Small acts of awareness will all add up for our dear mother earth
Greta Thunberg arrived in New York City this past week after traveling across the Atlantic Ocean in a zero-emission yacht, and she has taken my town by storm. I find myself excited and with a deep sense of hope. Maybe we aren’t all doomed after all! Maybe there’s hope for us.
Just in case you don’t know Greta… she is a 16-year-old girl from Sweden, who is a climate and environmental activist bringing awareness to climate change. One person can truly change the world.
Greta organized #fridaysforfuture and has created a movement where young kids are protesting for our planet’s health. I know Greta through my daughter Ella, (15 years old) who is involved in activism and is keeping my family in tip-top shape. Whether you believe in climate change or not, it is crucial to reduce our carbon footprint.
As a kid, I always loved nature and wanted to be in nature all the time. My dream was to be a healer of fairy wings. Yes, I know that sounds crazy. But my imagination is wild, and recently I went to a costume party, and the theme was” what do you want to be when you grow up” so I dressed up as a fairy healer (check out my cape in the photo).
I have experienced healing from grounding or as some say earthing. Earthing therapy is connecting to the energy of the planet and lately, it’s getting a lot of press about its health benefits. There’s tremendous healing that happens when we connect to the wonders of our planet and I don’t want to see that go away. So today, I thought I would share how my family and I reduce our carbon footprint on the earth.
Why? Because I believe deep down inside that we all count and we can make massive change happen when we first change ourselves. There are many choices we can make in our day-to-day life to lessen our personal impact on planet earth. Small changes when multiplied by millions of people doing them can quickly become a power so strong that no government can suppress it, a force so strong that it can transform the world.
I’m not perfect by any means. I try to do the best that I can every day. At the end of the day that’s all we can do… try our best.
Here are 11 things I do to reduce my carbon footprint:
1- We compost our food and recycle our garbage. Recycling helps the environment and my family is very serious about recycling and composting. Please check out if there’s a recycling plant near you where you can take your recycle garage. In NYC our recycles get picked up, so that is ultra-convenient. Maybe they do this in your area as well. NYC also picks up our compost. It’s so cool.
2- I travel less by plane. I’ve reduced traveling by plane, and instead of making live events my primary way of attracting new clients I’ve opted for social media, blogging, and doing FB/Instagram lives, so I don’t need to take the plane as often.
3- Buy vintage and used clothes. I almost always buy vintage clothes and when I do shop at a regular store I’m looking to see what their philosophy is on giving back to the earth and to the communities. I’m really lucky I have some great vintage stores in NYC where I get the most incredible deals that are high-quality and better than almost anything I’ll ever find in a typical store. The clothes my family no longer needs, I give away (you can do the same!), and if my girlfriends don’t want them, I bring them down to the local charity store. Sometimes you can also get a tax right off when you donate so certain stores so find those stores. This is a win-win situation. Shop ethically and avoid fast-fashion.
4- Plastic bags are out. Instead of using plastic bags for our produce, my family uses these. Using recycled bags and not plastic saves our planet hundreds if not thousands of plastic baggies a year. I also refuse plastic bags in the grocery store and bring reusable grocery bags when I shop. I keep one in my purse just in case I need one.
5- My family uses reusable cotton/bamboo pads to clean our faces and wipe off makeup. These wonderful products work for anyone trying to reduce their consumption of one-time-use products.These are the types that I use, but there are plenty on the market to choose from.
6- No more plastic water bottles. My family never buys plastic water bottles, and we don’t accept plastic straws. We travel with our own water bottles wherever we go. My daughter is constantly losing them so that’s something we are working on. Last year I bought her three bottles. Kids!
7- We buy local and organic and in-season produce and eat vegetarian meals 3-4 times a week. We support the local economy and the environment by buying local produce and organic products only.
8- We save water. Instead of showering every day, we all take showers about every 2-3 days (and no, that’s not gross) and when we do shower, we keep our showers short.
9- Brown paper bag lunches. My daughter takes lunch to school every day. The kid refuses to eat cafeteria food. This has been going on since the first grade. We pack lunches in brown paper bags and in usable containers and give her a regular fork. No plastic utensils ever.
10- Biodegradable garbage bags. We have switched from traditional garbage bags to biodegradable and compostable bags. These are super strong and do the job.
11- We stop the vampire power sucker in our house. We unplug all devices when we are not using them. If you leave your things plugged in when you are not using them it’s drawing energy. Simple solution? Leave your electronics unplugged at all times, unless you are using them. We also use EMF canceling filters and an EMF Meter to protect ourselves from EMF and dirty electricity.
