The Way To Live Now..

Sure, you identify as being eco-conscious but with the rapidly escalating 

impact of our lifestyle choices, avoiding that single-use plastic or 

having a meatless Monday is no longer enough…

You: an eco-conscious human to the core. Which is why you’ve done all the 

right things - abandoned plastic straws, gone meatless a few days a week

to save the rainforest, you even dusted off your bicycle. But now with 

everything from microplastics in our fish, to dried up lakes and rivers,

to searingly hot brain melting days, you know it’s time to take your 

eco-consciousness to the next level. Which means considering the 

environmental impact of everyday “things”.

Take for instance, almond milk. Sure it’s tasty in that latte + it’s 

plant-based, but growing almonds - 80% of which are grown in drought-stricken

California - involves a high amount of water plus pesticide use. Thus, the

more planet-conscious option is made in Canada oat milk!  

And what about your morning java? Ethically produced, bird-friendly, from a small producer? Thumbs up! You’ve started to make choices - even the simple every day ones - based on the health of our planet - which means living life through an environmental lens. 

Like say, the friend who, as a priority looks, for a handyperson who employs 

eco-friendly practices and, better still, arrives by cargo bike vs. 

energy guzzling truck!

Or the one who gave up with online shopping and home delivery with all its carbon impacts to support local stores and markets.

Or the former jet-set-go friend who has started to consider biking or rail holidays.

Not to mention the person who takes their own container to pick up their favourite pad thai and declines extra (plastic) cutlery.

And you yourself have become something of a “rejectionist” 
- for instance, saying “nope” to anything that is a tad “over packaged”
(even opting for loose tea over “bagged” because waste is waste!)

You’ve also started to look at fast fashion as a no-no. Finding deals
(and cool things) in the local vintage and charity shops where style, 

repurposing and a circular economy fuse. (The same goes for appliances -

the sourcing of that ultra-reliable second-hand washer raising your 

eco-cred by notches.)

Recognizing the higher environmental hoof-print of beef you’ve gone more (or fully) plant-based. Questioning your own contribution to microplastic pollution you’ve rethought your fashion choices and laundry practices avoiding synthetic fabrics, doing less laundry and air-drying. Under the same micro-plastic mindset you’ve even looked at changing personal care products because yes, microplastics (plastics less than 5mm) are in our water, in our food chain, everywhere.

You’re also wanting to save energy - vowing, this winter, to wear sweaters 

until you get the energy-efficient heat pump installed. 

You look for brands as you would a life partner! Ethical, fair trade, eco, 

animal friendly, and free from toxins, built to last, locally sourced, 

and sustainable!  Ya, till death do we part!

Sure you flop at some things. You realize that you have not reached the 

level of zero-waster who only uses a mason jar of waste a year. And 

while you've vowed to drive less and take transit more, it hasn't quite 

happened yet.

But obviously, with “sustainable” everything on the rise, the possibilities 

of making every day more planet friendly than ever are endless, surely? 

Not necessarily. The world as we know and love it, needs help, and the threats of human driven climate change, widespread biodiversity loss, and ocean and 

atmospheric pollution, require us to make very real changes in how we 

live, move, and work. It means goodbye to yesterday values re. mindless

consumption and waste, and basically being indifferent to the fate

of the world - and all in all that’s a good thing.