30 Easy Ways to be Greener in 2014

Living green doesn’t have to be about massive changes that make you miserable or doing without things that you love. In fact, when you live greener, you live an essentially healthier, happier life. Here is a very long list of ways in which you can make small, incremental changes to your life that make a huge impact on the environment.

Our 2014 challenge to you is to adopt at least one every month. Two would be better, and three would be just awesome!

• Recycle: in many places this is as easy as tossing your recyclable items in the right bin, but in most places you need to clean out containers and sort them. Find out what your municipality requires and make more of an effort to recycle this year.
• Grow your own food: This is super simple! Whether you have a basil plant in your home or you convert your lawn into a vegetable garden, growing your own food is a great way to grow healthy, organic food and reconnect with nature.
• Get more indoor plants: Indoor plants not only clean the air, they also reduce tension and improve mood. (Great idea for your office too).
• Travel green: take your own toiletries to save on all those tiny plastic bottles, only use one towel at a time, turn off lights when you leave the room, make your own food to save on fast food packaging when you travel.
• Upcycle: Need new furniture? Have old junk you want to get rid of? Use old stuff to make new things you can actually use. You save money and, since they have already off-gassed their noxious fumes, you create a safer environment for your home.
• Eat less meat: Factory farming not only pollutes, it also produces meat that isn’t very healthy. Buy meat less often so you can afford to buy high quality cuts from natural farms.
• Eat local: Buying food that is grown locally reduces your meal’s carbon footprint.
• Reduce your transport carbon footprint: bike to work, use public transport, carpool, take a train to your next holiday destination or buy carbon offsets when you do travel.
• Buy local: Support local artisans and manufacturers to bolster local economies, create jobs and reduce carbon footprints.
• Make your own toiletries: We got the recipes for natural, homemade toiletries including deodorant, lip balm, hand care products, bug spray, shampoo and mascara.
• Use eco-friendly alternatives for melting ice and snow. See post here.
• Use fabric shopping bags.
• Winterize your home and use less energy. See post here.
• Cancel your Yellow Pages subscription so you don’t get the phone book delivered. Do the same for catalogs that you can see online.
• Recycle used electronics and batteries responsibly. See post here.
• Use only natural cleaning products. Get recipes to make your own here.
• Make your own natural air fresheners. Get the recipes here.
• Get a standing desk and add years to your life. Read more here.
• Make your own sprouts. See how to here.
• Make your office greener.
• Pick up litter.
• Go camping.
• Give up your lawn for a more environmentally friendly alternative.
• Drink green smoothies.
• Make your sex life greener. See post here.
• Use natural drain cleaner and laundry detergent.
• Forgo the shopping and organize a clothing swap instead.
• Adopt a cause and petition to raise funds or gather signatures. Worthy causes include saving the bees, saving endangered animals and cleaning up pollution.
• Plant a tree. If you don’t have space in your own yard, there are organizations who will plant a tree for you. If you plant one every year, you will have grown a forest by the time you die.
• Use energy-efficient light bulbs and upcycle your old ones.

Have some suggestions of your own? Write them into the comments section and we will add them to the post. 

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