1. Leave your car just one day a week and bus to work, ride a bike or walk, then each month challenge yourself to add an extra day. Each day reduces your fuel consumption by about four percent.
2. Make time to connect with the natural environment. Put down the cell phone, the remote control, and your laptop and get out doors. This small change will help make your life simpler where you won’t be as caught up in technology that ultimately consumes power.
3. Opt to help clean your city and join a community group to get involved. It’s not only about aesthetics, a cleaner city also means a healthier and safer city. This reduces the burden on health and social services.
4. Learn about sustainable projects, like gardening, through Village Vancouver.
5. Join a car share organization like zipcar, modo or car2go. You are not alone. In Canada, over 50,000 people already participate in car sharing.
6. Try to reduce your meat consumption. Did you know that it takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of meat and the average Canadian eats approximately 16 pounds of course grain in a year !
7. Purchase a new shower-head that has great water pressure, but doesn’t use as much water. If you have an older toilet, put a glass bottle full of water in the tank. A 32 ounce bottle in the toilet of average home would reduce waste water by about a thousand gallons a year. In simpler terms … if everyone in a small city of 130,000 people did it, it would save the amount of water to fill approximately 250 olympic sized swimming pools.
8. Use reusable water bottles, and bring a glass or mug to work. Did you know that in the United States FIFTEEN THOUSAND water bottles are consumed EVERY SECOND !
9. Turn the lights out when you aren’t using them. New habits can take a little while to form, but this one green living habit will not only benefit the environment, but it will save you money. Besides, it improves your night vision.
10. Exercise. The more you exercise, the less processed food you will want to eat. Your body is smart that way, it wants to get into better shape. Processed foods add tremendously to your personal environmental footprint. Did you ever stop to think of energy, production and transportation costs?
And remember … Kermit loves you.
