How to take your first steps towards a sustainable lifestyle

Every person’s daily life has a certain impact on the environment and nature. In turn, the environment affects a person, his health and well-being. This is always a certain cycle, which people influence either positively or destructively.

A sustainable lifestyle is a lifestyle that is in harmony with nature

By introducing an eco-friendly lifestyle, a person creates healthy conditions for himself and his family, and also contributes to the preservation of the planet, preserving conditions for future generations.

Many celebrities and influencers support sustainable lifestyles and are examples themselves. For instance:

• Julia Roberts lives in an eco-friendly home with solar panels.
• Leonardo DiCaprio established his own Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF), which is engaged in environmental protection.
• Brad Pitt develops a project together with Global Green – the construction of environmentally friendly and affordable houses. At the same time, he himself takes an active part and is not afraid of physical work.
• Emma Watson created a collection of youth clothing from eco-friendly materials Love from Emma.
• “Green Goddess” Irena Ponaroshku often raises issues of conscious consumption, waste separation, environmental protection.
• Sati Casanova takes part in waste collection, eco-festivals, supports various actions, for example, “Art for the sake of ecology”.
• Olga Shelest participates in environmental initiatives Greenpeace and WWF.
• Singer Nyusha contributes to the fight for the preservation of the environment by wearing recycled garbage.

The need for an eco-friendly lifestyle is no longer questioned today. But what exactly to do and how to implement it – while many people do not own this knowledge and / or do not implement it in their lives.

What does an eco-friendly lifestyle include for a specific person?

• Minimalism and economical consumption

Minimalism is a popular lifestyle now, which implies the purchase and use of the minimum required amount of things, furniture, clothes, these are free spaces with a minimum of details and objects. In addition to environmental friendliness, minimalism still carries the meaning of spiritual purification, psychological freedom.

• Organization of sustainable living space

We are talking about home improvement, furniture selection. An eco-friendly home means, as far as possible, the use of natural materials for making a home, decoration, furniture and interior items, children’s toys. And also an eco-friendly house implies minimalism in the arrangement of space, the presence of plants.

• Environmentally friendly household processes: cooking, washing and cleaning

Sustainable cooking involves the use of special cooking utensils, eating utensils made from harmless materials, avoiding the use of plastic, avoiding or minimizing the use of foil in food preparation, minimizing food stored in cans, and using safe containers or packaging for storing food.

Eco-friendly cleaning is carried out using environmentally friendly household chemicals (if possible, natural): cleaning the floor and windows, laundry and others.

• Organic food

It implies the use of natural products and products with a minimum content of harmful substances in food, the replacement of harmful products with useful analogues. Organic products are products grown without genetically modified organisms, without using the achievements of the chemical industry, without mineral fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and preservatives.

There are also products with the Organic status – there are even higher requirements, the organic product is under control from raw materials to the finished product on the store shelf.

Such cosmetics consist mainly of natural ingredients, or the most careful artificial ingredients. During its production, harm to the environment is minimized – for example, it is not tested on animals, minimization and environmental friendliness of packaging.

Eco-cosmetics are divided into different groups, some of them have official recognition and certification.

Eco-clothing is made from natural, environmentally friendly raw materials (linen, cotton, silk, wool), during its production, the harm caused to the environment is minimized.

As you can see, a sustainable lifestyle encompasses different parts of our daily life and requires a careful and conscious approach to consumption. For those who want to start implementing it in their lives, I offer ideas to get started.

First steps for a sustainable lifestyle:

1. Replace plastic bags and packaging with environmentally friendly reusable eco bags.
2. Replace the foam sponges (not recyclable) with jute or cotton rags.
3. Replace at least one food in your diet with organic food.
4. Buy yourself a natural face cream.
5. Minimize your canned food.

I would be glad if I inspired you to think about an eco-friendly lifestyle and take at least one small step in this direction.