You Don’t Need to Be a Hippie to Be Green
When I was 13, I started my first research project. Having no idea what was going on in current events, I looked up controversial issues and chose to focus on GMOs and Monsanto. Peaking into the state of the agricultural system in the U.S. opened the door to other pressing issues, like childhood obesity, monocropping, and the large amount of waste created by our day-to-day habits. Over the years, the passion that I developed for agriculture spread into my academic and professional life; working at Expo Milano in 2015, interning for Oxfam Italia’s GROW campaign, and writing my master’s thesis on the Common Agricultural Policy.
I’ve loved watching the credibility around these topics strengthen and the variety of sources become increasingly diverse over the past decade. Sustainability has become a mainstream idea but I think it is still abstract in some sense. It’s not a priority in a capitalistic market that thrives when we continue to buy new things that we don’t really want or need.
I would like to give you a few ways to be more sustainable without making drastic life changes. Of course, use as little plastic possible and eat less meat, but in the end, it’s always changing our small habits and beliefs that make the biggest differences.
1. Cook most of what you eat, make most of it plants
This is a very Michael Pollan inspired tip but I love it! Especially in the U.S., we tend to go to restaurants and get take out most nights of the week. It’s expensive, it’s not usually healthy, and it produces more waste (think: take-out boxes, bags, cutlery, and coffee cups). Cooking at home is a wonderful way to reconnect with family, with the food you eat, and with a culture. Eating mostly plants also adds variety to your meals. It doesn’t need to be fancy massaged kale from Whole Foods, it could be as simple as trying something new that is in season. There is so much abundance in fruits, vegetable, and grains.
2. Strip away all the crap
Once I moved to Florence, I realized how much STUFF I had. I was bursting at the seams – literally, my suitcase was barely squeezed and zipped shut. What struck me was the amount of stuff I was holding onto that no longer served me. The problem with commercials and promotions is that you get really excited about a product from the outside; not the inside. You begin to want things that you do not truly desire and then you surround yourself things that are not in alignment with you. The result? A closet filled with clothes that still have the tags on them and a feeling that happiness and fulfillment is elusive. If you take a step back and try to figure out who you are, who you want to be, and how you want to show up in this world, it becomes easier and easier to surround yourself with only the things you love and which spark joy within your heart. How is this sustainable? I don’t believe that any pure desire that comes from joy and alignment can be unsustainable in this universe.
3. Research the sustainable alternative
With the internet, it is easier than ever to look up new, innovative, sustainable products. It’s how I found my mattress, “sustainable mattress”, it’s how I found my birth control “sustainable birth control” (by the way, sign up for Natural Cycles with my link and get 20% off!), it’s how I found my laptop case, “sustainable laptop cases”. You get the idea. It’s easy to compare prices and make an informed decision on the everyday products you need. I think many believe that eco-friendly means a premium price but that is not always the case. In some cases, the price could be even cheaper. In other cases, I am willing to invest in the future and social innovation because that is what’s important to me.
4. Reduce and reuse
To have a truly sustainable market, we need to reduce and reuse more than we recycle and throw away. Recycling took off while the other two seem to have been forgotten. I feel like they are now making a comeback.
Moving to Switzerland, I instantly noticed how small the portions are. I heard a little voice in my head saying, “Is that it!?”. Of course, the meal was delicious, I was stuffed, and I finished my entire plate. Our eyes are often larger than our stomachs and we typically buy more than we can actually eat. Being mindful of how much we used of what we bought the week before allows us to plan better for the following week. And if we buy too much? Almost everything can be incorporated into a new dish.
Reducing falls a little bit under number 2. By asking ourselves, “is this really important to me?” or “is this truly my desire or is this want coming from somewhere else?”, we automatically begin to reduce the things we buy to surround ourselves with.
Reusing is a broad practice that is centred around creativity. I love repurposing used wine bottles as candle holders by the lake or old jars to store home-made jam or sundried tomatoes sotto olio. In Florence, there are stores (vino sfuso) where you can refill wine bottles with regional wine. My mom’s favorite pastime is going to the thrift store and finding hardly worn, designer pieces and cashmere which now fill my closets. There are so many companies, like Thinx, who make items that can be reused for long periods of time to reduce waste.
As I am writing this section, I realize that reduce and reuse could have their own article so I will conclude by saying that just recycling is boring and annoying (think about all the separating!) reducing and reusing creates a space for creativity and innovation to thrive.
5. Get out in nature!
Take your self out, take your friends out, take your kids out. Just get out there and explore. We live our lives trapped behind a screen at work and at home. Getting outside is not only proven to improve our mood, our mental health, and our overall state of well being, it is also a powerful way to feel deep gratitude for the awe-inspiring world around us. Spending time away from the hustle and bustle gives us space to slow down and think and feel. As I said with cooking, bathing ourselves in nature reconnects us with the natural world that we are all interconnected with.
You don’t need to be a hippie to be green. Get back into the wonderful world of cooking and enjoying the vast palate of food, figure out who you are and make your stamp on the world, take time to understand what the options are, get outside!, and invest in the future you want by supporting the businesses and practices that are making the changes that you want to see in the world.
