Honoring Your Eco-Friendly Goals While Growing Your Family

Are you about to have a new baby? There are a lot of things that you need to keep in mind as you strive to maintain your standard of eco-friendly living as your family grows. You want to practice zero waste living as soon as your baby is born.

You will need to make sure that you purchase the right eco-friendly products for your baby, such as baby essentials thermometers, clothes, diapers, toys and baby food. However, you need to think longer-term about sustainable living as your baby gets older.

Respect and responsibility. Following these two words would make this planet a more habitable place. This was the objective that we tried to keep in mind when celebrating World Environment Day on June 5, which was meant to raise awareness and motivate us to be active agents of sustainable living to protect our planet.

Reducing our carbon footprint is becoming an increasingly urgent duty. According to a recent study published in the European Heart Journal that was conducted by several German researchers, environmental pollution causes 800,000 deaths a year in Europe and 8.8 million worldwide. The same study points out that pollution-related deaths could be reduced by 55% with the use of renewable energy.

Not only does the use of clean energy contribute help reduce our ecological footprint, but every act adds up. One expert pointed out that if every Spanish household were to carry out small gestures that contribute to a more sustainable scenario, the ecological footprint would be reduced by more than 100%.

In Spain, each person generates an average of 5.8 tons of CO2 per year. This is a country with over 45 million inhabitants, so this translates to 261 million tons of C02 that is sent to our atmosphere each year.

Parents need to set a good example and try to create a 100% eco-friendly family. In order to achieve these goals, they should recycle their own wastewater, compost their own garbage, have a biodynamic garden, generate as little waste as possible and practice vegetable bartering with neighbors.

How to Create an Eco-Friendly Family

There are some important steps that everyone who wants to participate in an eco-friendly and sustainable lifestyle can take to change their daily habits. Some of the best tips are listed below.

1. Plant at least one tree in your life. A tree is capable of absorbing between 3 and 50 tons of C02 each year. Enjoying the opportunity to plant a tree goes beyond having a nice experience in a person’s life. It really does a lot to help the planet.
2. Reuse and reduce. You can lower your environmental impact by avoiding using disposable containers and bags. Traditional cloth bags and tupperware have become fashionable for many people to bring to the grocery store in order to avoid the amount of useless plastics that end up filling our garbage bag and, in the worst case, our seas and oceans. Each kg of plastic generates 3.5 kg of C02.
3. Minimize water consumption at home. Avoid wasting water at home as much as possible. Even something as simple as not leaving the faucet on while brushing your teeth can save several gallons of water a day. Water is a source of life and with a little domestic water treatment you can enjoy healthier water by using a reusable bottle to drink water everywhere.
4. Participate in the local economy. Today’s actions are important for other people around us when we choose to buy locally and opt for 0 km products.
5. Use solar energy. Most cities in the United States have between 2,000 and 3,000 hours of sunshine a year, which allows us to enjoy this renewable energy today as an investment for a better future. The advantages of using this type of energy sources is that it does not have a huge negative environmental impact, unlike non-renewable energy sources. Its use leads to a reduction in the level of energy dependence and in the emission of pollution into the atmosphere.
6. Cook in the sun. A solar oven gives you the freedom to travel. It can be used anywhere and in all seasons. It generates no waste, is free energy and makes everything taste delicious. The average electricity consumption per person is 3600 kW/year and that translates into an emission of 1.2 tons of C02 per year. In a conventional kitchen, we would be talking about 200 kg of C02 that would be eliminated with this type of technology.
7. Reducing organic waste. The urban waste generated by each person in the United States is 4.9 pounds per person per day. If organic waste is composted from each household, it would considerably reduce waste as well as C02 emissions. In many cities there are urban composting points available where household compost can be taken.

From home, and with little effort, anyone can begin to build a modern, alternative and respectful life with oneself and the environment. Only in this way we will leave a positive footprint on the planet and we will have helped not to destroy it.