Going Green was originally started as way to answer the question, “What can the average person do to make a difference?” The environment and climate change is a massive undertaking and can often feel overwhelming, but starting with little steps has already made a difference. The biggest and most important part on this journey has been education.
Learning about what is happening, and what a person can do to make a difference is the first step. Here are a few things we have learned along the way, and the impact it has had.
Eliminating the use of plastic bottles.
This is the standard answer when you get when you get when doing your research about how to make a difference – eliminating single use plastics. Since actively working towards eliminating single use plastics from our life, we have cut hundreds, if not thousands of plastic bottles out of our lives. Buying a reusable water bottle made a positive impact on our lives because we drink more water and no longer purchase single use water bottles, soda bottles, and other single use bottles. Once you’ve made the switch, you also then actively work to not buy single use water bottles and you can feel the difference!
Reusable Shopping Bags
We used to go to the grocery store empty handed every Sunday to buy our groceries and came back with big plastic bags filled with food. We made a simple and easy one time purchase of some canvas bags, available at nearly every single grocery store, and it has mad a difference. If we went to the grocery store once a week for the past six months, and came back with four plastic bags of food, that is a total of 96 plastic bags we never used. If even 1/100th of America did that, we would eliminate approximately 313 Million plastic bags in six months.
Biodegradable Dog Poop Bags
Dogs poop a lot. Let’s say a dog poops on average twice a day. Since buying recyclable dog poop bags, we have eliminated around 360 plastic bags from going into a trash can and ending up in a landfill.
Public Transportation & Carpooling
Since learning about the carbon emissions cars give off we have actively been working to using more public transportation and carpooling. As an example, our production team has a shoot in Los Angeles today. Rather than everyone driving individually from San Diego, where our production team is located, we will be carpooling in an electric car that one of our producers drives. This is eliminating a lot of carbon emissions, and saving money at the same time.
In the end, these little simple acts make a difference when more and more people start to do it. What actions have you taken as an individual to help make a difference?
Dylan Welch is the CEO and Host of Going Green, a podcast, website, and social media brand that highlights renewable energy, cleantech, and sustainable news.