One of the biggest problems in today’s world is climate change.
While we all know that living in a more sustainable way is important, the problem is that most people don’t know what they can do to make a difference, and they don’t know what steps to take first.
I’ve written a list of 15 ideas for sustainable living which covers the basics of going green and reducing your carbon footprint. It includes tips on how to reduce your waste at home, on the road, and at work; ways to save energy at home; easy changes you can make around your community; plus lots of other ideas for making small but meaningful changes every day.
The world is changing, and we need to change with it!
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Table of Contents
- What is sustainable living
- Why we need to be more sustainable
- Ideas for sustainable living
- 1. Turn it off
- 2. Grow your own vegetables
- 3. Go paperless
- 4. Reusable water bottles
- 5. Reusable grocery bags
- 6. Avoid fast fashion
- 7. Reduce food waste
- 8. Learn how to sew
- 9. Reduce screen time
- 10. Walk or cycle to work / school
- 11. Reduce meat consumption
- 12. Take the stairs
- 13. Switch to reusable sanitary products
- 14. Carry metal straws
- 15. Borrow and share
- Bonus: Use eco-friendly web-hosting
- Conclusion
What is sustainable living
Sustainable living is about reducing your own carbon footprint to protect the Earth.
The idea of sustainable living has only recently started to become more mainstream with the surge in environmental concerns over the last few years
This movement encourages us all to stop using as many natural resources as possible, whether we’re talking about energy or food. This reduces our personal carbon footprints, thereby protecting the planet for future generations.
Read also: What is eco-minimalism and is it really for you?
What makes sustainable living unique? Unlike other methods of being eco-friendly, such as recycling or taking shorter showers, sustainable living involves changing your day-to-day habits so that you don’t use up as many natural resources as before.
Why we need to be more sustainable
Sustainability is more important now than ever, and reducing our carbon footprint means we can enjoy a better quality of life today while knowing that future generations will be able to do the same.
The world’s population is ever increasing, and with the technology we have at our disposal, it doesn’t look to be slowing down any time soon.
We need to get better at managing how we use our natural resources if we are going to provide enough of them for everyone today and in years to come.
Read also: 25 Simple Ways to Consume Less This Year
It can seem pretty daunting when you think about living a more sustainable way; it’s a lifestyle change and changes can be hard to make.
However, the only way to create a sustainable future for our planet is if we all make changes in our own personal lives.
Read also: Simple Zero Waste Swaps to Use Around the Home
Ideas for sustainable living

1. Turn it off
The electricity that powers our household appliances is produced by power plants which generate an enormous amount of carbon dioxide in the process. This is obviously bad news for the environment, so reducing your usage will help balance this out
You may not feel like you use as much electricity as other people, but most devices you plug into a mains socket are using some sort of electricity, even when they’re ‘off’. So you should make an effort to turn off any electronic devices that are not in use.
2. Grow your own vegetables
One of the great things about growing your own vegetables and herbs is that you will notice you have better quality produce in your diet.
Instead of buying chemically treated and over-processed foods, you can grow your own fruit and vegetables to ensure they are fresh and haven’t been tampered with.
By growing some of your own food, not only will this benefit the planet but also save money on shopping bills.
If you’re not too confident in growing your own and want to buddy up, check out if your community has a local vegetable garden that you can contribute to!
Read also: Minimalism and Sustainability: How They Go Hand in Hand
3. Go paperless
By going paperless, you are helping to preserve forests and reducing your impact on the environment.
Where possible, use an electronic device like a laptop or tablet to read PDFs and other documents electronically.
Did you know that many banks and bill providers are starting to charge you for sending paper bills and statements? So not only will you be taking sustainable action, you’ll also be saving a pretty penny!
Read also: The Best Ways of Storing and Organising Paperwork at Home
4. Reusable water bottles
Glass and stainless steel bottles can be used again and again, making them a great choice for anyone looking to go green.
Instead of using disposable plastic bottles, glass or stainless steel can be washed out and reused over and over again. I have had this HydroCell stainless steel one for a few years now and it comes everywhere with me; to work, the gym, in the car, hiking, to the mall! I can use it for hot drinks as well as cold ones.
Another good tip is actually buying one water bottle with an inbuilt filter so you don’t have to buy water all the time; this will save you money too!
Simply fill up your reusable bottle with tap water whenever you need it and recycle when it gets dirty, instead of buying cheaper but less eco-friendly alternatives like bottled water.
Read also: 50+ Eco friendly stocking fillers for the whole family
“If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled, or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production” – Pete Seeger
5. Reusable grocery bags
Ditch the plastic bags at the supermarket and investment in some reusable grocery bags instead.
I usually keep one small cotton bag with me in my purse every time I leave the house, just in case I need it, and a few more are kept in the car so I don’t forget them going shopping.
Again, more and more supermarkets are starting to charge for plastic bags, and it all adds up. So even though it’s an investment to begin with to buy these reusable ones, it will be worthwhile in the long term and much better for the environment.
You must make sure they are washed out regularly; if you’re anything like me then I’m sure there are probably plenty of food remnants lurking within!
Here’s one of my reusable grocery bags!
6. Avoid fast fashion
Reducing your carbon footprint does not just cover electricity and waste, it also covers what you buy. Buying fast fashion produces more waste because companies are churning out cheap clothes at a high rate to get them on the shop floor as quickly as possible. This means they don’t have time or don’t care about how sustainable their practices are; this includes in manufacturing and distribution too.
Read also: A Comprehensive List of Fast Fashion Brands to Avoid in 2021
If you do need to buy clothing, why not consider buying second-hand? You can save money but also make sure that less clothing is going into landfill so increasing your sustainability efforts!
If you’re interested in finding out more about fast fashion and its impacts, watch The True Cost documentary.
Read also: Fast Fashion vs Slow Fashion: The Rise of Sustainable Fashion
7. Reduce food waste
Here’s a shocking statistic for you:
According to the United National Environment Program, “Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year – approximately 1.3 billion tonnes – gets lost or wasted.”
I don’t know about you, but that definitely makes me want to be more mindful when it comes to my food decisions.
Some tips for reducing food waste at home (which is something I’m always trying to improve upon, myself!) are:
- Meal plan for the week as best as you can
- Make a shopping list of only the food you will need for the week
- Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry!
- When eating out, only order a small portion if you’re not too hungry or take any leftovers home for lunch the following day.
For the most part, it’s all about being mindful of what you’re spending and not getting carried away when shopping or eating out, if you’re a frequent offender like me!
“The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth” – Chief Seattle
8. Learn how to sew
When I was growing up, I was the youngest of 5 kids. I hardly ever had new clothes, just hand me downs – and they were all I needed to be fair!
But I recall that nothing was ever thrown out if it was torn, my mum or sister would mend it. If shoes were broken, they would be brought to a cobbler rather than a new pair purchased.
Now, I don’t mean you need to be conjuring up runway ready outfits, or even buy a sewing machine! But if you can mend the smallest rips / tears / holes in your clothing, it will eliminate the the need to go out and buy something new any time a hole appears in a sock!
9. Reduce screen time
Laptops, phones, tablets, TVs….sometimes I have all running at the same time in my house! And with today’s busy lifestyles and a lot of work being online, there often isn’t a choice.
However, on the days we don’t necessarily need to be tied to our screens, let’s shut them off!
Instead of spending all day Sunday in front of computer games and TV, maybe get the family involved in playing board games or sports outdoors. Or limit yourself to a few hours on the computer and then get out and do something active, rather than spending most of your day in front of a screen.
Not only will this reduce your carbon footprint, but will also get you and your family more active and spend more time together.
Read also: Disconnect to Reconnect: The Significance of a Digital Detox
10. Walk or cycle to work / school
Something small, such as leaving the car at home just once a week, can really help with going green.
Bikes, walking and even public transportation have the lowest carbon footprints. Cycling produces zero emissions if it is powered purely by you!
If walking or cycling isn’t an option – maybe your work or school is too far away – perhaps you could share a ride with someone else and the next day you can drive them instead.
11. Reduce meat consumption
As our population grows, the demand for meat will only increase. And with this growth comes a huge negative impact on our environment and the animals themselves.
Talk to your family about it, maybe you can work together to reduce meat consumption every week by one meal? Then after a month, try another meal until eventually you’ve reduced your intake substantially?
12. Take the stairs
Now, I live on the 33rd floor of my building so of course I don’t run up and down the stairs every day, however, I do at least once a week take the stairs, both for some exercise and to be more sustainable.
In buildings where you only need to go up a couple of floors, instead of waiting for the elevator, which uses a massive amount of energy simply to move from one level to the next, take the stairs.
13. Switch to reusable sanitary products
Plastic pollutes our rivers and oceans at every stage of its life-cycle, posing a serious threat to the environment. And the amount of sanitary products we all use on a monthly basis add up to an enormous amount of waste.
I recently made the switch to ModiBodi period panties after a lot of research and I honestly can’t believe I didn’t make the switch long before. I love them!
14. Carry metal straws
It is reported that 500 million plastic straws are used and discarded every day in the U.S…. let that sink in for a minute. That’s 500 MILLION!
I carry metal reusable straws with me wherever I go, so when I’m ordering a drink I can ask for no straw and instead use my own.
A few more good reasons to switch plastic straws for metal: they don’t break like plastic and there is no risk of BPA being ingested.
Read also: 6 Things to Look For When Buying Sustainable Products
Excessive consumerism is not sustainable and is a massive contributor to our growing waste problem.
Use the sharing economy! It’s easy to find people who have something you need – whether it’s a tool, vehicle or even just an item they no longer use – all you have to do is ask for it. Pop a request up on your neighbourhood Facebook page and someone will be sure to respond.
If you need a handbag or accessories for a specific night out, check with friends and family if they have anything you could borrow before rushing out to buy.
**BONUS TIP**
Bonus: Use eco-friendly web-hosting
The Internet is one of the world’s largest polluters.
If you’re a blogger like me, consider switching your webhost to an eco-friendly host such as GreenGeeks. I use these guys for both of my blogs and just love their mission statement and eco-friendly ethos.
Greengeeks buy back 300% of their yearly energy usage in renewable energy to put back into the grid. They also work with One Tree Planted to plant trees around the world! Their sustainable mindset coupled with exceptional customer service is why I’ve stuck with them for the past few years.
Conclusion
One thing you may notice from the above ideas for sustainable living is that the majority of them add even more value to our lives, such as health benefits or financial gains.
We can all make changes in our lives that will help protect the earth for future generations. This doesn’t have to come at the expense of our survival, it can in fact only serve to make us healthier and happier!
If everyone took even one step towards a sustainable life, we could all be making a difference. Start today by picking just one idea above and try it out for a week!
Read also: 50+ Eco friendly stocking fillers for the whole family
What other ideas for sustainable living do you have? Have you already made the decision to go green?

These are brilliant points! Definitely people need to walk and cycle more and use stairs. So many good ideas.
Thank you Jamie 🙂
What an informative post! I’ve been trying to be sustainable for a couple of years now and these tips are brill to help xx
That’s really great Della! Thanks for reading!
Hi Vourneen,
Some excellent ideas there, thank you.
We’re working on reducing our meat consumption – we’ve implemented ‘Meat-free Mondays’! We’ve been doing this for a couple of months now so perhaps we need to look at adding another day. ‘Save The Plant Saturday’ perhaps?
33rd floor!!! Wow. When I was at uni I was in a flat on the 14th floor and would often use the stairs because there were too many people using the lifts. But 33rd floor?! That’s impressive. Well done 🙂
Meat-free Mondays! I love it!! Adds a little fun to a meal when it has a name like that doesn’t it?!
Fair play to you for climbing the 14 flights regularly! I’ve started training for Kilimanjaro so I’ll have to be upping my stair walking in the coming months too!
Wow these are great suggestions! Although there are a few I’m already doing, there are so many here I hadn’t even thought about. Thank you so much for sharing! I’ve got some work to do.
Don’t worry Tiffany, you’re certainly not the only one and I definitely have work to do myself also. But it’s so great that you’ve already put some of these into action already!
I love all of these. My family is dedicated to being better stewards to our world and these are some great tips! Fast fashion is definitely one that I am working harder on for sure.
That’s so great your whole family are into sustainable living! I had been trying to cut down on buying clothes for no reason but when I saw The True Cost, it made me so sad and sick to my stomach that I actually found it a little easier to cut it out. Thanks so much for reading!
This is such a comprehensive list — thank you! I am so glad that many more companies/organizations offer paperless billing/communications. I have greatly reduced the amount of paper coming to my home in this way and it’s easy to do if you have the internet available to you, etc. There’s a couple of things on this list I’m not doing or haven’t implemented comprehensively so your info has been so useful!
It’s great that companies are taking these small steps, and hopefully they’ll start taking bigger steps in the next few years too. I’m so glad you found my post useful!
We do a lot of these already but we had no idea about green hosting! We need to look into this one for sure, our host plants a tree for every year we stay with them which we thought was great!
That’s fantastic that your host plants trees! I didn’t know of any green hosts until I heard of GreenGeeks a few years, and I love how eco-friendly they are 🙂
Such a thorough and interesting post. Thank you for being so informative with it all, as someone who is trying to be more sustainable wherever I can I really appreciate when others share tips and ideas.
That’s great Jordanne, I’m so glad you found my tips helpful.
Great ideas you share with us! I already do many of them but honestly I never would have thought of green web hosting.
Thank you for this post!
Yes, they’re not as well known as they really should be! They came as a surprise to me too!
Great post! I love an informative article about sustainability 🙂
Thanks for reading Miriam!
According to your list, I am already doing a great job. I also don’t have a car. And I am happy that the EU decided that we have to pay for plastic bags because now everyone is bringing their own bags to every single store. Recently, they also banned all single-use plastic (including straws) so we are all making progress.
That’s incredible Bettie! You really are doing a great job!
Great article! It was very informative and detailed!
Thanks Javier!
Great post! Sustainability is such an important topic. Some of these I already try to make a conscious effort to do, but others had not crossed my mind. Glad to learn something new to try! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Sarah! It really is getting more and more important to talk about sustainability.
Brilliant ideas, the green plants point is the best one for me, thank you for sharing
That’s great Farah! Glad you liked it 🙂
These are all great tips! Thanks for sharing them. Some of these I do already such as unplugging and trying to be less wasteful with food, so I’ll try to implement these!
Thanks Natalie! That’s really great 🙂