Want to support local farmers, eat more plants, and protect the environment? Here are 7 tips for living more sustainably.
Today, we are experiencing the negative effects of climate change, including soaring temperatures, water bans, and the threat of extinction of beloved wildlife. It’s easy to feel helpless as we learn about how climate change is impacting our planet, but there are sustainable ways you can combat climate change throughout your day-to-day life.
While we can’t solve climate change or reverse its environmental impacts alone, making these changes can benefit the environment around you. Being mindful is usually where change starts to happen, and you can impact your local communities one meal at a time.
At Thistle, we strive to be a sustainable and healthy source of delicious food for those using our services. Through our own practices, we have learned so much about how one person can make a domino effect of change that can positively impact future generations.
You don’t have to be zero waste, plastic-free, or perfect to live a more sustainable lifestyle. There are plenty of simple ways to reduce our environmental footprint and live a more sustainable life.
If you are someone who wants to get started on their sustainability journey but feels confused about where to start, keep reading. We have seven tips on how to live your life more sustainably and impact the world around you 🌱
What Does Sustainability Mean?
Sustainability means something different to every individual. In general, sustainability refers to making decisions that are eco-friendly.
Three components impact our ability to achieve sustainable living: our environment, our society, and our economy. The goal of sustainable living is to make mindful lifestyle changes in each of these areas, but that can be difficult in our society.
If you are someone who is living in a food desert, you might not have access to organic farm-fresh food. Still, that does not mean that sustainable choices are entirely out of your reach. Instead, you can learn about the different ways to improve your sustainability efforts while working within your environment.
It’s important to acknowledge that a sustainable lifestyle can require you to cut some corners or spend more money.
Take electricity, for example: Not everyone can spend money on solar panel installations or fancy sustainable light bulbs, but turning unnecessary lights off and becoming more energy-efficient can actually help your bottom line.
Similarly, inorganic fruits and vegetables are often less expensive than organic ingredients. If you are feeding an entire family, you are not in the wrong for choosing quantity over quality. However, taking steps to reduce food waste in your home through meal planning or the use of a meal delivery service can help you make environmentally mindful decisions.
The bottom line is that you don’t have to make a grand gesture for an act to be sustainable. If your intentions are good, you can have a major impact on your environment.
How Can I Become More Sustainable?
It’s never too late to try to improve your sustainability. In fact, no matter how much of a late bloomer you are, we encourage it.
It can be difficult to feel motivated when we see news articles about climate change, but just know that each little change you make sets off a domino effect of even bigger changes.
And we can show you how 🌿
Eat More Plants
The most obvious way to live more sustainably is by eating more plants and trying your best to consume plant-based meals.
While some of us may choose to forgo meat altogether, not everyone has the ability or desire to remove meat from their diets entirely. Just by reducing how much meat you consume, you can help to reduce our carbon footprint.
The meat and dairy industries currently make up 14.5% of global greenhouse carbon emissions, which have a direct impact on the warming of our climate. If there’s less consumer demand for these products, there will be fewer unsustainable farms polluting our environment with fossil fuels and greenhouse gasses.
Maybe those farm spaces will even be taken over by farms investing in sustainable development, using fewer natural resources, or producing less waste. You never know what one mindful decision can lead to over time.
While the meat industry does emit emissions into the air that hurt our environment, it also has impacts on water usage and pollution. When we eat more plants, we reduce the amount of freshwater we are using to keep livestock and we lower the risk of pollution.
Additionally, meals that are filled with plants can help to lower your own risk for disease, as many fruits and vegetables are packed with nutrients and antioxidants. Not only would you be helping animals and the land, but you’ll also be making a positive impact on your personal wellness 🥕
Learn To Grow Your Own Food
In conjunction with eating more plants, you might want to consider growing your own food. We constantly take so much from this land without even understanding the process of how it grows. When you learn to grow a garden with fresh fruits and veggies right at your disposal, you start to gain more respect for the earth.
This might not be a reality for many of us who live in apartments or don’t have the time to tend to a garden. Still, even growing some fresh herbs on your window sill can make your meals taste delicious and fresh.
Growing your own food is one way for you to become more sustainable while cutting back on other unsustainable practices.
Driving to the grocery store to pick up food that has been hauled long distances in large trailers is bad for the environment due to the gas emissions coming from the cars. Plus, many of these items being hauled aren’t organic (or fair trade), meaning they contribute to deforestation and biodiversity loss, negatively impact ecosystems, and are probably grown using harmful pesticides.
Often, you then have to use single-use plastic bags to pack up those groceries and bring them home, which you then cannot recycle. Even reusable bags have their downfalls, as it takes a lot of water use to produce your favorite cotton tote.
Having food at home cuts back on all of these tiny harmful moments, even if you don’t realize that it does.
Buy Locally Grown Food
If you can’t DIY your own garden, there are other options out there. Including going to local farms and picking up food directly from them. Maybe you do have to drive a further distance than you would to the grocery store, but knowing that you are getting food directly from its source and helping to fund local farmers is worth it.
Sometimes with sustainability, we can feel like we aren’t as progressive because we have to use the modes that are presented to us. Not everyone can ride their bike to the farmer’s market and pick up all the food they need to feed a family. Just know your actions in purchasing from your community make a bigger difference than you think, even if you have to drive to get there 🚗
Minimize Food Waste
Over-purchasing can lead to food waste that ends up in landfills. You might want to start planning your meals out a few days in advance, where you use all the ingredients that you come home with. You can also use a meal delivery system to ensure each of your daily meals has been planned and portioned for you.
Find ways to make ingredients work in all of your recipes. If you do have food waste at the end of your meals: compost, compost, compost!
This is an easy alternative to working with your food waste to turn it into renewable energy and soil. It can be overwhelming to feel like you have to throw out all this “good” food, but consider creating your own compost bucket.
This way, you don’t have to feel bad about throwing food out and can instead use it for fertilizer or donate it to local farms and organizations that promote sustainability.
You might be thinking, “Who would want my second-hand food scraps?” Trust us when we say that someone out there absolutely does.
Avoid using non-recyclables
This one can be difficult, considering many things that we need to purchase come wrapped in disposable plastic or encased in boxes. You can begin to collect reusable containers and bags so that when you have to go out and purchase items or buy food, you have materials that you can use to carry and store them.
Avoiding non-recyclables can be hard, so figuring out how to reuse items is the best way to practice sustainability.
Walk, Skate, and Ride Your Bike
If you can, we encourage you to use your bicycle or scooter or skateboard or roller skates when possible to travel short distances. We get that in many spaces, cars are essential in order to get around and survive. If you are lucky enough to live in a place where you can use other modes of sustainable transportation, we say go for it.
Otherwise, you can never go wrong with carpooling or public transportation.
Volunteer in Your Environment
There are plenty of organizations and initiatives that you can follow or become involved with to make a change closer to home. If there aren’t any local organizations for cleaning up and volunteering in the environment to work towards sustainability, you can create your own.
Start simple by hosting a trash clean-up day. Have your friends, family, and other locals in the community come out to specific locations to help you clean up, find spots that might be overgrown or heavily littered, and get to work.
Sometimes, you have to be the first to enact change to see change happen.
Use Thistle to Become More Sustainable
If you want to support local farmers, avoid driving as much, eat more plants, and reduce your use of non-recyclables, consider sign-up for Thistle’s services. You gain access to meals and recipes that will change the way you view plant-based food. Plus, we care about sustainability and are constantly finding ways to improve our own impact on the environment.
We source our food locally and organically whenever possible, embrace regenerative farming practices, and have cut both our food waste and our greenhouse gas emissions in order to make delivering healthy food easier and more sustainable.
Sustainability can be as easy as ordering a week of meals from the comfort of your couch 🥪
Sources:
Characteristics and Influential Factors of Food Deserts | United States Department of Agriculture
The Case for Plant Based | UCLA Sustainability
Interactive: What Is The Climate Impact Of Eating Meat And Dairy? | Carbon Brief
Want to support local farmers, eat more plants, and protect the environment? Here are 7 tips for living more sustainably.
Today, we are experiencing the negative effects of climate change, including soaring temperatures, water bans, and the threat of extinction of beloved wildlife. It’s easy to feel helpless as we learn about how climate change is impacting our planet, but there are sustainable ways you can combat climate change throughout your day-to-day life.
While we can’t solve climate change or reverse its environmental impacts alone, making these changes can benefit the environment around you. Being mindful is usually where change starts to happen, and you can impact your local communities one meal at a time.
At Thistle, we strive to be a sustainable and healthy source of delicious food for those using our services. Through our own practices, we have learned so much about how one person can make a domino effect of change that can positively impact future generations.
You don’t have to be zero waste, plastic-free, or perfect to live a more sustainable lifestyle. There are plenty of simple ways to reduce our environmental footprint and live a more sustainable life.
If you are someone who wants to get started on their sustainability journey but feels confused about where to start, keep reading. We have seven tips on how to live your life more sustainably and impact the world around you 🌱
What Does Sustainability Mean?
Sustainability means something different to every individual. In general, sustainability refers to making decisions that are eco-friendly.
Three components impact our ability to achieve sustainable living: our environment, our society, and our economy. The goal of sustainable living is to make mindful lifestyle changes in each of these areas, but that can be difficult in our society.
If you are someone who is living in a food desert, you might not have access to organic farm-fresh food. Still, that does not mean that sustainable choices are entirely out of your reach. Instead, you can learn about the different ways to improve your sustainability efforts while working within your environment.
It’s important to acknowledge that a sustainable lifestyle can require you to cut some corners or spend more money.
Take electricity, for example: Not everyone can spend money on solar panel installations or fancy sustainable light bulbs, but turning unnecessary lights off and becoming more energy-efficient can actually help your bottom line.
Similarly, inorganic fruits and vegetables are often less expensive than organic ingredients. If you are feeding an entire family, you are not in the wrong for choosing quantity over quality. However, taking steps to reduce food waste in your home through meal planning or the use of a meal delivery service can help you make environmentally mindful decisions.
The bottom line is that you don’t have to make a grand gesture for an act to be sustainable. If your intentions are good, you can have a major impact on your environment.
How Can I Become More Sustainable?
It’s never too late to try to improve your sustainability. In fact, no matter how much of a late bloomer you are, we encourage it.
It can be difficult to feel motivated when we see news articles about climate change, but just know that each little change you make sets off a domino effect of even bigger changes.
And we can show you how 🌿
Eat More Plants
The most obvious way to live more sustainably is by eating more plants and trying your best to consume plant-based meals.
While some of us may choose to forgo meat altogether, not everyone has the ability or desire to remove meat from their diets entirely. Just by reducing how much meat you consume, you can help to reduce our carbon footprint.
The meat and dairy industries currently make up 14.5% of global greenhouse carbon emissions, which have a direct impact on the warming of our climate. If there’s less consumer demand for these products, there will be fewer unsustainable farms polluting our environment with fossil fuels and greenhouse gasses.
Maybe those farm spaces will even be taken over by farms investing in sustainable development, using fewer natural resources, or producing less waste. You never know what one mindful decision can lead to over time.
While the meat industry does emit emissions into the air that hurt our environment, it also has impacts on water usage and pollution. When we eat more plants, we reduce the amount of freshwater we are using to keep livestock and we lower the risk of pollution.
Additionally, meals that are filled with plants can help to lower your own risk for disease, as many fruits and vegetables are packed with nutrients and antioxidants. Not only would you be helping animals and the land, but you’ll also be making a positive impact on your personal wellness 🥕
Learn To Grow Your Own Food
In conjunction with eating more plants, you might want to consider growing your own food. We constantly take so much from this land without even understanding the process of how it grows. When you learn to grow a garden with fresh fruits and veggies right at your disposal, you start to gain more respect for the earth.
This might not be a reality for many of us who live in apartments or don’t have the time to tend to a garden. Still, even growing some fresh herbs on your window sill can make your meals taste delicious and fresh.
Growing your own food is one way for you to become more sustainable while cutting back on other unsustainable practices.
Driving to the grocery store to pick up food that has been hauled long distances in large trailers is bad for the environment due to the gas emissions coming from the cars. Plus, many of these items being hauled aren’t organic (or fair trade), meaning they contribute to deforestation and biodiversity loss, negatively impact ecosystems, and are probably grown using harmful pesticides.
Often, you then have to use single-use plastic bags to pack up those groceries and bring them home, which you then cannot recycle. Even reusable bags have their downfalls, as it takes a lot of water use to produce your favorite cotton tote.
Having food at home cuts back on all of these tiny harmful moments, even if you don’t realize that it does.
Buy Locally Grown Food
If you can’t DIY your own garden, there are other options out there. Including going to local farms and picking up food directly from them. Maybe you do have to drive a further distance than you would to the grocery store, but knowing that you are getting food directly from its source and helping to fund local farmers is worth it.
Sometimes with sustainability, we can feel like we aren’t as progressive because we have to use the modes that are presented to us. Not everyone can ride their bike to the farmer’s market and pick up all the food they need to feed a family. Just know your actions in purchasing from your community make a bigger difference than you think, even if you have to drive to get there 🚗
Minimize Food Waste
Over-purchasing can lead to food waste that ends up in landfills. You might want to start planning your meals out a few days in advance, where you use all the ingredients that you come home with. You can also use a meal delivery system to ensure each of your daily meals has been planned and portioned for you.
Find ways to make ingredients work in all of your recipes. If you do have food waste at the end of your meals: compost, compost, compost!
This is an easy alternative to working with your food waste to turn it into renewable energy and soil. It can be overwhelming to feel like you have to throw out all this “good” food, but consider creating your own compost bucket.
This way, you don’t have to feel bad about throwing food out and can instead use it for fertilizer or donate it to local farms and organizations that promote sustainability.
You might be thinking, “Who would want my second-hand food scraps?” Trust us when we say that someone out there absolutely does.
Avoid using non-recyclables
This one can be difficult, considering many things that we need to purchase come wrapped in disposable plastic or encased in boxes. You can begin to collect reusable containers and bags so that when you have to go out and purchase items or buy food, you have materials that you can use to carry and store them.
Avoiding non-recyclables can be hard, so figuring out how to reuse items is the best way to practice sustainability.
Walk, Skate, and Ride Your Bike
If you can, we encourage you to use your bicycle or scooter or skateboard or roller skates when possible to travel short distances. We get that in many spaces, cars are essential in order to get around and survive. If you are lucky enough to live in a place where you can use other modes of sustainable transportation, we say go for it.
Otherwise, you can never go wrong with carpooling or public transportation.
Volunteer in Your Environment
There are plenty of organizations and initiatives that you can follow or become involved with to make a change closer to home. If there aren’t any local organizations for cleaning up and volunteering in the environment to work towards sustainability, you can create your own.
Start simple by hosting a trash clean-up day. Have your friends, family, and other locals in the community come out to specific locations to help you clean up, find spots that might be overgrown or heavily littered, and get to work.
Sometimes, you have to be the first to enact change to see change happen.
Use Thistle to Become More Sustainable
If you want to support local farmers, avoid driving as much, eat more plants, and reduce your use of non-recyclables, consider sign-up for Thistle’s services. You gain access to meals and recipes that will change the way you view plant-based food. Plus, we care about sustainability and are constantly finding ways to improve our own impact on the environment.
We source our food locally and organically whenever possible, embrace regenerative farming practices, and have cut both our food waste and our greenhouse gas emissions in order to make delivering healthy food easier and more sustainable.
Sustainability can be as easy as ordering a week of meals from the comfort of your couch 🥪
Sources:
Characteristics and Influential Factors of Food Deserts | United States Department of Agriculture
The Case for Plant Based | UCLA Sustainability
Interactive: What Is The Climate Impact Of Eating Meat And Dairy? | Carbon Brief
