Green living benefits people, but it’s good for animals, plants and the places they live, too. By adopting greener lifestyle habits, you can help reduce energy use, fight climate change, protect biodiversity and defend the well-being of others who depend on nature for their livelihoods.
It might sound overwhelming, but… it doesn’t have to be. Here is a simple guide to help you start thinking, acting and living greener:
- Be Informed
What’s the first step toward becoming a responsible green citizen? It’s getting informed. Learn what the issues are, and take the time to find out more. GlobalForce has lots of information to help you here. - Travel Sustainably
Whenever you travel, whether it’s for business or personal reasons, there are ways you can minimize your impact on the planet. We can help you identify strategies to reduce or offset your carbon footprint on the road or in the air, and have plenty of other tips to help you travel in an environmentally responsible manner. - Be a Green Consumer
You can shrink your environmental footprint just by making better, greener choices whenever you shop. Opt for natural personal-care products that aren’t loaded with an alphabet soup of nasty chemicals. Choose biodegradable detergents and cleansers for your home. Look for clothing, furnishings and other products that are fairly and ethically manufactured.
A great place to begin your green living journey is to visit EcoMart®. The EcoMart® team has done the research for you and put together a unique collection of eco-friendly products that will help you reduce your footprint. - Reuse, Return and Recycle
You can green your footprint by not only making the right choices when you buy, but by reducing the amount of waste you generate. It’s possible – through reusing and recycling, among other actions – to cut your waste output by half or more.
So learn which items you normally toss can be recycled. Look for creative ways to reuse things you’ve thrown away in the past. Instead of sending food waste to the trash, start a compost pile in your garden. Rich compost can even make a nice “Welcome Spring” gift for your garden-minded friends. - Conserve Water
While nearly 75 percent of the Earth is covered in water, only 2.5 percent of that is freshwater – most of it locked away in polar ice caps. Around the world, one billion people lack access to safe, clean water for drinking and cooking, and water-borne illness is the leading cause of death.
Water is a precious resource. Remember this every time you turn on the tap. Don’t let the faucet run while you brush your teeth. Choose showers over water-hogging baths. Sweep your driveway clean instead of hosing it down. Use a waterless car wash. Run dishwashers and wash-machines only for full loads. There are lots of simple and inexpensive ways to reduce your water consumption. - Sustainable Purchasing
Make it a point to learn more about where the things you buy come from: how they are made, how they are packaged, how they are shipped. Read labels. Ask questions. And buy local whenever you can – it’s one of the most effective ways to not only reduce your footprint, but to directly benefit the community where you live. - Minimize Your Carbon Footprint
You can go a long way toward reducing your carbon footprint just by using your car less and exploring alternative means of transportation. Ride your bicycle when you can. Check local bus routes to see if that’s an option for you. Plan your trips ahead of time to combine errands and avoid needless travel, fuel consumption and pollution. - Offset Your Carbon
While you can do a lot to minimize your carbon footprint, even the greenest among us isn’t likely to bring it to zero. Once you’ve done as much as possible to curb your environmental impact, look at ways to offset whatever residual impact is left. Carbon offset credits can help get you there. Other simple and effective ways to reduce your impact is by choosing the most eco-friendly alternatives whenever you can, which our EcoMart® section and ecoPoints system can help you do. - Influence Your Friends, Family and Community
You can do more than green your own lifestyle. You can become a shining role model for your friends, co-workers, neighbors and family members. Look for ways to inspire wherever you can. Give compact-fluorescent light-bulbs as gifts. Offer to ride-share with a colleague at work. Organize a recycle-swap block party where you can make one person’s trash another’s treasure.
Humans live in a global community that’s been able to sustain itself for millennia, and we can make our community sustainable once again. You can be part of the solution. The global community is like a rich and intricate tapestry: beautiful as a whole, but woven from thousands upon thousands of individual threads that come together to create a masterpiece. - Support GlobalForce®
GlobalForce® aims to help weave all these individual human threads into a global tapestry of sustainability, hope and renewal. By supporting GlobalForce, you make the most of everything you do by becoming part of a much larger, worldwide team. And you can help make that team even bigger by inviting friends and colleagues to join forces with you here. Join us now, and start casting a green shadow that stretches around the planet.
