Rethinking My Path: Embracing Sustainability in Life
If you’ve been following the blog, you may know that I have been affected by the tech industry layoffs in the past year. This experience has led me to reexamine my career trajectory and consider if a change is needed for the journey ahead. While actively seeking new opportunities, I found it essential to revisit my spending habits, which has led me down the path of sustainable living at home and in life.
Although I don’t consider myself a materialistic person, upon honest introspection, I realized there’s room for improvement. In researching how to save money on energy and food, I was compelled to evaluate my family’s habits and explore ways we can be kinder to both the environment and our wallet. Comparing our current practices to a list of sustainable living tips, I’d rate our efforts around 60%. Over the last week, I’ve attempted to adopt some easy, sustainable habits with long-term benefits to enhance our financial and mental well-being at home and in life.
The Sustainable Living Experiment: Navigating Challenges and Implementing Positive Habits
Before discussing the specifics of the experiment, I’d like to address a few caveats that influenced our approach throughout this past week:
- Cost-consciousness: Choosing animal proteins wrapped in paper at a deli was not a practical choice for us, given our commitment to budget-friendly options. In our area, purchasing quality meats from a butcher or deli tends to be considerably more expensive.
- Health considerations: Due to certain allergies, shopping at bulk stores with our own containers was not a feasible alternative.
- Packaging limitations: Although we attempted to select glass or paper packaging whenever possible, plastic is in most products we purchase, making it difficult to avoid. In my opinion, I believe it’s crucial for the government to hold companies accountable for producing non-recyclable packaging and provide incentives for those utilizing recyclable plastics or biodegradable alternatives. I felt it was still important to do something, so I reached out to my local representative via email to voice my concerns and advocate for change.
Despite these challenges, our family was determined to implement sustainable habits throughout the week. We focused on adopting realistic, practical changes to both benefit the environment and reduce unnecessary spending.
Understanding Our Carbon Footprint: The Impact of Consumption and Eco-friendly Practices
Before I discuss the details of our eco-friendly practices audit, it’s essential to discuss some key facts about consumption and its effect on our carbon footprint. Greenhouse gases are primarily generated by product manufacturing, food and agriculture, electricity, and transportation. Therefore, being mindful of how we purchase, use, and dispose of items can significantly impact our carbon footprint in a positive way (1). Walking and biking more than driving, eating more plant based, conserving water can all be effective ways to reducing our carbon footprint.
For instance, when conducting my research for the audit, I was reminded of the impact of electronic communication on our carbon footprint. For example, the data we consume through our phones and computers requires energy to store files and communications on internet servers, as files and emails are constantly monitored and stored. By deleting unnecessary content from the cloud or your inbox, you can help reduce the energy spent on managing these communications. This also applies to unnecessary notifications from apps you may use (2). Electronic files are generally preferable to paper, but it’s essential to store only what you need and archive files on portable devices or delete unnecessary ones to minimize storage requirements.
Diving Deeper into Sustainable Living: Expanding Beyond the Basics
While researching sustainable living tips at home, many sources provide consistent information. Common suggestions include reducing energy use by unplugging appliances when not in use to save on phantom power, using CFL and LED lights to minimize waste and conserve energy, and being mindful of transportation and food waste. Additionally, avoiding single-use plastics, carrying a reusable water bottle, and reducing meat consumption are also effective ways to decrease your carbon footprint—with cutting back on beef having the potential to save up to 882 lbs of carbon annually (3).
For my experiment, I chose to explore less conventional avenues for sustainability that I hadn’t yet adopted. While I’m fortunate to live in a walkable community and use public transportation when possible, my family and I also eat plant-based meals about 40% of the time and have seen positive impacts on our energy usage by utilizing energy-efficient appliances. Although many people practice these habits, I wanted to focus on areas of sustainability that would challenge me to reevaluate my wasteful habits and encourage long-term, positive change.
Embracing Organic Gardening: A Journey Towards Sustainable Food Production
To begin our sustainable living experiment, we chose to focus on growing organic produce in our backyard. Growing organic produce is a long-term commitment, considering factors such as local pollution and the time it takes to cultivate organic soil—around 7 years. With limited yard space and shifting sunlight, we opted for easy-to-grow produce like kale, sweet potatoes, Boston lettuce, chives, mint, and tomatoes, ensuring we chose items we would consume.
My father, an avid gardener, has been the driving force in guiding us through this process. With his help and advice from various sources, including YouTube, we’ve experimented with organic strategies to promote growth and deter pests. Here are some of our successful sustainable gardening practices:
- Installing chicken wire fencing to keep our garden safe from critters that love munching on our kale.
- Planting a barrier of less-desirable vegetables in front of our favorite ones to deter hungry wildlife.
- Scattering onion quarters around our plants to discourage pests with their strong scent, replacing them weekly due to decomposition.
- Using baking soda and eggshells as fertilizer, an initially surprising yet highly effective method that has improved both our veggies and roses, replacing traditional options like Miracle-Gro.
- Watering our plants with rain barrels sourced from our municipality helps us save on our water bill while conserving water in a non-traditional way.
Organic gardening has allowed us to not only save money but also enjoy fresh produce and engage in environmentally friendly practices.
Homemade Cleaning Solutions: Effective, Sustainable, and Budget-Friendly Alternatives
Our second sustainable experiment was creating cleaning products at home. Since our cat has a habit of licking the floor, we’ve been using vinegar as a floor cleaner for a while to eliminate the risk of poisoning. However, I searched for an alternative for window and glass cleaning, which led me to a helpful post in Better Homes and Gardens. This post provided alternatives on cleaning windows, kitchen appliances, counters, and cupboards using affordable and sustainable ingredients like vinegar and soap.
The cost of making a bottle of homemade glass cleaner was less than a dollar, and by choosing a non-toxic, sustainable dish soap, this sustainable non-toxic cleaner was too simple to make. For cleaning cloths, I opted to upcycle old cotton t-shirts that I no longer wore, cutting them into equal pieces. Although the recipe suggested using microfiber cloths, I personally disliked their texture, and repurposing torn cotton tees was a more practical and comfortable choice for me.
I was pleasantly surprised by the results—our windows were streak-free, and our stainless-steel appliances were shiny and spotless. This experience has motivated me to explore other cleaning options for daily and weekly cleaning activities.
Small Steps to Sustainable Living: Reflections and Encouragement
Although this experiment was conducted on a small scale, it highlights the importance of acknowledging that even modest changes can lead to significant, long-term improvements in our habits. If I had attempted to grow papayas in the Canadian summer, for instance, not only would my gardening experiment likely have been less successful, but it could also have resulted in excessive water usage and a discouragement to practice my gardening practices. On the other hand, adopting cost-effective, year-round home cleaning solutions like the ones explored in this experiment proves to be a practical approach.
If you start to take on creating your own cleaning products, I recommend that you test these cleaning solutions on a small surface or with a few items initially, as unexpected chemical reactions can occur even with organic ingredients, potentially causing damage to surfaces or clothing. Leverage torn t-shirts for your laundry experiments first before adopting your cleaning solution for laundry. You never know what the cleaning solution might do to your expensive compression leggings.
From a mental health perspective, I’ve noticed the benefits throughout this week-long experiment. Gardening daily has been a positive experience for both my physical and mental well-being. This experiment has provided me with a greater appreciation for the food I cook. Additionally, the sense of accomplishment derived from implementing small, eco-friendly changes has been incredibly rewarding and serves as motivation to continue exploring further opportunities for sustainable living.
I wholeheartedly encourage you to embark on your own sustainability journey, embracing the small yet impactful changes that fit within your budget and your lifestyle. Together, we can make a lasting, positive impact on our environment and personal well-being.
