Oftentimes, being more eco-friendly doesn’t mean making huge, drastic changes to your life. Here, we’ve explained 5 simple ways employees around the Soul Flower office make their lives a little bit greener.
1. Reuse Food/Condiment Containers
Peggy: One thing I do to lessen my impact is I collect old mason jars & use them for homemade dressings & sauces, leftovers, to store dried foods, as vases, for nuts and pantry ingredients, for juice glasses/wine glasses :), candles on the patio in the summer, organizing small things (craft supplies), even gifts at the holidays – the list goes on really. So anytime I buy jelly or other condiments, I save the jars. The annoying part is getting labels off but I found that just soaking them in soapy water & using a small razor blade works pretty good.
2. Reduce Your Meat Consumption
Leiah: Eating an entirely plant-based diet is the most effective way to reduce your environmental impact. It also lessens dietary impact on your health and lessens guilt on your conscience! Win-win-win-win-win! (Even making a couple vegan or vegetarian meals per week lessens your environmental impact! Get some delish recipe inspiration from our Vegan Pinterest Board!)
Jenn: By going vegan, we can heavily reduce the impact of climate change, rainforest destruction and pollution, as well as saving massive amounts of farm land, water and many other precious resources. If you’ve never looked up the environmental impacts of eating a meat based vs. plant based diet, I urge you to do so! You may be surprised. Every little conscious decision about what we put on our plates can make a huge impact!
3. Pedal Power!
Leiah: After moving to the east coast, I sold my car and my husband sold his car! We now have 1 motorcycle and 2 bicycles. It’s so much easier to bike around DC instead of drive, anyway!
Renee: I bike to run short errands & to work when it’s nice out on my sweet single speed (12 miles each way-mostly bike lanes/paths. Go Minneapolis!). It makes my commute a lot more pleasant and I don’t have to worry about going to the gym after work!
4. Recycle/Compost
Kara: I separate my garbage, recycling, and also compost!
Tracy: I try to reuse and then recycle everything that I come into contact with or use. If my city doesn’t accept certain items, I usually try to clean them out and save them. I also research places nearby that will recycle these unique items and take them there when I’m in the area. The key for me is to just rinse out containers right away so that it’s easy to store them until you can drop them off.
Check out this list of the Top 10 Most Important Things to Recycle!
5. Make your own lotion/beauty products!
Maddie: I make homemade lotion! Last year for Earth Day we all chose something to do for the next year that would better our earth and I chose to use all natural (and homemade whenever possible) products for myself and around the house (and I plan to continue!). This lotion is comprised of shea butter, coconut oil, vitamin E oil, almond oil, and essential oil (I’ve been using lavender). It’s a bit oily and you have to let it dry/soak in, but it feels way better than regular lotion. I’ve actually begun to notice whenever I am in dire need of lotion and all I have around is your normal, chemical lotion, I get rashes. It sucks! :p Get the recipe here!
Image via: Love+Cupcakes
Rose
April 24, 2015 at 3:16 pm (9 years ago)Great ideas, you buds are so cool