Sustainable Living

Thursday, 21 May 2020

The Winter months are upon us and combined with the last eight weeks of travel restrictions you’re probably spending more time at home looking around at how you can improve your lifestyle. It’s as good a time as any to practice some new habits and we think that Sustainable Living is a great place to start.

Sustainable Living
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For some, the words “Sustainable Living” may be daunting or induce images of spending lots of money. In fact, some sustainable living practices will save you money! and can be achieved by making simple changes to your daily habits – at home, in shopping choices and even how we travel.

Remember, children learn by watching their parents so if your kids are around the home more than often, adopting some of these habits is a great way to help them learn how to protect the environment.

 

The Big E!

In 2017 the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Victoria were Electricity generation at 51% of total Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

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  • Go Natural - Open your blinds and use as much natural light as possible before switching on your light bulbs and turn off your lights when you leave a room.
  • Be an onion - Add an extra layer of clothing before switching the heater on.
  • Is Everything Sleeping? – Switch off all your devices overnight at the plug – Wi-Fi, chargers, set top boxes, lights etc.
  • Be mindful - Do you really need that second fridge?
 

Reduce Food Waste

On average, each Victorian household throws away $2,136 in food waste each year – that’s $42 a week in food waste!

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  • Plan Your Meals – Create a weekly shopping list that will help you only buy what you need to reduce food waste but also reduce your number of trips to the shops.
  • Compost – Start your backyard compost pile to reduce the amount of methane created in landfill by decomposing food. Check out our Join the Composting Trend blog for more info and tips on starting your own.
  • Worm Tea – Start your own Worm Farm with your kitchen scraps– the tea generated is liquid gold for your plants too!
 

Reduce - Reuse - Refuse - Recycle

Adopting the Reduce, Reuse, Refuse, recycle mantra will help lower your environmental impact - rubber takes about 70 years and a plastic holder can take 500 years to decompose.

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  • Clean Up Day - Attend your community clean up days or better yet! Set up your own!
  • Refuse single use items - plastic bags, plastic water bottles and disposable coffee cups or opt for paperless bills.
  • Trash or Treasure - Take any reusable items to a charity shop or swap, buy, sell on an online marketplace.

Travel Habits

Transport accounts for 20% of Victoria’s total Greenhouse Gas Emissions and 51% of that comes from cars.
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  • Meal Planning - Using you weekly meal planning shopping list try to keep your shops to one per week – this will cut down on travel emissions.
  • Shop Local - By shopping locally you are not only supporting an economy that’s much closer to home it also often means less intensive production and transportation, so fewer carbon emissions too.
  • Share - Carpool, ride share, take public transport, walk, cycle, skate, scoot or run.

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Be More Mindful

Is there a package-free option?
Can I repurpose this?
Can I recycle the container?
Is this biodegradable?
Do I need to purchase this?
 
We’d love to hear your Sustainable Living tips!
 
Please contact ninabendon@newland.com.au for any enquiries.
 

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