Sustainability Tips: How to live more sustainably in 2022

If you are looking to become more environmentally friendly in 2022, then this is the blog for you. Working on living more sustainably is one of the best things you can do to help the planet. There are so many different ways to do this. In this article, we’ll discuss some helpful lifestyle changes and things to think about to encourage you to work on your sustainability.

Sustainability Tip: Eat less meat and drink less dairy

Studies suggest that a vegan diet tends to have a much lower carbon footprint than the diets of those who eat meat and fish. This is one of the contributing factors as to why veganism has increased in popularity over recent years. Meat and dairy farming contribute to a big chunk of greenhouse gases present, more than every car on the planet combined. If everyone on the planet went vegan, food related emissions would drop by an estimated 70% by 2050.

There are many ways to help the planet when it comes to your diet. If going vegan seems a bit daunting for you at the moment, why not try to swap just a few food items for a vegan alternative. Every little change can support the planet and a few meals a week can still contribute to making a difference. Some helpful changes could be to change your milk to an alternative, such as oat or soya milk. These alternatives have a much lower environmental impact and use way less water and land, and produce less emissions than dairy milk. You could also change your meat to alternatives, such as tofu or seitan for a few meals each week.

Sustainability Tip: Reduce your plastic use

Plastic is a no no when it comes to living more sustainably. The reason for this is that single use plastics cannot be recycled and take millions of years to decompose when thrown away. A lot of single use plastic ends up in the sea or in landfills, both of which can have a really damaging effect on the planet. Plastic that ends up in the sea can be harmful to wildlife and ruin their natural habitat. Plastics that end up in landfills disintegrate into microplastic, which are very difficult to clean up, and very messy.

The world is becoming more aware of this now and there are many ways you can reduce your use of single use plastics to work on this problem. Using the same ‘bag for life’ rather than single use plastic ones is a quick and easy way to start. See if your local businesses work on plastic free options (for instance, some businesses encourage you to take glass containers to fill with rice or pasta as opposed to buying those already packaged). Some more well-known supermarkets have also started to provide environmentally friendly bags for you to carry your fresh vegetables in and use time and time again rather than buying packaged ones. Little changes like this can really reduce your consumption of plastic.

Sustainability Tip: Use renewable energy

As a species, we have been highly dependent on fossil fuels for too long. The need to encourage an alternative, more sustainable energy source has been the topic of many discussions regarding some of the best ways to save the planet. Fossil fuels release large amounts of carbon dioxide gas into the air and contribute to environmental issues, such as the rise in global temperature.

Renewable energy is energy that is endless in source and is less damaging to the planet. Different renewable sources are those such as wind or sunlight, both of which are endless in source and do not have a negative impact on the planet when they are used to produce energy.

Choose a utility provider that focuses on providing ‘green’ energy from renewable sources, such as wind turbines. You can also go that one step further and make major changes, such as installing solar panels on your home to produce energy from sunlight.

Sustainability Tip: Buy a natural mattress

We at Ely Mattress understand the importance of becoming more sustainable in order to help the planet. Our aim is to minimise the world’s carbon footprint. Using materials such as horsehair and wool to make our mattresses makes them more sustainable and means Ely mattresses are more environmentally friendly.

To continue even further with supporting the environment, we responsibly recycle your old mattress without using harmful chemicals or gases. This helps reduce the number of old mattresses that end up in landfill each year, and prevents any unnecessary chemicals or gases, which are often used when disposing of mattresses. When it comes to upgrading your Ely in the future, the use of natural products also means your mattress should last longer than many other non-natural mattresses. Lastly, because the materials in our mattresses are natural, most are biodegradable.

For more information on our natural mattresses and how they can help the environment, visit our website today.