Summer is a time for barbecuing with friends, swimming to stay cool, getting in shape, and sprucing up your apartment. As you go about your fun this summer, there are easy green lifestyle habits you can employ to keep your carbon footprint to a minimum.
Here are a few ways to help you get started on your path to a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle.
Actively Recycle
With so many soda cans and beer bottles consumed at barbecues and get together’s, the summer is a great time to jump on the recycling train. The environmental benefits of recycling are profound. Even if you put cans and boxes in the blue bin only when you’re disposing of used packaging, you’re making an impact. To make it even greater, train yourself to think about recycling every time you have a used container in your hands. If necessary, you can even move your recycling bin so it’s more visible than your trash can.
Eventually, recycling will become second nature. You may even find yourself encouraging friends and family to adopt better recycling habits, further alleviating pressure on natural resources and the environment. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. And encourage others to do the same. It works.
Switch Lights Off, Unplug Electronics
“Off” modes on many electronic devices are actually standby modes. Before you leave your apartment for a full day of work or a weekend away, unplug your TV, cell phone charger, oscillating desk fan, and anything else that consumes energy while plugged in, even if not turned on. While plug-in lamps are an exception to the off-means-standby rule, it’s also in the interest of the environment to switch off lights before leaving your apartment.
Wash Only Full Loads
If your apartment is equipped with your own dishwasher and washing machine, it may be tempting to make use them whenever you have a small pile of dishes in the sink or clothes in your hamper.
In the interest of keeping your carbon footprint to a minimum, make an effort to run your dishwasher or washing machine only when you have a full load. Exceptions to this rule obviously exist, but thinking twice before running a load of dishes with a few plates and five pieces of cutlery or a load of laundry hardly even a quarter full will help you adopt the green lifestyle you’re thriving for.
Choose Apartment Decor Wisely
When you think about living a green lifestyle in your apartment, decor is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. By making conscious decisions about the furniture and decor you buy, you can do a great service to the environment. If you’re buying new furniture or switching up your decor for the summer, be smart about what you use in your apartment. Keep your carbon footprint to a minimum by choosing sustainable materials made by eco-friendly manufacturers.
Recreate in Your Apartment
From working on a case or presentation to working on your fitness, you can meet many of your daily needs without leaving your apartment. When you want to leave your apartment, you absolutely should. But if you’re happy with the community amenities you have, use them.
Save fuel by making fewer trips in your car, economize by sharing high-quality equipment and space with others, and make the most of your own time and energy by working out in your apartment’s fitness studio, swimming in the pool, and lounging around in the club house or game room with friends and neighbors. In other words, be as active and as social as you’d like without spending money or expending resources you neither need nor particularly want to spend.
Are you ready to make a change in your life? Would you like for said change to benefit the environment and society at large? Embrace greener habits in your day-to-day life, and the change will come naturally.
What are some habits you’ve adopted to live a green lifestyle in your apartment?
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View All Posts by Jason Ernst