Five Easy Steps To Start Living Sustainably

How can I live a more sustainable lifestyle? This is a question you’ve probably asked yourself numerous times, but it can be a daunting one to address. For me, living sustainably has been a journey of experimenting, learning and connecting with a community who share my beliefs and ambitions. 

Dr Milena Buchs, associate professor of Sustainability, Economics and Low-Carbon Transmissions at the University of Leeds suggests, “One individual’s action may not make a big difference, but, by adding them all together, there will be a massive saving in the collective carbon footprint.”

By taking small steps and slowly implementing sustainable practices into your lifestyle, we can collectively reduce our environmental impact and help to promote a better, more equitable future. These are the five easy steps that I took to live more sustainably, which you too can implement without upending your current lifestyle:

1. Turn good intentions into habits

Good intentions are great, but it is often harder to alter your behaviour for the long term. To build sustainable habits, I found it useful to create small incentives or timely prompts. In one case, I set a reminder on my phone ‘Remember Bag For Life!’, which helped me to reduce my plastic consumption, and before long it became a ritual. 

I also found that the more I educated myself on topics relating to sustainable living, the more motivated I was to change my lifestyle. Upon fully understanding the consequences of my actions, I found it more difficult to be blasé about ‘forgetting’ to switch off a plug or bring my reusable cup.

2. Reduce consumption

Living a sustainable lifestyle is about consuming less in general. If we want to build resilient, sustainable communities, we must act now to create a less materialist, consumption driven world. 

I have learnt to value versatility, quality and longevity when purchasing products. I’ve started growing my own food, shopping second-hand, and spending more on items that I know will last. For me, lockdown has certainly helped to break bad habits, because shopping less has inevitably led to buying less. And I can’t see myself rushing back to the high street when this is all over. 

3. Stop buying fast fashion

We buy more clothes per person in the UK than any country in Europe. And while charity shop donations are high, up to three hundred thousand tonnes of clothing still ends up in household bins every year, with around 20% of this going to landfill and 80% being incinerated. 

For me, reducing fast fashion consumption was about getting creative. I learnt how to sew so that I could upcycle clothes that I owned and loved, as well as mending items I would have previously replaced. Charity and vintage stores are also a great place to start, as are clothes swaps with friends, or through apps like Nuw. 

I hope that one day the fashion industry will adapt so that the entire supply chain is sustainable. Until that day comes, however, I will continue to buy from ethical fashion brands, such as Contur, Reflexone, or BAM, and will value versatile products like County Cape’s multipurpose leisurewear for the beach. 

4. Consider a more plant-based diet

If you really want to reduce your impact on the environment, one of the simplest and cheapest things you can do is to eat less meat. Intensive animal farming devastates forests, pollutes oceans and rivers, and is significantly responsible for climate change. Becoming a vegetarian was one of the best decisions I made in living a more sustainable lifestyle, and it gave me a brilliant opportunity to find new recipes and experiment with cooking techniques. 

It’s also important to try to eat locally, and as seasonally as possible. Support low-scale food agriculture, which tends to be kinder to the environment, but also consider the huge amount of energy needed to grow fruits and vegetables out of season in the UK. 

5. Make easy, sustainable swaps

As well as changing your behaviour, you can swap out everyday household items for sustainable alternatives. This was a technique that certainly made me feel inspired to live more sustainably when starting out. 

Some examples include investing in a clothes horse so you stop using a tumble dryer. Or switching your plastic toothbrush for a bamboo one, and your paper toilet roll for an eco-friendly alternative, such this bamboo paper from Naked Sprout or these 100% recycled fibre rolls from Who Gives A Crap. Or, using eco-friendly cleaning alternatives such as Method, Ecover and Zero Waste Club.

Living a sustainable lifestyle can be as simple as swapping your coffee cup for a reusable one, or promising to buy your eggs from the farmers market. Adopting just one of the above tips is an incredibly positive thing, and hopefully once it becomes a ritual, you will start to think about other lifestyle changes you can make to live more sustainably.

Written by Caitlin - Conscience Collective