment because this is where they came from in the first place.
Eat organic food
Organically grown food is free of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers that would harm the environment, as well as hormones or genetic reengineering that do not benefit our health. This food is healthier for us as it is free of carcinogens and heavy metals and more nutritious.
Change your mindset
Going green means that we evaluate what we really need, as opposed to what we want. For example, do you really need another pair of jeans? Think of reusing goods to reduce your consumption of new materials by going to the second-hand market instead of a shop. At the very least, make sure you recycle unwanted items. When buying a new product, make sure it is energy-efficient. Update your mind in the same way you regularly update your smart devices. Once your mind boards the green train, there will be no going back.
Takeaway
Just because we are inhabiting this planet does not give us the right to harm it. Yet, this is what we humans have been doing as even eco-systems have been wiped out. Planet Earth was there long before we came into the picture. Living an eco-friendly lifestyle is the least we can do to show our gratitude for the hospitality and immense natural beauty we have been given. Do it your way, but make sure you show this beautiful planet some respect by going green this year.
