The way we live our everyday lives can have a huge impact on the environment. Thankfully, there are a variety of eco-friendly lifestyles that we can adopt, and we can either adopt them completely or implement small parts of each lifestyle in our day-to-day.
What’s an eco-friendly lifestyle?
An eco-friendly lifestyle means that you’re living a life with the environment in mind. It means that you make decisions based on the outcome that they will have on the environment.
Living more environmentally friendly is so important in helping keep the planet clean and safe for wildlife as well as ourselves.
There are actually different types of eco lifestyles, and each lifestyle has different factors and motives for going green, which makes them unique in their own ways.
Chances are you will find a lifestyle that encompasses your closest beliefs.
How to choose a sustainable lifestyle
The most important thing when creating a sustainable lifestyle is to create your own lifestyle that fits you, your needs, and your habits. It also needs to be attainable.
There are many alternatives, both small and large, that we can start incorporating into our life to make both our lives and the earth better. From the decisions we choose to make, we can prevent pollution, toxicity, waste, animal cruelty, and so on.
If you don’t feel comfortable transitioning into a completely different lifestyle, you should know that even dedicating yourself to a few lifestyle changes will still make a difference.
Consistency is key, not only to better our planet, but for you to stay motivated and dedicated to the good that you’re doing for the world!
These are the best eco-friendly lifestyles that you can adopt to help save the planet.
1. Zero-Waste Lifestyle
Living a zero-waste lifestyle is all about reducing the amount of waste that one creates.
Going zero-waste means that you aim to reduce waste as much as possible which reduces the size of landfills and the pollution caused from them, as well as ensuring less garbage ends up in the ocean.
It can be pretty difficult to be 100% zero-waste, but it’s pretty easy to make little changes to reduce waste in your home and day-to-day life.
The main idea is to reuse in as many ways as you can and that makes zero-waste an incredible eco-friendly lifestyle.
To go zero-waste, you need to ditch disposables and opt for reusables
When you buy reusable items like water bottles, straws, food wrap, and grocery bags, you’re minimizing the amount of garbage and plastic that you’ll have to throw away or recycle.
Recycling is also a big part of living a low-waste lifestyle, but the less to recycle, the better.
Zero-Waste Lifestyle Tips
- Opt for stainless steel, glass or bamboo products
- Compost or reuse food scraps
- Make your own cleaning products
- Don’t buy one-use or disposable items and buy reusable products instead
- Buy quality clothing that will last longer
- Shop secondhand
- Repurpose as much as you can such as upcycling clothing into items or turning things into planters.
Reducing food waste is also important for zero-wasters. Here’s a big list of tips for reducing food waste at home.
2. Vegan Lifestyle
Being vegan includes eating a plant-based diet and therefore refraining from meat, fish, dairy, eggs, and honey. Vegans also refrain from eating anything that contains animal ingredients.
Contrary to what you might think, living a vegan lifestyle isn’t based only on diet. Being vegan also includes cruelty-free lifestyle choices.
Vegans don’t support products that test on animals, products that contain animal byproducts, activities that exploit animals, or the suffering of animals.
Veganism is an eco-friendly lifestyle because vegans acknowledge that what we do impacts animals and the ecosystem.
You don’t necessarily have to make a radical change to your diet and lifestyle in order to support veganism.
Of course, you wouldn’t be able to call yourself 100% vegan if you don’t cut out all meat and animal products, but you can definitely be somewhat vegan or part-time vegan.
This can be a touchy subject with hardcore vegans, but personally, I feel like it doesn’t matter if you’re 100% vegan or somewhat vegan. You’re trying to make a difference for animals, and that’s what matters the most!
Vegan Lifestyle Tips:
- Don’t eat meat, dairy, eggs, or any food made with animal ingredients
- Buy clothing that doesn’t contain leather, fur or anything made from animals
- Stay away from brands that test on animals
- Don’t support circuses, unethical zoos, aquariums, anything that exploits animals
- Support animal sanctuaries and rescue facilities instead
- Don’t breed animals – adopt instead
3. Self-Sufficient Lifestyle
Living a self-sufficient lifestyle means that you’re relying on yourself to provide your own needs, like creating your own energy, food, and clothing.
This is an eco-friendly lifestyle that helps the planet a lot because by making things yourself, you’re eliminating the need for packaging and distribution, and cutting out a lot of middlemen.
A self-sufficient lifestyle can be difficult, especially if you want to live it to the fullest.
Becoming self-sufficient also requires a lot of time, but that time will lessen as you learn and get experience.
You don’t need to tackle this lifestyle 100% unless you really want to, but there are some ways to be a little more self-sufficient in your home that will better our planet.
Self-Sufficient Lifestyle Tips
- Grow your own food in a garden
- Preserve that food through canning, dehydration, and freezing
- Raise animals like chickens, goats, and bees
- Make home-cooked meals
- Make your own wine
- Repair items when they break
- Invest in solar, wind or hydro equipment to make your own energy
- Sew, knit, or crochet clothing, blankets, etc.
- Capture rainwater
4. Conscious Consumerism
Living a conscious lifestyle is all about being aware of the products that you are buying in terms of how they were made, the people who made them, and how they reach you in terms of their shipment.
It also means that you’re conscious of the actions you take and how they impact the environment.
A conscious consumer doesn’t make unnecessary or careless purchases
They do their research on the company or the product that they’re buying to ensure that it meets their ethical needs and reach out to the company if needed.
If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re already living a conscious lifestyle.
You’re educating yourself on ways that you can be better because you know that there are ways that we can live a better life and make the world a better place.
Here’s an extensive list of ecolabels in Canada and in the United States that you can decide what you want to watch out for on your purchases.
Ways to be a conscious consumer:
- Buy from sustainable, ethical and Fairtrade brands and companies
- Buy from local shops and artisans
- Shop companies that have plastic-free shipping
- Buy from companies that do good, like brands who plant trees when you make a purchase
- Only buy sustainable clothing made with eco-friendly materials
Learn more about becoming a conscious consumer.
5. Minimalist Lifestyle
A minimalist life is all about living with less. It makes a great eco-friendly lifestyle because the less you own, the less you throw away and therefore the less waste you create.
The most important thing to remember with minimalist living is that you only want to hold on to items that you need and that you love.
Anything else is just clutter.
When living a minimal lifestyle, you’re careful about the things you buy and let into your home, and only buy quality, long-lasting items that won’t need to be replaced, at least for a while.
Minimalists also tend to spend their money on experiences and are not materialistic. In some ways, minimalists are also conscious consumers because they are careful about what they buy.
Minimalist Lifestyle Tips
- Sell, give away, or donate clothing you don’t love or that doesn’t fit
- Get rid of anything that is broken
- Donate or give away duplicate items
- Buy high-quality items that are made to last
- Only buy what you need and love
- Ask yourself if you really need something before buying
- Sell, donate, or give away household items you don’t need, want, or love
- Store sentimental items that you don’t need but want to hang onto
6. Sustainable Lifestyle
Sustainable living is an eco-friendly lifestyle that aims to reduce the use of Earth’s natural resources as well as personal resources.
You can do this by reducing your carbon footprint like changing your methods of energy consumption, diet, and transportation.
A sustainable lifestyle shares a lot of what these eco-friendly lifestyles stand for.
Sustainability can incorporate veganism, self-sufficiency, zero-waste, being a conscious consumer and minimalism. It’s a lifestyle filled with endless possibilities when it comes to the good that we can do for our planet.
People who live a sustainable lifestyle also think about transportation they personally use. They try to walk and bicycle more, take public transit and have fuel-efficient or electric cars.
Sustainability is all about recognizing that what we do today impacts our future.
The reason that a sustainable lifestyle is such an important lifestyle to adopt, and one that we should all adopt, is that the Earth doesn’t have an infinite amount of resources.
There are certain things like gas, iron, coal, and copper that we only have a limited amount of. And as we all know, we need to make lifestyle changes to save our oceans like avoiding single-use plastics.
When you really think about it, we’re using too much stuff.
There are sustainable materials like trees, plants, fish, and animals that can be farmed and managed, but we need to make sure we’re not consuming more than we’re farming.
When starting a sustainable lifestyle, consider your eco-footprint, which is how much stuff you’re using like energy, gas, food, and water.
Find what you’re consuming too much of and cut back. Not only will this help you make some eco-friendly changes in your life, but going green saves money too.
Sustainable Lifestyle Tips
- Reduce waste in your kitchen, especially with food
- Invest in single-use plastic alternatives
- Reduce your carbon footprint
- Shop from sustainable fashion brands
- Buy secondhand clothes
- Use less plastic as much as you can
- Reuse items like storebought glass jars
- Conserve water
- Reduce overall purchases
Final thoughts on these eco lifestyles
All of these eco-friendly lifestyles are helping save the planet in their own ways. Their interests, opinions, and beliefs are all in line with a positive future for our planet and all who inhabit it.
And, remember, you don’t have to embrace just one of these lifestyles. You can still be more sustainable by applying different aspects of these eco lifestyles as you want.
A lifestyle is for you, therefore you should curate one that works for you and your family.
And honestly, although all of these lifestyles are amazing for our planet, if you try to make every change possible, you might just burn yourself out!
Start small and make gradual changes. Find out what works for you and stick with it.
Want some green product recommendations? Check out my post 13 zero-waste products on Amazon to create a more eco-friendly home.
Excellent article! Eco lifestyle means different things to different people. And it’s great that everyone can choose their own green path
Exactly! Sustainability is so versatile.