Living Sustainably: Seven Ways You Can Live a More Sustainable Life

Upward photograph of a building with plants growing over the side. found on the blog post Living Sustainably: Seven Ways You Can Live a More Sustainable Life

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What is sustainability?

If you’ve had any interest in the environment in the past forty years, you’ve likely stumbled upon the word sustainability, and by extension, living sustainbly. More and more, sustainability is popping up, whether it’s related to paper straws and coffee cups or the amount of plastic corporations are producing each year.

Sustainability is, in short, a global concern. In 1987, “sustainability” was defined by the United Nations Brundtland Commission as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Sustainability is often connected to the environment—as well as slow and intentional living—but also links to social and economic spheres. But for the purpose of this post, we’re going to stick to environmental sustainability, and how we can use this when we’re living sustainably.

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What does it mean when we say we’re living sustainably?

To break it down even further, living sustainably means to live in a way where the impact you leave on the earth is less than what you would leave otherwise.

This can be at the individual level, but can also be connected to how we fit into our community. In 2023, this is often linked to reusable water bottles, fabric grocery bags, and reducing how much we buy from corporations that aren’t going to help us with living sustainably.

While the above are all important options, there’s more to living sustainably than this. Below are seven strategies you can start doing right now to live a more sustainable life.

1. Think before you buy

For millennia, humans have tracked full moons in order to monitor the passing year, as well as to set and track schedules for planting, hunting, and gathering.

In present day, a person may track each full moon for the same purpose, or they may do so to align their magic practice with the moon’s lunar cycles, to track their own menstrual cycle, or for other personal or spiritual reasons—some people believe there are certain things you should or shouldn’t do on a full moon.

Whatever your reason for tracking the full moons of 2024, knowing when they occur and what they signify can help you plan ahead.

2. Switch from plastic to reusable

I know we’ve all heard this one, but that’s because switching from plastic to reusable has an immense impact on sustainability practices.

At present, it’s estimated that Canadians throw away three million tonnes of plastic every year. Although we can’t forget that it’s corporations that are creating this plastic in the first place—Coca Cola alone produces about three million tonnes of plastic each year—we can control how much plastic we use.

Some simple ways to do this:

Bring a reusable cup when you get coffee to go
Have a reusable water bottle with you at all times
Invest in reusable cutlery for your work lunches
Bring your own containers to restaurants to pack up leftovers
Carry reusable bags, such as cute totes, in your purse or trunk so you have them with you when you shop
Use cloths for all things related to home cleaning, rather than using paper towel
Switch from shower gel to bar soap

3. Use less paper

One of the biggest switches you can make toward sustainability is to use less paper. This may mean canceling letter promotions from companies, switching your bills from paper to electronic, or using the notes app in your phone over making paper lists.

I’m personally a huge fan of lists, and find myself writing them all the time. In order to save paper, I use two different apps: Superlist (formerly Wunderlist) for when I’m on the go and need to write something down quickly, and Notion to organize my long-term lists, daily schedules, and any creative ideas I have. I’m especially fond of Notion, as you can customize your lists any way you want, and can include tags and categories for easy organization. Some templates even have calendars attached—I love this option for figuring out my blogging schedule.

4. Drive less

As of 2018, drivers in Canada made up about 11 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, so going carless definitely does have an impact.

Depending on where you live, this is easier said than done. Where I live, I’m lucky enough that I can walk fifteen minutes and get to a grocery store—but this isn’t the same for everyone. For some, a walk to a grocery or corner store means an hour-long trek on foot. An alternative to this is biking, but even then, some cities aren’t as bike-friendly as others.

P.S. want to check how walkable your city is? Use Walk Score, a website that calculates how accessible your city is for pedestrians. For example: Abbotsford, where I live, has a walkability score of 36, a transit score of 32, and a bike score of 42, where somewhere like Vancouver has a walkability score of 80, a transit score of 74, and a bike score of 79.

5. Choose plant-based options

Did you know that choosing a plant-based meal just one night of the week is not only better for your body—reducing your risk of heart attacks and strokes—but for the environment as well? There’s ample evidence showing that the processing it takes to get meat from the farm to our table takes a whole lot of resources.

When we choose plant-based meal options over those that center around meat, we’re helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions, decrease pollution, and save water—all things needed when you want to live sustainably.Need some inspiration? Check out this list of easy, meatless dinner options.

6. Eat locally (and seasonally)

I’m lucky enough that I live in a farming community, and so have access to what’s in season year-round: berries in summer, brussel sprouts in autumn, turnips in winter, and beans in spring (among a substantial list of other fruits and veggies!).

Something to remember: “local” is often defined as anything grown or produced within 50 kilometers of where you are. So while you may not have local produce right next door, one or two towns over likely grow what you need—and often this is supplied in local stores.Another thing to remember: eating seasonably is better for the environment in that it reduces the amount of time produce is spent in transportation (less greenhouse emissions), as well as the amount of time spent on packaging and refrigerating.

7. Compost what you can

This might be one of the easiest strategies for starting your move toward sustainability. Composting food waste takes the same amount of energy as throwing them in the trash while reducing the amount of trash you’re taking to the curb.

It also has the (huge) benefit of reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses you’re contributing to the world: food waste composted in a garden contributes little to no greenhouse gas emissions when compared to food waste sent to a landfill.

If your city doesn’t have a composting program, you can spread the scraps in your garden. This improves the health of your soil while simultaneously reducing the amount of water soil needs to stay moist—and healthy soil means healthy plants!

A note: community versus corporation

It’s important to remember that, while we ourselves are responsible for living sustainably, it’s corporations that produce the most waste and add the most pollution to the world. So while we can make small changes, such as what we’ve outlined above, we need to keep in mind that sustainability isn’t a personal issue; it’s a global one.