Sure you talk the talk, but can you walk the walk when it comes to eco-friendly living?
According to a survey conducted by Trulia on eco-friendly living, 79% of Americans say that they are environmentally conscious. However, only 26% of those people actually consider the environment in their daily actions beyond recycling and turning off the lights. Additionally, people have widely varying opinions on what’s the best way to reduce their home’s carbon footprint. When they do agree, it’s not always on the highest impact methods.
Whether it’s to reduce pollution and erosion or simply to live a better quality of life, there are so many reasons to try and live out an eco-friendly lifestyle. If Americans followed through with their claims of being environmentally conscious, not only would the earth be healthier, but so would we. So, if you’re serious about becoming (and staying) environmentally conscious, the first step is figuring out how you can follow through in your lifestyle.
Living a more environmentally-conscious lifestyle can be done daily through the small actions that we make throughout the day. Actions like recycling and turning off the lights are a great start, but that shouldn’t be the end of your efforts. If you don’t know where to go from there, luckily Sunpower by EmPower Solar has taken the time to talk to some experts and gotten great advice on how to live out a more eco-friendly lifestyle, and it all starts with products and lifestyle choices.
Although environmentally-conscious products may be expensive in the beginning, they end up paying off in the long-run. Andrew Yakub, CEO of Rayton Solar, uses energy star appliances throughout his home. This not only saves him money on electricity every month, but also helps reduce his carbon footprint by reducing use of carbon generated electricity. Another lifestyle choice that founder of First GREEN Bank Ken LaRoe makes is change in diet. He has completely cut red meat out of his diet and eats almost 100% organic. Additionally, most experts, like Ed Gorman founder of MODUS development, will tell you to start small and pick your battles. Little changes add up, but keeping the consistency of those little changes is what does the trick.
So, whether you are starting small, or moving to bigger changes, remember to keep it consistent so that your environmentally-conscious lifestyle can have a lasting effect on planet earth.