Start your sustainable lifestyle here! What are you waiting for? You can look good, do good and feel good - it's not hard to be more sustainable.

What is Sustainable Living?

Choosing to live a sustainable lifestyle is choosing to think about the long term impact, everything you do has on the planet and other people. It means:

• Thinking about the finite resources we have on earth and the use and reuse of those resources and not using them without replacing them
• Looking at the life cycle of products, to reduce waste and recycle and reuse where possible
• Making sure more people have a fairer quality of life, through more equal rights, fairer pay and inclusion
• Creating a balance between nature and human existence and thinking of ourselves as part of nature, not dominant of it or apart from it
• Decreasing your own impact in terms of carbon emissions, food waste and so on on the planet
• Helping society move towards being Net Zero

Why is it important to live a sustainable lifestyle?

We are killing our planet. From deforestation to incresaing the ocean temperatures, humanity's expansion and development has caused a huge inbalance in our planet's eco-systems and triggered many aspects of the Climate Emergency from rising sea levels to desertifcation.

As indivuduals and societies we need to restore that balance and reign in our rampant overconsumption which has caused so many climate related issues.

As consumers we have the power to change the things we buy, use and throw away and we can use our purchasing power to support those businesses that are working sustainably to help the planet.

As citzens we also have the power to lobby for change at local, national and international levels as we need governents, councils, cities, countries and treaties to change.

We can see how much we outstripping what the earth can provide for us all by Earth Overshoot Day, which in 2020 was 22 August. This marks the day when we have used a year's worth of resources or 'nature's budget' for the year. Everything afer this day is running down resources and adding more greenhouse gases.

To create a sustainable future for us and the planet, we need to change now - from tiny every day swaps that use less plastic to pushing for legislation that protects our world and starts to replenish the resources we have used up.

10 tips to start your sustainable lifestyle

You don't have to change everything all at once to be more sustainable. Try one of these sustainable ideas and see how you get on.

1. Eat less red meat and dairy.
2. Reduce how much you fly.
3. Slowly replace as many single use plastics in your home as you can.
4. Turn your heating down one degree.
5. Start a compost heap and grow some veg or herbs
6. Join a litter picking group at your local beach, park or nature reserve.
7. Use up food leftovers or share it via a range of apps.
8. Buy gifts, cards or other homewares from local makers and artisans.
9. Don't use Amazon and instead support independent bookshops and other companies.
10. Swap to an electric vehicle as soon as you can.