Go Green Before Breakfast: 6 Simple Ways to Enjoy the Best Start to Each Day

by Mike

One big complaint that many people have about going green is that it is just too darn difficult!

Genuinely motivated people often give up on their green ambitions because they are under the misguided conception that it will involve constantly having to remember thousands of little rules and habits and giving up on all of those little luxuries that make life so enjoyable.

But the reality is quite different.

Even minor changes can go a long way to helping you do your part. Remember, when it comes to leading a green lifestyle it is the little things, carried out as part of your daily routine, which make the biggest difference.

To prove the point, here are eight small but significant steps that you can take every morning before you tuck into your cereal that will help you to reduce your environmental impact.

1. Keep the Light Off

If possible, as soon as you wake up, keep the light off. I personally hate a bright, synthetic light flashed in my eyes first thing in the morning, but if you are in the habit of reaching straight for the bedside lamp then try and get out of this.

Open the curtain or blind instead, and let the natural morning light seep into the room. It’s free, doesn’t use any energy, and will give you a better start to the day.

And if you have to use a light, switch to energy-saving bulbs and remember to turn it off when you leave the room. Many people have a terrible habit of leaving their light on when they go to the bathroom, and whether you’re using CFL bulbs or not, wasted energy is wasted energy.

2. Skip Your Shower

Don’t run away! I know that this does not exactly sound appealing, but bear with me.

There is a growing movement against showering every day, with an increasing number of people beginning to come around to the idea that the daily shower is not as necessary as we have been led to believe.

But why cut back on your showers? Because you’ll use less water, less energy, and fewer cleaning products.

Although it seems to go against everything the majority of us have been taught since the day we first learned to wash our own hair, this can be an easy way to save on your energy usage.

I think that good judgement is the name of the game with this one. If it’s going to be a hot day and I’ve got a trip to the gym in my schedule then skipping a shower does not sound too appealing.

However, on a cold winter day when I’m staying at home and haven’t got any social events planned? That sounds more realistic.

Use your own judgement, and do what you are comfortable with. Even skipping a shower once or twice a week is something, and when you add it up that’s a whole lot of energy and water that you’re saving.

3. Ditch the Hairdryer

If you’ve had a shower and washed your hair, the next step that you can take to go green is to ignore the hairdryer.

I know that this is not going to prove popular with many people reading this, and being a man with a very small—and rapidly diminishing—crop of hair I may not be the best person to get all high and mighty about hairdryer dodging.

But what I would say is that it is not always 100% necessary to use a hairdryer to dry your hair, and if you can go without it, even just one in three times that you wash your hair, you’ll save a lot of electricity over the course of a year.

4. Use Less Water When You Flush

This is an especially good idea if you’ve got an old toilet which uses up to three gallons of water in each flush.

Although some more modern toilets have cottoned onto the idea that you don’t need to release a tidal wave of water each time you flush, but many toilets still fall far behind the desirable flush level.

To save on the amount of water you use with each flush, fill up an old plastic bottle with water (make sure it is one that you can fit into your tank). Flush the toilet so that the tank empties, then place the filled bottle inside. The tank will only fill up around the bottle, saving you a liter or more from now on each time you flush. It doesn’t get much simpler than that!

5. Turn Off the Tap When Cleaning Your Teeth

This one is a no brainer. Luckily I’ve always been taught to turn off the tap whilst cleaning my teeth, but you’d be amazed at how many people do not.

Leaving the tap on uses in the region of six liters of water every single minute. That is a LOT of water, especially when you consider the amount of water a whole household uses in a year.

It’s sooo easy to turn that tap off, and it is a powerful way for you to cut back on your water usage and save one of the most precious resources on the planet.

6. Boil a Full Kettle and Fill Your Thermos

OK, I know that skipping a hot drink altogether would be the best option environmentally, but I cannot survive the day without a cup of tea first thing in the morning.

If you’re like me and a hot drink is an essential start to the day, avoid the habit of heating up a full kettle of water and then only using one mug’s worth, which is an egregious waste of energy.

Instead, either just boil the amount of water you are actually going to use or, even better, boil a full kettle and then fill up a thermos flask with what you don’t use. You can then take it to work and have a convenient source of hot water nearby throughout the day instead of using up more energy.

Easy, Right?

So there you have it, seven incredibly simple ways that you can start each day off like you mean to continue. Still think that it’s hard to go green? These small but important habits can help you to really make a difference and start to live a more eco-friendly existence, so see how many of them you can fit into your morning routine.

5 Simple But Inspirational Lessons the Movies Can Teach Us About Going Green

by Mike

Anyone trying to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle knows how hard it can be sometimes. Despite our best intentions, we can sometimes get lazy or distracted, or simply forget to stick to our principles.

Sometimes we all need a little inspiration to keep on going. And what better source of inspiration than the movies?

So here are five simple but inspirational lessons that have arisen in a number of big budget movies over the years from which we could all learn a thing or two.

1. Just Because It’s There, We Don’t Have to Use it (Avatar)

The Na’vi are the giant blue creatures in Avatar who live in harmony with nature and have a deep, spiritual relationship with the natural world around them.

They also live right on top of a massive deposit of the new source of energy called ‘Unobtainium’ (in such demand by those fuel-hungry humans who have clearly used up all of their own resources).

Here’s the thing: If they were living on top of this huge deposit of a fuel which humans had traveled millions of miles through space in order to get their greedy paws on, why were they not using it?

One argument is that they simply did not know that it was there. But knowing the Na’vi, this isn’t it at all.

The real reason is because they did not need it or want it. They were far more concerned about living a sustainable way of life that would not destroy the very earth they cared so much for.

Now I’m not saying that we should all pick up our bows and arrows and start living like hunter gatherers.

But just because we have all of these resources underneath us, it doesn’t mean that we necessarily have to use them. Not only is it damaging the planet in ways we may not fully understand until it’s too late, but we all know that they are going to run out one day.

There are plenty of natural ways to generate energy all around us without digging up fossil fuels, if only we’d look a bit harder.

2. We Can Be Green and Still Live in Comfort (The Lord of the Rings)

Hobbits may have lived in holes in the ground, but they sure did it in style. I don’t think anyone could disagree that they are just about the coziest, comfiest homes imaginable. And when you think about it, they are the epitome of green architecture.

They use natural materials from the local area, they have minimal impact on the surrounding landscape, the low ceilings are ideal for keeping warm in winter, and there is not a concrete block in sight.

The construction industry is responsible for a huge amount of CO2 emissions, and although many people are now trying to move towards more sustainable construction methods, there is still a long way to go.

One of the common myths is that green living means giving up on home comforts. But as Bilbo Baggins and company have shown, it needn’t be that way.

3. We Need to Look After Our Trees (The Lord of the Rings)

Sticking with Tolkien, we’ll moving onto my favorite of his creations, the Ents. These giant tree shepherds are ancient creatures who care for the forests around them, protecting the trees and nurturing them throughout their lives.

The Ents have a natural understanding that caring for our trees is one of the most essential things we can do if we want to look after our planet. A world without trees would be a very grim world indeed, and yet we continue to destroy our forests at an alarming rate.

It is thought that we destroy in the region of 15 million hectares of rainforest each year, a rate that will surely lead to the complete destruction of our forests in a matter of decades.

When you think that about two thirds of all animal and plant species on earth live in rain forests, that these lush ecosystems have produced many of our most important medicines, that millions of people rely on them for their survival, that they absorb vast quantities of the carbon we keep pumping into the air, and that they provide us with the air that we breathe… it becomes obvious why we really should be taking lessons from the Ents.

4. Reusing is Better than Buying (The Borrowers)

Did you ever see the film ‘The Borrowers’? It was based on the books by Mary Norton from the 1950s, and features a race of tiny human-like creatures which live in our homes and ‘borrow’ our belongings.

They had a use for everything! I used to love reading the stories as a kid and the movie really brought them to life.

They basically lived by borrowing things from the ‘big people’ upstairs, and whilst this may technically be considered stealing, at least they were showing initiative in how we can get by through reusing rather than buying new products.

Reusing is the ultimate way to save precious resources that go into all new products. Every time something new is created it uses up resources, and then it has to be transported to the place where it will be sold which uses up energy.

Reuse something and you can also stop a perfectly good item from being sent to a rubbish dump where it will release potentially harmful toxins and take about 10,000 years to disintegrate.

5. We Have to Fight for Our Planet (The Return of the Jedi)

Threatened with the destruction of their green and forested planet by the Death Star, the Ewoks knew what to do: Fight.

They joined forces with the rebels and fought off the threat to their planet which would have led to environmental catastrophe.

We are not faced with a Death Star, but let’s not beat around the bush: The situation is getting pretty drastic.

We continue to pump out ever increasing amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the environment, and the effects on the climate could be disastrous.

Those who want to protect their planet and make sure it remains a place where they would want their grandchildren to grow up need to fight for what they believe in.

Petitions, demonstrations, simple acts such as reducing one’s own environmental footprint—there are many ways to fight the harm being done to our planet. It’s up to all of us to do something about it.

It All Starts at Home

We can all do our bit to lead a greener, more eco-friendly existence. It’s not hard, but it does take a fair amount of dedication and persistence.

Even small steps can really help to make a difference, so take inspiration from the above movies and start doing what you can to lead a greener lifestyle.

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