Embedded Files
EnviroSTART is a part of a site system known as the HelpWeb for Students - for more info, click the button right
How you can make a change
Sustainability isn't about sticking a "green" label onto everything, doing TikTok dances in the name of the endangered panda, or even carbon taxes. It's about individual change.
We at the HelpWeb for Students, have compiled a list of ten ways you can make a change at the individual level. Some of these tips may sound generic, because you've heard them a lot, but there are some other tips you might find interesting, and are fairly easy to do. There are also some bonus tips as well! We hope you find these tips useful, and implement at least a few into your daily lifestyles.
Individual
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Save Water
Water is a precious resource. Though the Earth is over two-thirds ocean, that isn't usable water - only 3% of the world's water is usable fresh water - and two in every three drops of fresh water are trapped in a glacier somewhere - that remaining 1% stored in lakes, rivers, underground aquifers.. that's all we have, so we have to use it wisely.
Some ways you can save water are:
Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth
Take short showers instead of baths
When you wash your dishes, don't use the dishwasher. Instead, wash them by hand, using no dish-washing liquid, and a minimal amount of water. Don't let the wastewater drain away, and keep a bowl under the tap to store this water. This water can be used to water your plants (see tip 3)
Fun Fact: In Australia, the wastewater from when you take a shower or bath is automatically redirected into a storage container which is used to water your lawn or your garden plants. It is illegal there to water your plants with new water, because Australia has the lowest amount of water for any permanently habitable continent.
2. Take Green Transportation
2. Take Green Transportation
You, being a smart person, probably know that transportation is a major contributor to carbon emissions, But how would you reduce that carbon footprint? Well, there are quite a few ways below, organized in a tier list.
Info about Hybrid cars:
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a26390899/what-is-hybrid-car/
https://afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/how-do-hybrid-electric-cars-work
Info about Catalytic Converters (a device in all gasoline or hybrid cars released after 1975, which converts the toxic exhaust chemicals into less toxic chemicals):
Did you know: General Motors and Michelin are collaborating to make a 3D printed airless tire called Uptis, which cannot be punctured, and just squishes itself right over obstacles. This will end up preventing a lot of tires from going to landfill, and greatly increase the lifespan of tires, and reducing resource consumption for tire production. People will also be able to 3D print their own tires if they have a big enough printer.
3. Plant a garden
3. Plant a garden
Plants are necessary for life - they perform photosynthesis, absorbing amazing amounts of carbon dioxide (the same greenhouse gas that our industrial activities emit at high rates), and convert it to oxygen. (For those of you studying chemistry, the chemical equation for photosynthesis is: 6CO(6 carbon dioxide molecules) + 6H2O (6 water molecules) + energy (sunlight) → C6H12O6 (one glucose molecule) + 6O2 (6 oxygen atoms) ).
Plants not only keep us healthier, they also reduce carbon footprint. The problem is, we're cutting down these trees at terrifying rates - the WWF estimates that the area equivalent of 27 football fields is being lost in forest every single minute. Yes, that's right, by the time you read this section, that's how many trees will have been cut down.
So how can we help?
You could plant a tree in your backyard. Try to find seeds of native plants, and plant them instead - too many invasive plants have been unwittingly planted (like the pear tree - not native to Ontario). One single tree, when fully grown, will provide enough oxygen to sustain at least 2 people on average, for their entire lives
Bonus: Plant a crop garden:
If done successfully, it will reduce the number of times you need to go food shopping - why buy bell peppers imported here all the way from China, for example, when you have a vine of them growing at home!
If you don't have a backyard, you can planet them in planter boxes on your deck or balcony. You can even make the planter-boxes yourself. You'll help reduce the carbon emissions from transportation of goods, make your home closer to carbon neutral (net zero carbon emissions) or even a carbon sink (absorbs more CO2 than is emitted) with your plants, and have some tasty fresh home-made ingredients!
Tip: You can use the seeds from fruit you eat, and cut out parts of vegetables you eat, and plant them, saving you costs on seeds. It was one of these seeds which grew a full honeydew melon in a planter-box on our deck. It tasted pretty good too.
(Food) Plants which grow well in these climates (and I speak from experience here)
Bell pepper
Green beans
Some types of green chili
Tomatoes
Strawberries
Mint (grows amazingly well and wild mint may be in some backyards)
Parsley
Onions
Lettuce, Bok choy, Swiss chard, and similar greens
Honeydew melons
Indian or Asiatic pennywort (Centella asiatica), also known as Gotu kola. (Unbelievably nutritious, but requires an insane amount of water. Good as an indoor plant though)
Community
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Pick up litter
4. Pick up litter
Yeah, we all know how irritating litter is. It ruins the landscape and harms the environment. But instead of ignoring it, or simply complaining about it, why not pick up litter and dispose of it properly, at the nearest garbage or recycling bin. You'll feel a lot better, trust me.
Fun Fact: The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup (GCSC), an initiative to clean the shorelines of litter, in 2021, cleaned up over 42 000 kilograms of waste
Bonus: Why not organize a neighborhood cleanup at your school! Anything's more fun when it's done with friends! And you can even give a small prize to the person who picks up the most! Fun, competitive, and helps the community and environment!
Note: When picking up litter, use gloves in order to avoid injury and/or contamination/infection
5. Shop local and buy locally made products
5. Shop local and buy locally made products
You ever wonder how much energy it takes, how much fossil fuel combustion it takes to bring products here from another country? Trucks, trains, ships and planes. So much emissions. Every single day, billions of products shuffled back and forth. So it's no wonder that the transportation of goods has one of the biggest carbon footprints of all our industrial actions. For example, the other day, I saw salt imported all the way from Spain stocked in shelves in No Frills
So shop local - buy products made in Canada or Ontario, when you can find them, never mind any extra expense. Look for the "Made in Canada" or "Made in Ontario" labels, or if its food: "Grown/Produced in Canada/Ontario", labels on products when you go to the supermarket.
Local small businesses and farmer's markets almost entirely use locally sourced ingredients/products, so if you take some time to shop in local stores instead of the bigger supermarkets, you'll not only help the environment, but support fragile local businesses too.
You might need to shell out a few extra bucks, but it'll be worth it.
Did you know: Container ships alone produce about 3% of the world's carbon emissions, about 1 billion metric tons each year.
Reuse and Donate
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6. Use reusable items rather than disposable, single use ones.
6. Use reusable items rather than disposable, single use ones.
This goes for pretty much any disposable item, like bags (plastic or paper), water bottles, cutlery, cups, napkins, straws, you name it. I mean why buy bottled water, when you can fill up your own, nice water bottle, and use it over and over again for year. It's the same water, and doesn't taste like plastic.
Tip 4. a: Use the double sided, or duplex printing feature when printing or photocopying documents with at least 2 pages to save paper. You can also store scrap paper, or old one-sided documents you don't need anymore and reuse the good side for some other purpose
7. Donate old clothes, books, school supplies, toys, furniture, etc
7. Donate old clothes, books, school supplies, toys, furniture, etc
Do you know how much energy and resources it takes to manufacture new clothes, books, toys, etc? A lot. And do you know how many children in the world, just like you, don't have access to these things which we take for granted? Also a lot.
A simple way you can help with both of these problems is to donate old clothes, books, school supplies, toys, etc (provided they're still usable). This will not only put less of a strain on the environment, it'll also bring a smile to the face of a kid in need.
Places where you can donate to:
General donating:
Old books:
tplfoundation.ca/donate-books/ (Toronto Public Library Foundation)
textbooksforchange.com/ (Old textbooks only)
Old toys:
Old school supplies:
toronto-cares.ca/back-to-school-supplies (LIMITED TIME ONLY: DONATION DAY: AUGUST 20, 2022)
caringandsharing.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=169
Old furniture:
Appliances and Electronics
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
8. Use Energy-Saving and Energy-Efficient Appliances, Electronics & Lightbulbs
8. Use Energy-Saving and Energy-Efficient Appliances, Electronics & Lightbulbs
If you use energy efficient appliances/bulbs, the same task gets done with less electricity, helping the environment, and helping you cut down on your energy bill.
You probably know that incandescent bulbs are really inefficient, and that compact fluorescent bulbs, or CFLs, are better. But do you know about the far better LED (light-emitting-diode) bulbs?
Fact File:
Incandescent bulbs operate by heating a tungsten filament (It's basically a low-power controlled fire), and that heat generates light (incandescence)
CFL bulbs operate by sending an electric current through a glass tube filled with argon and mercury vapors (toxic), and that current stimulates the gas vapors to release ultraviolet radiation (UV light). A fluorescent coating (containing substances called phosphors) absorbs that UV energy and emits visible light. CFLs, on average consume 70% less energy than a comparable incandescent bulb
LED bulbs operate by passing electrons through a semiconducting material (a diode), which emits photons (light) via electroluminescence. No heat is generated from an LED. Learn more
Electrons jump from one side of the diode (an electron-full side) to another (an electron-deficient side) across a junction (the “p-n junction”). When power is applied to the p-n junction, the side lacking in electrons wants to be filled up with the charged electrons from the other side, and when power is applied the electrons get eager to move. During this process, light is created.
Did you know: High-strength LED lamps made in the 1960s are still continually running today. Many commercial grade LED bulbs, in theory, can run from 5-20 years without needing to be changed.
9. Donate your old/used electronics like computers and mobile phones
9. Donate your old/used electronics like computers and mobile phones
I'm willing to bet you've got some electronics lying around - phones, laptops, desktops, printers, etc. If they still work okay, instead of leaving them lying around, you can still donate them! If everyone in the city of Toronto donated two devices to people in developing countries, that would be more than 5 million devices donated! (population of Toronto being roughly 2.87 million in 2022).
It's not just the people in developing countries who need devices - there's a startling number of people right here in Canada who don't have access to a device or the Internet: 11% of Canadian households have no Internet access or devices: and when you consider the fact that Internet access is often thought of as a basic right, especially given the pandemic and virtual working and learning, we need to make sure people have access to this.
To help them, you can donate your devices - the following websites and organizations may help:
www.era.ca (Electronics Recycling Association)
If the old devices you have are literally unusable, send them to a recycling depot - there's a lot of useful raw materials inside them which are in high demand, especially now, given the supply chain conflicts going on right now. Check out these links here for more info:
10. Unplug devices and appliances when not in use
10. Unplug devices and appliances when not in use
Did you know that even when you turn off a device, or put it to sleep, it's still using power - this is called "phantom power" or"standby power". Unplug the devices after you're done using them.
Bonus tip 10.a: Turn off the lights when you're asleep, and when nobody's in the room.
Bonus tip 10.b. Did you know drying one load of laundry spends the same amount of energy as toasting 250 pieces of bread? That's a lot of energy wasted: In the summer, don't use your dryer, hang your clothes out to dry. In the winter, you can use the dryer for just 10-15 minutes, and hang your clothes on a rack indoors to completely dry.
Bonus tip 10.c: Turn down your thermostat by 1*C (in the winter - 1* up in the summer). This will save you $50 a year on average. If you can, turn down your thermostat by even more in winter, and wear a sweater instead,
Back to enviroSTART Home Page
Back to enviroSTART Home Page
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse