We take for granted all the services Mother Nature provides for us, from the trees to produce the paper we write on, to the shelter it provides, to the water we need and even the clean air we need to breathe. The Question is have be taken a moment to take stock of just how much we take from the Environment versus what we give back?
We very seldom take responsibility of just how much harm we cause, we acknowledge that we do but do not take accountability for the part we play.
Many times we see individuals or even groups of People all gathered doing some small act of change, from cleanups to tree planting and one of the first thought that comes to mind is how does that help fight climate change or contribute to environmental protection/conservation.
But imagine a World where no individual or group of People gathered to do such small acts, what would become of our environment or better yet what would become of Mother Nature?
We see our environmental consciousness as “small” changes but imagine every single person around the world all did some small act each day would we not live in a World where our environment is that much more protected, conserved and preserved.
Everything becomes one big domino effect, think about it for it only takes 21 days for something to become a habit. Imagine we as consumers changed our mindsets from wants to needs putting the well needed pressure on producers to ensure sustainable production meeting best practices, We then create this chain reaction where the behavior of People begins to change as they begin to be more conscious of their interaction and impact they have on the environment and before You know it we have People all beginning to change their lifestyles to one that is more sustainable and conscious.
Ever wonder just how easy it is to make small conscious changes, well let’s take a moment to look into it:
1. Meat free Monday- let us practice sustainable consumption by consciously choosing to eliminate meat from our diet for just one day a week.
2. Refusing to use single plastic straws- this is more easy then we think as most restaurants has now changed to bio-degradable straws or You could invest in a set of stainless steel straws which you always carry with you.
3. Always have your reusable shopping bags with you, in the beginning it’s hard to remember them but the more you keep trying the better you will get at it.
4. Never leave a tap running, the saying “every drop counts” means just that we cannot afford to continuing wasting water the way we do. The use of greywater is one of the most effective ways that we can save water, by simply harvesting rainwater as well as water within our households from the washing machine, shower and bath and reusing it for watering the garden, flushing the toilet and washing our cars. By doing this we could save up to 30 liters of cleaning drinking water a day.
5. Now celebrations is that bright, colorful and festive thing that fills our hearts on each occasion from Birthdays, weddings to celebrating the creation of life and well the list continues. Now as beautiful as balloons may be lets change them to paper decorative balloons, recycled decorations and more paper less plastic items so that we can have a beautiful yet sustainable party.
It’s simpler than we think, all we have to remember is to keep doing it imperfectly because every small change leads to a greater impact.
Stay tuned to our social media platforms during the Month of July as we once again do the #PlasticFreeJulyChallenge, we will be posting some amazing tips, doing live chats with some incredible influential People and lastly running an amazing competition.
Remember
“If you change nothing, nothing will change”.
Green Greetings
VOC Team
