By: Molly McGuire and Arabella Welhouse
Being home during this time can have drastic effects on our regular schedule and habits. It has never been a more perfect time to add some sustainable changes into your new schedule!
Plants!
Spring is on the way—time to germinate some seeds, propagate and repot your plants. Now is a great time to research and learn how to grow your own produce or just create a beautiful front yard.
Get Creative with Meatless Monday Meals!
Eating meals without meat reduces your water use and carbon footprint. Experiment with tasty plant-based meals to learn what works for you and what doesn’t.
Create an at Home Compost Bin!
Taking food waste out of the landfill reduces methane emissions and creates nutrient rich soil. You can use garbage bins, storage tubs, wooden crates, tumblers and more. There are great resources from homeowners on YouTube and Pinterest.
DIY your Favorite Products!
Learn how to create your own laundry detergent, deodorant and lotion. “Trash is for Tossers” on YouTube is a great resource for creating your own products with ease. Learn a new skill, save money and have never-ending hygiene essentials!
Plant trees online with Ecosia!
Ecosia is a search engine that uses search ad revenue to plant trees around the globe. The UWSP Office of Sustainability has created Youtube tutorials on how to make Ecosia your default search engine on Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Chrome browsers. Let’s get planting!
Switch over to reusable products made from home!
There are a lot of products that have a more sustainable and reusable alternative. For example, rather than using paper towels to clean up messes, unwanted t-shirts can be cut up into smaller rags and are machine washable. An Ecosia search will give you plenty of different lists of various household items that can be made at home, such as this.
Research!
With the extra time available at home, now is the perfect opportunity to do some research on some of the brands you like and find out more about their sustainability practices, or lack thereof. If you find that you do contribute to a brand that may be problematic, there are always alternatives. Now is the time to more intentional with what we are putting our money towards.
