finite.style

Living in Vancouver gives me the unique experience of living in a large urban centre where the majority of residents are environmentally conscious, but at the same time pragmatic. I don't have a doubt that the majority of us would love to lessen our impact on the earth (after all, we only get one), but some things either aren't feasible or would impact our lifestyle in such a way that we'd just avoid it altogether. Here's my five easy tips for going green:

1. Bring reusable bags when grocery shopping - this has been a subject of great debate among my friends and colleagues. The one question I've never been able to find an answer to is, if I use reusable bags all the time, what am I going to use for garbage bags? I've heard the suggest to just throw all your garbage into a plastic bin and empty the bin and wash it each time it's full, but some municipalities won't pick up your garbage if it's loose. What I do is whenever I run out of grocery bags for garbage, I will just not bring my reusable bags to the store.
2. Bring a travel mug with you for your morning coffee run - this isn't as difficult as some may make it out to be. Chances are if you work in an office you're part of a morning coffee run with co-workers. You know you're going to be going, and you have plenty of time to clean your mug afterwards. It's all a matter of getting into a routine.
3. Turn off the lights - this reduces carbon emissions (via reduced consumption/production of energy) and saves you money. Yes it's nice to have all your lights on when you're home, but do you really need bedroom lights on while you're making dinner in the kitchen?
4. Don't print anything you don't need to - I've seen this in some corporate email signatures lately, which is great. I've spent most of my career in an office environment and it boggles my mind some of the things I see people do with printing. The one that bugs me the most is when somebody will print out an email or a PDF doc just so they can read it. That's what the screen is for! If you need to take notes do it on a notepad, there's no need to waste paper. Even if it is recycled later, this does still create extra waste which needs to be processed.
5. Buy local - Depending on where you live this can vary in difficulty. Products which are made in your city or region, whether it be produce, meats, clothing, furniture, etc. have less of a distance to travel to reach the consumer, meaning less energy was expended to put them to market. You may be restricted in the types of goods you can do this with, but it can be fun to try, and you have a far greater chance of supporting businesses in your community.

That's all I have for you today, feel free to message me with any other tips!

fnS